News & Events

Happening currently, in a galaxy not so far away, is solar energy innovation. While solar energy is an expanding filed, its usage is low compared to fossil fuels. Solar accounts for 2% and fossil 60% of US power, respectively. Limitations for solar power include storage costs and accessibility to sunlight. However, recent developments may further enhance solar power’s capacity.

For years, on-site power producers (i.e. solar panel systems) in New York were compensated by utilities for excess electricity they injected into local grids (instead of being used on-site) based on a Net Energy Metering (NEM) rate equal to the utility’s all-in electric rate.

Combined-heat-and-Power (CHP), also called “cogeneration”, has been around for more than a century. In parts of Europe and Russia, many central power plants produce both electricity and heat for nearby factories, office buildings, and apartment complexes. One of the first CHP systems installed in New York City was in 1929 in the New Yorker Hotel on 8th Avenue. In the last 20 years, more than a hundred systems have been installed around the City.

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) wants to reduce carbon emissions from power production by charging a fee for it at the wholesale production level. The result would increase market prices, benefitting renewable and no/low carbon sources that would not have to pay the fee, but doing so could create many wrinkles in the fabric of the electricity market structure. However, discussions at various stakeholder meetings since 2017 are working to iron them out in time to initiate the fee in mid-2021.

Join us at the 2019 AEE Energy Management Conference East! Catherine Luthin chairs Session 1C: Renewables & Energy Storage.

Solar power is a renewable choice that many of our clients have embraced as part of a slew of solutions to lower their carbon footprint.  However, what happens when it’s cloudy outside, and the sun does not shine?  Bacteria-powered solar cells may be the solution!

Benchmarking shows a building’s relative energy efficiency compared to its past usage, and to similar facilities in the same geographic area. Such comparisons may help a building manager grasp potential savings if energy system upgrades were applied. Thousands of buildings are now participating in voluntarily and mandatory benchmarking programs. Many have found the process useful, and some may find that it offers a few surprises.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program was created and is maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private non-governmental organization. While a step toward improving general sustainability in buildings, the “energy” in the LEED name led many people to believe it would place energy efficiency high on its list of suggested activities. Fossil fuel consumption by buildings, either directly or via electricity use, is one of the largest contributors of the greenhouse gases that impact climate change, the foremost challenge to our future sustainability.

While monthly energy use data is essential for benchmarking, interval data (e.g., usage in 15-minute or hourly periods) provides a wealth of additional insights on how a facility uses energy. For many years, Con Ed’s largest customers have had access to such data via meters that send data to the utility via telephone landlines or more recently via cellular communications. Often sporadic due to metering and communication problems, that process will soon be consigned to the technology scrap heap by new smart meters under the utility’s Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program.

Anchin’s Building the Future: Celebrating MWBEs and Their Advocates, a recognition event for outstanding MWBEs held May 3, 2012. The annual recognition event was held in co-operation with the New York Building Congress and the Women Builders Council.