Corporate

Building Analytics and Energy: Managing What You Measure at Wegowise

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A Boston startup has turned into a leading building performance analytics provider in recent years as it has helped property owners save significant sums by monitoring their utility data. The company, called WegoWise, now says it has the “largest database of utility in multifamily buildings,” and is extending its platform to cover commercial property as well.

One of their first commercial property customers is Liberty Property Trust, a $7 billion REIT currently using WegoWise to track utility usage over 2.9 million square feet of its portfolio, and is rolling out usage across its 81 million square feet of property. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 8, 2013 at 10:30 AM

Shell’s VC Fund Looks to Green the Fossil Fuel Business

By Greentech Media


Hundreds of millions of dollars in a new venture fund, with one-quarter aimed at “future energy” technologies.

Royal Dutch Shell has won both criticism and praise for its green investment habits — but when it comes to venture capital, it’s pretty tightly focused on serving its own oil and gas business needs first. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 8, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Wind Energy and Wildlife: Science Marks Industry Efforts

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Even with well-established forms of energy development like oil and gas, the science on impacts to the environment can be hard to quantify and harder to predict. The challenge for sectors like the wind industry – comparatively new in its current form – are even higher given the lack of operational data, but as in other areas, the wind business is sprinting to get ahead.

A number of wind energy industry leaders joined several years ago with major environmental groups to form the American Wind Wildlife Institute, which plays several roles but represents an early effort by the sector to be certain wind energy development remains attractive while assuaging or minimizing concerns about impacts on wildlife. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 5, 2013 at 10:30 AM

A Failing Grade for Energy Infrastructure Hurts U.S. Competitiveness

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The nation got a wakeup call recently when the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its Report Card for America’s infrastructure. Listed among the failing grades for roads, bridges and ports, was a grim evaluation of our energy infrastructure.

Giving it a grade of D+, the Report Card detailed the need for investment throughout the nation’s electricity system, but focused primarily on the aging electric grid. The nation’s power grid, which consists of a system of interconnected power plants, transmission and distribution facilities, some of which date back to the 1880s, is in dire need of repair. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 4, 2013 at 10:30 AM

Who is Your Utility’s Chief Risk Officer?

By Greentech Media


When Exelon merged with Constellation, Joe Glace started reporting directly to the president and CEO, Christopher Crane. As the Chief Risk Officer for the mega-utility, it was imperative that he was part of company’s executive committee.

“The new Exelon will have a significantly increased scope across the energy value chain,” Crane said at the time of the announcement in December 2011. “It is vital to our future success that we diligently manage risk from an independent and enterprise-wide perspective.” Keep reading →

 /  Published April 2, 2013 at 9:00 AM

ABB Goes Long On the United States

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Even in an era of struggling economic growth, it makes sense to invest money in efficiency and cost savings efforts. For companies that provide those services in the energy sector, the traditionally often wasteful approaches of companies accustomed to cheap or subsidized supply is a huge opportunity as many finally bite the bullet and invest in industrial efficiency.

That’s the message behind the results of global power and automation technology giant ABB’s results from its US operations in 2012, the company said at a customer conference in Orlando this week. The firm has invested $10 billion US manufacturing and software since 2010, including the acquisition of electric products Baldor, components firm Thomas & Betts and software firm Ventyx. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 29, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Energy News Roundup: PwC, Blank Rome LLP, ITG, Singapore

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The energy sector has heated up in recent years as natural gas drilling technology has resulted in increased supply and the power sector has revolutionized in the face of monitoring and mobile technology that boosts the promises of smart grids. Firms are hiring, investments are going ahead at both the national and international level, and the industry is attracting attention as consumer technology advances filter into the “industrial internet.”

Recognizing its role in promoting the future of the industrial internet, the Department of Energy launched a manufacturing initiative it claims will help boost the prospects of the clean economy. The Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative is small by comparison to the controversial payouts under the stimulus in the first Obama administration, but it signals a sustained commitment by the White House to the concept of a revitalized manufacturing sector driven by cleantech. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 28, 2013 at 9:40 AM

New Refineries Built in North Dakota will Feed US Oil Boom, and Maybe Canada’s

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Oil products are needed to fuel the development of, well more oil. Booming oil production in the Bakken formation primarily located in North Dakota and Montana has driven up local demand for diesel fuel used to run the hundreds of rigs and thousands of trucks and locomotives that undergird the industrial supply chain.

“Much of the increase in demand has been fueled by the boom in crude oil production from the new wells in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota’s northwest corner. The demand for these middle distillates rose 80% in North Dakota from 2009 to 2012, providing the incentive to invest in local refineries,” said the EIA in its “Today in Energy” update. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 27, 2013 at 11:15 AM

Mega Oil Deal ‘More Important Than Cyprus’: Rosneft Chief

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As politicians in Cyprus scramble to clinch a bailout deal to avert a collapse of its banking sector, Rosneft and BP finalized a deal to create the world’s largest listed oil major, an agreement Rosneft’s CEO hailed as “more important than the situation in Cyprus”.

Rosneft completed the acquisition of BP subsidiary TNK-BP on Thursday. It gives BP a near 20 percent stake in the Russian oil firm. The U.K.-listed oil giant announced Friday that it will buy back $8 billion of its shares, and return some of the proceeds to shareholders. Its stock rose 2.83 percent in morning trade on Friday. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 22, 2013 at 3:30 PM

Muni Bonds Fight Intensifies in the Power Sector

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Municipal bonds are a major source of financing for public power projects, and their tax-exempt status is one of the factors that makes them appealing for investors who might otherwise demand higher returns on their money.

The American Public Power Association has launched an intense campaign to undermine current proposals before Congress that would change the current tax advantages municipal bonds enjoy. As the hunt continues in DC for new revenue that can help plug growing budget deficits that in turn have incurred repeated political crisis, long-held tenets of tax code advantages and exemptions have begun to come under review. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2013 at 2:40 PM
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