Electric City Applauds New Mexico For Launching Clean Energy And Efficiency Goals
Governor Establishes Goals to Achieve 20% Energy Efficiency by 2020 - Leads Western States
ELK GROVE, Ill., Feb 14, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Electric City (Amex: ELC) applauds the State of New Mexico and Governor Bill Richardson for the State's initiative to become a "Clean Energy State" and his creation of the Clean Energy Development Council (CEDC) and its six standing Energy Task Forces.
The six distinct task forces will provide recommendations to the State's Legislature on green initiatives that will focus on the following topics -- Concentrating Solar Power, Electricity Transmission, Biomass, Distributed Solar, Green Building and Utility Energy Efficiency.
The Utility Energy Efficiency Task Force is charged with helping the State develop substantive energy efficiency programs in order to reach 20 percent energy efficiency by 2020. The task force will provide Gov. Richardson with recommendations on the role which the State's electric and gas utilities should play in helping New Mexico achieve his publicly-stated goal for the region.
"This is a very significant development for Electric City and all of us in the Green Energy sector," stated John Mitola, Electric City CEO. "Since the August 2003 Blackout, we have witnessed several States enact measures and legislation intended to make sure that our future electric system is comprised of clean, reliable and sustainable sources of power. We are now witnessing jurisdiction after jurisdiction incorporate sizable demand reduction and efficiency standards into their respective regions. Given that our systems have won great acceptance from similar task forces, Fortune 500 customers and leading utilities with our Virtual 'Negawatt' Power Plan (VNPP(R)) projects, we anticipate to significantly benefit from New Mexico's mandate to reach 20 percent energy efficiency by 2020," Mitola went on to say.
"More importantly, we are working with several state regulators on similar standards," Mitola continued. "In December, we saw Pennsylvania enact legislation that specifically calls for large-scale demand response as part of their Green Energy plan. Last year, the Ontario Energy Minister set the stage for their own integration of demand response and earlier, the Western States Governor's Association adopted a long-term Green Energy plan that incorporates a set of similar goals. Given our work with policy-makers and regulators around North America, we expect more States to follow. All of this lays the groundwork for continued growth of our VNPP systems."
To achieve this 20 percent efficiency goal, initial measures will need to be in place next year that can begin to yield annual energy savings of over 1 percent. In addition to this immediate challenge, the Utility Energy Efficiency Task Force will need to make recommendations on how to augment these measures to achieve an interim target savings of 10 percent by 2010.
Electric City's EnergySaver(TM)/GlobalCommander(R) technology reduces the power necessary to operate commercial, government and industrial lighting systems while always ensuring that the energy savings is transparent to end users. Direct customers typically operate the system at an average power reduction of 20 percent to 25 percent while always maintaining appropriate lighting levels. Utilities operate the technology through the company's Virtual "Negawatt" Power Plan (VNPP(R)) demand response programs. These programs allow utilities like ComEd in Chicago and PacifiCorp in Utah to remotely control a wide range of commercial, industrial and government lighting systems over a managed and secure IP network. Through the use of the EnergySaver(TM)/GlobalCommander(R) system, any participating utility will be able to reduce electric capacity requirements during periods of peak demand, providing almost instantaneous control, measurement and verification of load reduction. The 50-MW system in Chicago and the 27-MW system in Utah represent two of the largest deployments of demand control technology in the nation and are expected to incorporate roughly 2,000 to 2,500 EnergySaver(TM) systems.
About Electric City
Electric City(R) is a leading developer, manufacturer and integrator of energy savings technologies and building automation systems. The Company currently markets the EnergySaver(TM), the GlobalCommander(R) and a full line of energy retrofit technologies, as well as its independent development of scalable, negative power systems under the trade name Virtual "Negawatt" Power Plan "VNPP"(R). The Company is developing its first VNPP(R) development -- a 50-Megawatt negative power system for ComEd in Northern Illinois, a second system in the Denver area for Xcel Energy, a pilot program in Ontario, Canada with Enersource and a 27-Megawatt fourth system with PacifiCorp in the Salt Lake City area. Electric City(R) is based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois and is traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol ELC. Additional information is available at the Company's website at http://www.elccorp.com or by calling 847-437-1666.
Electric City Investor Relations
Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital Ltd.
Telephone 905-326-1888
E-mail glen@bristolir.com
Source: Electric City