An Atlanta based Energy Services firm is looking for an experienced and well qualified Energy Services Sales Engineer.

The successful candidate will be responsible for selling Energy Solutions and Strategies that help clients lower energy usage and reduce carbon emissions. Services will include Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS), Smart Metering (Smart Grid), Renewable Energy solutions (photovoltaic), and Data Center/Critical Power systems. This is an excellent time to be involved with a small company with high growth potential.

Compensation

This position is for Commission Only. Commission structure based upon experience and level of industry background.

Responsibilities

The Successful Energy Services Sales Engineer will be responsible for the following:

• Cold calling potential clients and developing new business
• Constantly seeking opportunities to Develop existing accounts
• Arranging meetings and presenting to potential clients
• Supporting marketing by attending trade shows, conferences and other marketing events
• Providing pre-sales technical assistance and product education
• Set and deploy sales strategy
• Generate leads for large scale projects
• Manage customer relationships and communications
• Grow revenue and account base
• Develop relationships and negotiate deals with channel partners
• Design and create marketing collateral

Qualifications:

The successful Energy Services Sales Engineer will have at least 5-10 years experience gained within a sales environment selling a technical product or service. Preferably 3+ years selling at a senior level.

• Experience working in sales/business development in the Southeast
• Existing related networks and contacts required. Must be able to generate own leads and sales.
• Ability to organize and manage multiple leads. Experience with Salesforce.com helpful
• Ability to design and create selling/marketing collateral
• Solid track record in closing deals
• Self starting, highly independent and entrepreneurial
• Ability to thrive in a fast work pace environment
• An engineering background or strong technical experience gained within the energy sector is required.
• Experience in the Energy and/or Energy Sustainability Industry is required. LEED AP also helpful but not required

Send your cover letter and résumé to jobs@empoweret.com. No phone calls.

We’ve had a number of customers contact us lately to talk about their energy bills and what they see as a dramatic increase in prices. They are not mistaken. Electricity prices have gone up – in fact, in some cases, by quite a bit. For the typical Georgia Power Corporation (GPC) Residential customer, the average monthly power bill has increased from $109.50 in 2009 to $129.68 in 2011.

That’s an increase of over 18% in a little more than a year. In addition, the news is not any better if you’re a small to mid-size commercial customer.

Here’s the breakdown of the rate increases (see the Fuel Cost Recovery Schedule in PDF):

Recent Fuel Cost Adjustment (April, 2010) – $5.59 / month

Requested Rate Increase (January, 2011) – $10.86 / month

2011 Phase-in of Costs of VOGTLE #3 and #4 – SB 31 (January, 2011) – $3.73 / month

TOTAL: $ 20.18/month

Furthermore, you need to understand the difference between what the PUBLISHED electrical rate is and what your EFFECTIVE rate ultimately is after you add in all charges, fees, and taxes. There is a dramatic difference to what those two numbers usually are.

For most commercial customers, your bill is comprised of three main components: a) Consumption – as measured in kWh (kilowatt hour); b) Bill demand – as determined by your Peak Demand in kW and finally; c) Compliance, recovery, fees, and taxes.

Consumption is fairly straightforward in that it is a measurement of how much electricity you’ve used over the month. If you have 10, 100 watt lamps (which equals a 1,000 watts) and you leave them on for 1 hour then you have used 1 kWh.

Bill Demand is a function of the Peak Demand that you have used in a month. That is, it is the charge the utility passes onto you in order for them to meet your maximum amount of energy usage in a period of time. This is very important because the utility typically locks you into your maximum bill demand based upon the HIGHEST 30 minutes or an hour (varies depending on your utility) over the previous 11 months (or other period of time). You are effectively penalized for your worst period of performance, or highest peak usage, and that bill demand factor stays with you for 11 months. That can be very costly.

Finally, you have a variety of miscellaneous charges that are added to the bill that are not captured as part of the consumption (kWh) or Bill Demand (kW). Those typically contain meter charges, environmental compliance costs, Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (5.8619% of the bill), Fuel Cost Recovery, Franchise fees, and taxes. Again, these can add up to quite a bit. (To see a complete breakdown of the rate plans and tariffs go to http://www.georgiapower.com/pricing/gpc_rates.asp)

(As an aside, Residential customers are typically not charged on a Bill Demand basis. However, they do still pay consumption charges and the other associated fees. Large Industrial customers, while having a published rate, sometimes have their own rate plans.)

It’s pretty confusing, right? Well, let’s take a typical customer’s bill and see what the PUBLISHED rate is and how that varies dramatically from what the customer’s EFFECTIVE rate is. As a rate payer your focus should be on the EFFECTIVE rate and how you can control it.

Here’s one of our customer’s bills from 2/11/10-3/14/10 (for privacy, we’ve removed any personal account information – click bill to see larger version):

Note that this customer is on a GPC PLM rate plan. To figure out his EFFECTIVE rate take the Cost of service for this month ($1043.56) and divide it by the total kWh used for the month (6960) and you get $0.150/kWh.

Now let’s take a look at our customer’s bill a year later for the period 2/13/11 – 3/14/11 (the period of time doesn’t correspond exactly but cost and usage should scale on a daily basis on average).

Using the same calculation as above, take the monthly cost of electricity ($1193.61) and divide it by the amount of kWh used (6880) and you get an EFFECTIVE rate of $0.173/kWh. That’s a 15% increase in one year. And, this customer has the benefit of having a 22 kW Solar PV system and an Empower Edge Energy Management system. His EFFECTIVE rate could be even higher.

So, what can be done to get a handle on Energy Cost for your small to medium size commercial facility? (Unfortunately, your tactics as a Residential Customer are really only to reduce your Consumption at this point.). The good news it that there are tactics and technology that can help you control costs but first you need to understand how your power bill is constructed.

1. Start reducing your consumption by ensuring that energy loads are turned off during hours when your facility is not occupied or when they are not needed. Utilize advanced lighting controls such as Wattstopper that turn on and off lighting loads automatically or install thermostats and HVAC controls such as Vykon that dynamically adjust temperatures and settings based upon occupancy and comfort levels. The savings to be recouped are significant.
2. Get your Bill Demand down by dramatically cutting your Peak Demand. This can be accomplished with advanced metering such as Eaton Power Xpert which gives you instantaneous information on energy usage. Combine this info with an intelligent energy controller such as the Vykon Jace and your ability to control you peak demand is greatly enhanced. Energy usage can be managed proactively instead of waiting for next month’s energy bill and then retroactively reassessing. It’s extremely important to control Bill Demand since, depending on your facility’s Load Factor, it can represent up to nearly 60% of your energy bill.
3. Change your rate plan. This is really advantageous to only a select number of customers and its important that you have a very good understanding of your energy consumption before you do this. Once you change plans you can be locked into it for two years. However, for some companies, there can be some significant savings to be had. For example, if you are 2nd or 3rd shift company or a restaurant that opens in the late afternoon or the evening, there are some advantages to moving to a Time of Use (TOU) plan. The reasons these can make sense is that the plans reward you for shifting your energy usage to those periods of time that are different from the peak demand times of the utility (typically after 7 P.M.)

Conclusion

The takeaway is that you do have control over your energy costs. Large facilities have been deploying these techniques for years. In the past, on site generators were used to “shave” the energy usage of a particular facility which in turn saved them from expensive peak demand charges. But now, thanks to the combined trickle down effects of technology, memory, storage, and programming, effective Energy Management is now within the realm of the small to medium commercial customer.

In fact, for some customers the Return of Investment (ROI) can be significant. In addition, more financial and leasing institutions have embraced Energy Management and Energy Services Contracts as a strong, viable program. Some lease programs require a minimal security deposit and the energy savings alone can cover a significant portion of the lease payment. For those customers who wish to simply pay for it outright, Section 179 allows for 100% deduction of equipment in year 1.

Contact Empower Energy Technology if you wish to learn more about Energy Management and how it can save your facility money. Call Mark Bell at 404.681.3270 or send an email to mbell@empoweret.com.

One of our favorite solar equipment manufacturers opens a new high-tech manufacturing plant, one of the largest solar facilities in the United States. Very cool to see how they make it!

Take a virtual tour of Solyndra’s new state-of-the-art solar panel manufacturing facility.

Turnkey Definition: Turnkey is a product or service that is designed, supplied, built, or installed fully complete and ready to operate. The term implies that the end user just has to turn a key and start using the product or service.

Why Turnkey Solutions?

Because you have a business to run. You do what you do because you’re good at it. At Empower, we do what we do because we’re good at what we do. So turn your critical mission power project over to Empower. We can do it all … from start to finish … turnkey.

Why get your critical mission power issues resolved?

Because there is a high cost associated to power disturbances. Power reliability and power quality are more important than ever. This is why we are in business. To help you and your company avoid the cost and inconveniences related to these disturbances.

We know your time is valuable. This is why we do it all. From start to finish. Solutions. Feasibility study, design, engineering, construction, testing, cutover, final commissioning … complete solutions. We take care of the project so you stay focused on your business.

Turnkey Solutions for mission critical power projects. That’s Empower Energy Technology.

To learn more, contact Mark Bell today – 404.681.3270 or mark@empoweret.com.

Advantage Laser Products Solyndra Panel Array Install

Empower Energy Technology is proud to be the first solar energy company in Atlanta, GA to integrate the Solyndra innovative cylindrical solar panels.

READ CASE STUDY: Advantage Laser Products turns to Solyndra and Empower for 15 percent higher yield with no roof penetrations. Download PDF (943 kb)

Compared with conventional PV technologies used by other firms, Empower can design and install systems on flat, white rooftops that produce more power per square foot, require no roof penetrations, and have a light mechanical load … all at a lower installed cost per-Watt.

Empower Energy is the only solar integrator in Atlanta that has trained with Solyndra’s factory engineers. Interest in our work is rapidly growing. And will can help your business, too.

More on Solyndra Technology

Solyndra designs, manufactures and sells solar photovoltaic (PV) systems comprised of panels and mounting hardware for large, low-slope commercial rooftops. The Solyndra system is designed to enhance PV performance on commercial rooftops by converting more of the sunlight that strikes the total rooftop area into electricity.   The system works extremely well on flat, white rooftops.

Solyndra’s panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. Solyndra’s panels achieve effective energy generation when mounted horizontally and spaced significantly closer together than conventional panels on a typical rooftop, thereby enabling greater rooftop coverage and enhanced energy production over the system’s lifetime.

The Solyndra system is lightweight and allows modules to be spaced apart within the panels so that wind can blow through them, thus eliminating the need for expensive mounting hardware and ballast typically required to secure conventional panels against uplift from the wind. The horizontal mounting and unique “air-flow” properties of Solyndra’s solar panel design substantially simplify the installation process for Solyndra’s PV systems. The ease of installation and simpler mounting hardware of the Solyndra system enables its customers to significantly reduce labor, hardware, design and other balance of systems costs, which account for a substantial portion of the total installed cost of a conventional PV system.

Using proprietary cylindrical CIGS modules and thin-film technology, Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest cost of electricity on commercial rooftops by delivering the lowest total systems costs per watt and the highest kilowatt hour production per rooftop for typical installations.

Read the news on the Solyndra PV System Empower Energy engineered and installed for Advantage Laser Products in Atlanta, GA. Click here.

To learn more, contact:
Mark Bell – mbell@empoweret.com
President
Empower Energy Technology, LLC
Phone: 404.681.3270

As the old saying goes, “Life use to be a lot simpler.” The reality is that we live in an age and time where a lot of what we do in our personal and business lives revolves around the use of electrical power. That is reality. Being prepared does not have to be complicated. It’s just a matter of analyzing your situation and doing a risk assessment.

There was a day when deciding on standby power systems was a simple process of evaluating electrical loads and staying within local, state and federal codes. The decision was usually based on the minimum requirements: operate elevators, alarm systems and make sure employees and customers could get out of the building. This was before businesses became so reliant on digital technology. A few minutes of standby power was sufficient for most facilities.

An outage today can cost tens of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. Today, sizing and specifying standby power systems is becoming a business decision, driven by economic risk assessment and a continually growing dependence on a virtually perpetual source of electric power.

Now we need to look at how much a utility outage will cost per hour in terms of lost production, lost products, lost revenues, lost data or even lost customers. The question to ask now is this, “How much is my company willing to invest in a standby power system to reduce our risks to zero?”

According to research by many contingency planning organizations, the cost of an electrical outage can exceed $1 million per hour for the average large business. In certain industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, energy production and telecommunications, losses may reach $2-$3 million per hour or higher. Given these high-stake risks, business owners and managers are forced to evaluate new options for providing a continuous supply of power. The fact that we have virtually a 24/7 dependency on electrical power causes us to take a long hard look at the risk assessment of being without power – even for a limited amount of time.

Empower Energy Technology believes every company needs to conduct an economic risk assessment before making any decision on a standby power system. We can assist you in this assessment. Every business is different and we have the expertise, experience, and knowledge to perform a thorough assessment that will be right for your business. From design and engineering to maintenance and support, Empower Energy Technology is here to assist you stay Always On. Contact us today.

Choate Construction Company Chooses Empower Energy for Innovative Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Energy System

Atlanta, Georgia – November 4, 2010 – Choate Construction Company has recently commissioned a Solyndra 74-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) energy system for their Headquarters building located at Northridge Plaza. The Solyndra system is now the largest in the Southeast and was designed and installed by Empower Energy Technology, LLC.

Choate operates offices in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. Empower Energy Technology, an energy solutions provider based in Atlanta, Georgia has provided the engineering, contractor and integrator services for this advanced technology photovoltaic energy system installation.

Michael Swick, Director of Sustainability for Choate Construction said, “Choate Construction contracted with Empower Energy Technology because they presented us with an innovative solution and solar technology that provides the most solar production with a compelling ROI.”

Empower Energy Technology designed the rooftop system for Choate employing advanced technology solar panels from California-based Solyndra, Inc. Solyndra designs and manufactures proprietary cylindrical modules incorporating copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film technology. Their panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity.

The tubular design of a Solyndra module is “self-tracking”. Collecting light around a 360 degree surface allows it to capture more light early and late in the day with broader shoulders and less peak during the day. This consistent power generation during the day allows the use of a smaller inverter(s), saving costs and benefits the overall energy yield of a system over time.

“The Northridge Plaza project is ideal for the Solyndra technology,” said Mark Bell, President of Empower Energy. “Solyndra’s cylindrical module system allows us to overcome certain installation challenges that a conventional crystalline PV module and mounting system create.” Bell continued, “Unlike conventional PV modules, Solyndra’s cylindrical modules will capture both direct and reflected sunlight from the white, TPO surface of the new Northridge Plaza roof, turning it into clean electricity to be used by the building occupants.”

“This is only a start in what we at Choate view as a comprehensive energy management strategy.” said Swick. “Our goal is to exercise more control over our energy costs and turn the free sunlight that gets delivered to our rooftops into a real and measurable benefit – for Choate and our customers.”

To see Real Time Power Generation Dashboard of Choate’s Solar Array, click  the image above or go to http://www.choatesolar.com.

About Choate Construction Company:
Choate Construction Company is one of the largest commercial building general contractors in the southeastern United States with offices in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Choate provides preconstruction, construction, program management and design/build services with the singular focus of delivering the highest quality finished product, on time and within budget. Areas of specialty as a general contractor and interior contractor include: healthcare and biomedical; office buildings; technology; warehouse and distribution centers; industrial and manufacturing centers; governmental buildings and student housing; senior living; automotive dealerships and professional auto racing teams; and water treatment. For more information, please visit www.choateco.com.

About Solyndra:
Solyndra designs and manufactures photovoltaic systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra employs high volume manufacturing based on proven technologies and processes to meet the needs of the global solar market. Using proprietary cylindrical modules and thin-film technology, Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest cost of electricity on commercial rooftops by delivering the lowest total systems costs per watt and the highest kilowatt hour production per rooftop for typical installations. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Fremont, California, Solyndra operates a state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot fully-automated manufacturing complex.
http://www.solyndra.com/

About Empower Energy Technology, LLC:
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a satellite office in Ashville, North Carolina, Empower Energy Technology serves the needs of commercial and institutional clients for energy management and supplemental power solutions based on conventional and clean energy sources. Empower is a certified solar photovoltaic systems installer and also designs and implements high-efficiency lighting. They serve customers in the greater metro Atlanta area and other major cities in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
http://www.empoweret.com/

Contact:
Mark Bell (mbell@empoweret.com)
President
Empower Energy Technology, LLC
http://www.empoweret.com/
Phone: 404-681-3270

Atlanta’s Green’s Beverage Store Commissions 57kW Solyndra Solar PV System from Empower Energy Technology

Atlanta, Georgia – November 15, 2010 – Green’s Beverage Store, one of the leading providers of wine, beer and spirits in metro Atlanta, today announced the commissioning of its solar photovoltaic (PV) system. Empower Energy Technology, one of Georgia’s leading commercial solar PV integrators, designed, engineered and installed the 57 kilowatt Solyndra PV system. The Solyndra system covers the majority of the Buford Highway location’s roof and offsets Green’s energy usage by nearly 20%. The system will produce approximately 86,000 kilowatt hours per year.

“Green’s is constantly looking for innovative ways to minimize our energy impact. Empower demonstrated to us the compelling ROI of the Solyndra system which was installed in conjunction with our new, white ‘cool’ roof,” said Jeff Greenbaum, President of BINS Corp, the parent company of Green’s Beverage Store. “With our refrigeration requirements and corresponding energy usage, we were investigating options to offset our energy costs and the economics of the Solyndra PV system made it the right investment.”

“Green’s has been very progressive in their investment in solar and they have taken a prudent approach in mitigating their long term energy costs,” said Mark Bell, President of Empower Energy.” We are excited to work with Green’s on their renewable energy strategy and look forward to working with them as they seek additional energy saving solutions at other properties within their real estate portfolio.”

To see the Real Time Power Generation Dashboard of Green’s Solar Array, click the image above or go to http://greenssolar.com/.

About Empower Energy Technology, LLC:
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a satellite office in Ashville, North Carolina, Empower Energy Technology serves the needs of commercial and institutional clients for energy management and supplemental power solutions based on conventional and clean energy sources. They serve customers in the greater metro Atlanta area and other major cities in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
http://www.empoweret.com/

About Solyndra:
Solyndra designs and manufactures photovoltaic systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra employs high volume manufacturing based on proven technologies and processes to meet the needs of the global solar market. Using proprietary cylindrical modules and thin-film technology, Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest cost of electricity on commercial rooftops by delivering the lowest total systems costs per watt and the highest kilowatt hour production per rooftop for typical installations. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Fremont, California, Solyndra operates a state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot fully-automated manufacturing complex.
http://www.solyndra.com/

Contact:
Mark Bell – mbell@empoweret.com
President
Empower Energy Technology, LLC
http://www.empoweret.com/
Phone: 404.681.3270

As an Energy Solutions Provider, Empower Energy offers a proven strategy for superior energy management with our Empower Edge Program. We help you each step of the way. Our guidelines for energy management can assist your organization in improving its energy and financial performance while distinguishing your organization as an environmental leader.

As the saying goes, “time is money” and that is particularly true for any business. However, not taking time to save energy can mean big money – lost. Reduction in daily energy costs and monthly utility bills for the lifetime of your business can make it well worth the time needed to pursue effective and efficient energy upgrades.

Commitment

Organizations seeing the financial returns from superior energy management continuously strive to improve their energy performance. Their success is based on regularly assessing energy performance and implementing steps to increase energy efficiency.

No matter the size or type of organization, the common element of successful energy management is commitment. Organizations first make a commitment to get started and then make a commitment to allocate staff and funding to achieve continuous improvement.

Evaluate

Navigating in any situation requires you to know where you are. Understanding current and past energy use is how many organizations identify opportunities to improve energy performance and gain financial benefits. We begin with a review of your power bill to determine usage patterns, rate plans and where we can quickly extract savings.

Assessing performance is the periodic process of evaluating energy use for all major facilities and functions in the organization and establishing a baseline for measuring future results of efficiency efforts. This is an essential step and sets the stage for all of our conservation, management and production solutions.

Key Aspects:

• Data Collection and Management
• Baselining and Benchmarking
• Analysis and Evaluation

Assessing your energy performance helps you to:

• Categorize current energy use.
• Prioritize poor performing areas of your operation.
• Understand the contribution of energy expenditures to operating costs.
• Develop a historical perspective and context for future actions and decisions.
• Establish reference points for measuring and rewarding good performance.

Advise

Successful organizations use a detailed action plan to ensure a systematic process to implement energy performance measures. We develop and provide a plan that allows you to strategically use energy within the parameters of your utility’s rate plans. While the scope and scale of the action plan is often dependent on the organization, the steps below outline a basic starting point for creating a plan.

• Evaluate technical assessments and audit results. Identify gaps between current performance and goals, by reviewing the results of the technical assessments and audits or progress evaluations.
• Determine technical steps. Identify the steps necessary for upgrading and moving facilities from current performance to the desired level of performance as defined by the goals.
• Create performance targets to track progress towards achieving goals.
• Set timelines for actions, including regular meetings among key personnel to evaluate progress, completion dates, milestones and expected outcomes.
• Establish a tracking system to track and monitor the progress of action items.

Design

Our engineering staff develops solutions tailored to your business – combining engineering, operational and aesthetic excellence. Empower takes great pride in providing our clients with a specialized and comprehensive, engineered design for the specific needs of their business and project. We look at your immediate needs as well as your needs in the future based on growth and expansion plans.

Our commitment at Empower during the design and engineering phase is assuring the highest level of performance and reliability once the project is completed. We get it right from the beginning.

Build

Project Management is part of our Empower Edge offering. Experienced, licensed electricians and contractors install your solutions with the highest attention to detail and uncompromising safety.  And we do it with minimal interruption to your daily business routines. Large or small, our expertise and experience in project management pays dividends to you … time saved, money saved, hassles eliminated, downtimes avoided, and no worries for you during the project so you can stayed focused on your business and making money.

Optimize

We test and optimize so you get all the benefits and efficiencies available to you while maintaining all of your business needs.  Our goal is to maximize efficiency to reduce energy use, cost and environmental impact.

Monitor

We monitor your energy systems to ensure that you enjoy long term savings, allowing you to focus on your business operation and success. With the right energy monitoring systems, your organization can protect data and applications while optimizing the power delivery infrastructure for efficiency and lower cost. New supervisory, connectivity and protection capabilities provide an envelope of protection for your entire energy infrastructure.

Contact us today and learn how the Empower Edge can help your company conserve and manage energy and be prepared for any power emergency.

Advantage Laser Products Reduced its Energy Consumption – Saving 24% of Monthly Utility Costs

With the Empower Edge^TM Solution, Empower Energy Technology helped Advantage Laser Products reduce its peak demand by over 25% and consumption by 11% – providing an overall savings of 24% on their monthly electrical bill. Not only does Advantage Laser Products recycle and remanufacture toner cartridges, they recycle everything that can be recycled. Now with the Empower Edge^TM Solution, coupled with an Empower Energy installed solar array on their roof, Advantage is closer to their goal of becoming energy neutral in the near future.

Download a PDF version of this Case Study – Click Here.

READ SOLYNDRA SOLAR PANEL CASE STUDY: Advantage Laser Products turns to Solyndra and Empower for 15 percent higher yield with no roof penetrations. Download PDF (943 kb)

Problem

Like many businesses, Advantage Laser Products was experiencing high energy costs. Energy consumption from heavy equipment loads, as well as HVAC demands, were causing high peak demands during certain periods of the day. Energy usage needed to be leveled out to reduce costs and usage on their utility rate plan.

Analysis

Engineers at Empower Energy analyzed past electric bills and were able to determine that due to Advantage’s high demand peaks and resulting low load factor (the ratio of average use to maximum use), Advantage was paying a high rate per kWH for relatively low consumption.

Solution

Empower Energy advised Advantage Laser to implement their advanced energy management system, Empower Edge^TM. The objective of Empower Edge^TM is to efficiently spread out electrical usage throughout the day. Through analysis and engineering, an agreed upon power demand threshold is set. As the facility’s power draw meets the threshold, the system automatically reduces the demand by efficiently rotating off the designated non-critical systems.

Advantage Laser agreed with the recommendation and contracted with Empower to install Empower Edge^TM. The system was installed in June, 2010 and Empower Edge^TM immediately produced positive results for Advantage Laser Products.

Empower Edge^TM System

Empower Edge^TM includes two major components, an Eaton Power Xpert 2260 power meter and a HAI Lumina Pro controller. The power meter monitors, in real time, the facility’s electrical demand and communicates with the controller to take action, when necessary. The controller, based on Empower’s methodology and resulting programming, rotates heavy demand loads off, thereby keeping the demand in check.

In the first month of implementation at Advantage Laser Products, Empower Edge^TM was successful in maintaining the peak demand below 25% of the previous month’s peak. It should also be noted that Atlanta (home of Advantage Laser) suffered an atypically hot June (highs in the mid 90’s for 20 straight days), furthering the call for high peak demands. Moreover, due to its inherent ability to reduce peak demand, the Empower Edge^TM system also reduced consumption by 11% – providing a 24% savings over their previous monthly utility cost. Because of these savings, Advantage Laser Products will see a payback on their investment in 24 months or less.

Empower Edge^TM Business Benefits

• Achieve significant energy savings and ongoing analysis.
• Identify under and over engineered facilities relative to their power infrastructure.
• Ability to monitor multiple facilities and energy assets.
• Benchmarking capability of facility-to-facility, provides insight into “best practices”.

Advantage Laser Products Now Has an “Advantage”

• Powerful, effective tool for managing energy costs and monitoring electrical components.
• A facilities-based, powerful, network centric reporting tool to realize significant reduction in their energy bills.
• Real-time monitoring and control of energy consumption with the ability to maximize energy assets.
• A comprehensive and ongoing view of their energy portfolio.

To learn more about how Empower Energy Technology can help your business become more energy efficient, contact Mark Bell at 404.681.3270 x302 or email to mbell@empoweret.com.