ConsumerPowerline Wins Lion's Share Of NYSERDA's State Electricity Load Reduction Program

New York - The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced that ConsumerPowerline (CPLN) has been awarded the single largest portion of its Aggregated Load Reduction Program grant. The program is designed to help New York City increase the local power grid's reliability in times of stress, specifically in areas served by Consolidated Edison (ConEd) and enable the city's commercial, industrial and residential buildings to partake in additional energy efficiency programs.

According to NYSERDA, ConsumerPowerline was awarded nearly $8.4 million for the three-year life of the program. Under the terms of the award, ConsumerPowerline is now responsible for managing 14 Megawatts of electricity, equivalent to 14,000 homes worth of power. The entire program is valued at $27 million.

ConsumerPowerline is a leading strategic energy asset management firm. The company is the largest provider of aggregated demand response services in the New York City metropolitan area and has one of the largest portfolios of energy assets under management nationwide, in states including California, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

As a function of winning this contract ConsumerPowerline will work with its current client base, including commercial, residential and industrial buildings, and aggressively court potential new program participants, to increase the area's power grid reliability by leveraging the NYSERDA funds across different energy assets including HVAC, distributed generation, demand response, permanent efficiency and energy control.

Commenting on the value of the new NYSERDA program, Vinay Gupta, chief executive officer of ConsumerPowerline stated, "New York City's economic future is largely dependent upon the reliability and security of its electrical generation and distribution system. One of the best ways to protect and improve upon that system is to get the businesses who own and manage buildings to actively participate in energy reliability and efficiency programs. NYSERDA's load reduction program represents a 20-25 percent premium to the incentives that were previously available for this type of work. As such, we anticipate that many of our current clients -- including Macy's, NYU Medical Center and RFR Realty -- will take full advantage of this new program. We believe these new, considerably higher incentives will enable more companies to participate in these programs for the first time, supporting the security of New York's energy future."

The Aggregated Load Reduction Program provides incentives for the following project areas:

• Permanent Efficiency
  The goal of this piece of the program is to reduce a buildings' consumption of energy on a day-in-day out basis. Additionally, allowing buildings to permanently reduce summer peak demand. To accomplish this, CPLN will provide buildings with engineering, procurement and project management services along with overseeing the installation of capital equipment.
• Curtailment/Shifting for Demand Response
  A core element of the overall load reduction program is the provisioning of demand response services, the selling of excess energy back to the electricity gird during an energy emergency. These services include engineering services, procurement and project management services and installation of capital equipment, and development of a curtailment plan-all core areas of expertise for ConsumerPowerline.
• Distributed Generation
  This NYSERDA program will fund the creation of new distributed generation resources or on-site generation resources in the region as well as for the retrofitting of existing emergency generators to make them more efficient and environmentally friendly. ConsumerPowerline will provision new generators, provide metering, testing and tuning of these emergency generators, and will undertake improvements to reduce environmental impacts.
• Interval Metering
  The final element to the program that ConsumerPowerline will be addressing is the installation and monitoring of interval meters. These meters track energy consumption on an hourly basis, and report back to ConEd on a specific building's actual consumption during moments of grid stress.

For more than five years, ConsumerPowerline has worked with large-scale energy users in the New York City metropolitan area to increase energy efficiency and turn existing energy assets into recurring sources of revenue. As a result of its work over the years with large building owners and management companies, ConsumerPowerline has helped New York City avoid significant energy disruptions. By marshalling the energy of its clients, ConsumerPowerline helps New York City fend off blackouts, brownouts and voltage reductions.

SOURCE: ConsumerPowerline