Bringing together Boston's CleanTech news and events

In the last week and a half, both David Brewster (President) and Marshall Chapin (Sr. Director of Business Development) of EnerNOC have spoken at networking events in Boston.  Both essentially made the same pitch for Demand Response (DR) solutions, referencing a host of interesting background information along the way.  Here are some of the highlights:

• 10% of the current energy generation infrastructure is built to service less than 1% of demand (peaks). These plants are only brought up in emergencies, and many are run less than 80 hours a year.
• Carbon emissions continue to rise, with China's headed through the roof.
• Only 1% of all Energy customers have used high tech to drive down total expenditures.
• A visibility into consumption and pricing typically leads to a 5-15% annual savings.
• Demand Response solutions can pay customers between 2-5% of the annual bill.
• The Brattle Group found that a 5% nationwide load reduction during peak periods would save the US $5-10 Billion per year.
• There is over 88Gw of flexible energy usage that could be tapped for DR.
• Currently DR is very regionalized, limited by grid operators and ISOs.
• DR can be an excellent match for intermittent power supplies (i.e. wind and solar) - scaling back usage to match supply as these sources become larger suppliers to the grid.