The UtilityXpert Roundup by EnergyX — May 10th

In this week’s UtilityXpert Round up, we explore some monetary…and also, non monetary reasons to embrace energy efficiency technology and analytical tools. We also explore the City of Montreal taking a first step towards carbon neutrality, as well as assess the need for utilities to prevent as opposed to fix. There is a pressing need for predictive technology for utilities, given all recent disasters that have taken place.

Missouri Power Company Ameren Receives $182 Million of Funding for Efficiency Programs in 2018, Reducing Rates for Customers (Energy Manager Today)

The St. Louis-based power company will be targeting an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. With 2.4 million customers . With over $182 million worth of funding, they’ll be able to reduce rate for customers by modernizing the electric grid and developing a smart energy plan that includes $6.3 billion in investments from Missouri.

The City of Montréal announces a first step towards carbon neutrality for its real estate assets (Electric Energy Online)

The city is developing, along with its C40 partners and various foundations, a strategy that will enable it to lower the carbon emissions of its properties and make them more energy-efficient by gradually moving away from heating oil, and towards renewable energies. The city aims to reach carbon neutrality for all municipal buildings by 2030, for all new buildings on its territory by 2030, as well as for all existing buildings on its territory, by 2050.  

Averting disasters with innovation: Utilities' pressing need for predictive technology (Utility Dive)

Utilities used to read customer meters 12 times per year in person. Now smart meters generate reports every 15 minutes remotely. That's thousands of times more information at a fraction of the cost. In combination with an ever-growing database of environmental data external to the utility, utilities receive more data than they know what to do with.

According to a survey from Utility Analytics Institute, less than half of utilities have standardized tools and procedures to leverage such data. That shouldn't be surprising, the large influx of data created in the last decade have rendered traditional analytical techniques relatively impotent.

Utilities opt to use cloud-based analytics, despite lack of monetary incentives (UAI)

Not everything is all about money. Sometimes embracing concepts like analytics are about getting with the times, and utilities know that the wealth of data they have needs to be handle properly.

DOE Pledges $89 Million to Develop Energy Efficient Technologies for the Manufacturing Sector (Energy Manager Today)

Energy Secretary Rick Perry this week announced $89 million to support innovative, advanced manufacturing research and development projects. This Department of Energy (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) tackles priorities such as domestic manufacturing for energy storage.

America’s manufacturing sector is booming, according to the DOE. US manufacturers have created almost 500,000 jobs since 2017 and more than 250,000 jobs in the last year alone. The manufacturing sector also uses 25% of the nation’s energy.