“We have to bid out the contract. We have not received any formal bid from anyone to pay for the infrastructure and we’re not asking anyone to pay because we have the money. We already approved the allocation for that on the Cabinet level,” Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said in an interview on Friday.

“Software companies will bid for the infrastructure because it has to be independent and should not favor generators or any one buyer more than the seller,” he added.
Companies have informally offered to pay for the infrastructure needed for the implementation of open access.

Open access and retail competition is a regime which electricity users of one megawatt (MW) and up will be able to choose where to source their power.

It was supposed to be implemented last Dec. 26 but had to be postponed because the necessary infrastructure and policies were not yet in place. Open access is a mechanism set by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 and should have been declared after the privatization of at least 70% of both the government’s power-generating assets and its independent power producers administrator contracts.

Mr. Almendras said open access is planned to be implemented by the third quarter of the year.

“The terms of reference for the software infrastructure are being prepared and it will be bid out hopefully in the first half [of the year],” he said.

The software needed for open access will be used to monitor, settle and determine customers in the electricity market. Distribution utilities that will act as third-party brokers for power-generating companies called retail electricity suppliers will have to align their computer systems with the software being used by the market operator.

Mr. Almendras said it is important that the software is not handled by a market participant “because I want the infrastructure, the process and the procedures to be so unquestionable as far as integrity is concerned.”

The Energy department also said the settlement agent — or the agency that will handle the system for open access — will be part of the duties of the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC). PEMC currently operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

Source:http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=Energy-dep%E2%80%99t-set-to-bid-out-software-for-open-access&id=45464

Lexington, MA-based FirstFuel Software is among a crop of experimental energy projects picked to help the Department of Defense curb its energy output across military installations, the company announced yesterday. The startup was one of 27 teams selected as part of the DoD’s Installation Energy Test Bed initiative, a program designed to help emerging energy technologies get to market quicker while also slicing the roughly $4 billion a year the department spends on energy across its 300,000 sites.

FirstFuel’s software enables customers to measure building energy output—and target effective efficiency upgrades—without ever setting foot on site. The technology uses a building’s address, a year’s worth of energy meter readings, satellite imaging, and weather patterns to conduct the audit remotely. CEO Swapnil Shah has previously stated that his company is targeting utilities and government agencies as customers because of their massive reach and their need to cut the costs of pricey on-site audits, which can run between $5,000 and $30,000 a pop. In this case, the FirstFuel technology will be tested out in a pilot of about 100 DoD buildings and then evaluated for use in more sites, said Shah.

The Installation Energy Test Bed program, founded in 2009 as part of the DoD’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, has selected other technologies in the building management, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy storage arenas. Through the program, the government aims to take on some of the risk as one of the first users to validate the new technology, and “for those technologies that prove effective, DoD can go on to serve as an early customer, thereby helping create a market, as it did with aircraft, electronics, and the internet,” the Installation Energy Test Bed’s website explains. FirstFuel seems to be alongside some heavy hitters for the 2012 pool, which includes projects from 3M, Raytheon, Autodesk, and Honeywell.

Source:http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2012/01/05/firstfuel-software-selected-for-dod-energy-efficiency-initiative/

Carbon Descent, a leading independent social enterprise responsible for delivering strategies that measurably reduce carbon footprints, for local authorities, private businesses, and charities, today launched an exciting new software application called BluePrint.

Carbon Descent’s BluePrint software is aimed at energy auditors and assessors. It has been designed to automate and streamline the energy audit process, with savings on the auditor’s time on data collection, analysis and reporting, against a conventional paper based auditing approach.

Carbon Descent is offering a 14 Day Trial of the FULL VERSION of the BluePrint Software.

Building on the success of VantagePoint, which has been licensed to over 70 organisations, BluePrint has been developed as part of a Government funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership, in conjunction with London South Bank University.

The BluePrint software is relevant for organisations undertaking energy surveys and audits in non-domestic buildings. This includes low carbon assessors, carbon trust consultants, facilities managers and energy auditors.

Using the software on a tablet PC assists auditors when collecting on-site data including building fabric, energy usage and building services. The software can be configured to manage different types of audits, from the simpler mini-audit where quick wins are identified, to complete surveys analysing, in detail, the buildings services and equipment. With BluePrint, the paper recording stage is eliminated and the auditor can analyse the data, by using inbuilt calculation models either on-site or back at the office. A reporting facility enables the auditor to make recommendations and tailor these for the customer, resulting in a fully customised audit report.

Source:http://www.industrytoday.co.uk/energy_and_environment/carbon-descent-launch-blueprint-energy-auditing-software/8513

Energy management software is creating a massive integration challenge for its users, with companies buying up to eight different applications to meet 12 different usage scenarios, according to research from Verdantix.

The Buyers’ Guide to Energy Management Software outlines eight major software categories: commercial building energy management; enterprise energy management; energy purchasing, billing and reporting; manufacturing energy management; demand-response; facility energy modelling and certification; ICT infrastructure energy management; and PC power management.

A survey carried out for the report found that software companies have customers for each application in nearly every sector, though market penetration is highest in the retail, government, education, technology, real estate and telecoms sectors. Media, basic resources, travel and leisure have the lowest rates of energy software adoption.

The survey covered 33 software vendors and 16 software buyers.

According to Verdantix, the huge variety of energy-consuming assets, including lights, security systems, HVAC, boilers, elevators, servers, routers and manufacturing equipment, means no single application will collect the data from all energy consuming end points.

Verdantix said that suppliers have mainly responded to the integration challenge using in-house resources: 64 percent of the software suppliers in the survey have developed their own wrap-around energy services while a further 12 percent partner for energy services such as data collection, processing, analysis and energy procurement.

It said that IT services firms like Accenture, Capgemini and Infosys have the skills to help their software partners crack IT systems integration. But it warned that connecting up the software to creaking, analogue systems to automate data collection and control devices will be costly and very slow.

The last several years have seen a boom in energy management software, with 38 new applications launched since January 2009, Verdantix said. Releases of entirely new applications peaked in 2009 with 21 product launches. In 2010 this fell to ten new apps and 2011 has seen an additional seven new energy software applications.

Verdantix identified 72 suppliers of energy management software. Of 33 suppliers surveyed, 63 percent sell to the head of energy, 53 percent to the head of facilities and 44 percent to the head of sustainability. By contrast the CFO only features as a direct contract sponsor for 28 percent of suppliers and the CIO’s team has only been a software buyer for 19 percent.

The low involvement of IT reflects the preponderance of SaaS propositions, tactical deployments and a lack of corporate IT policy on energy software, Verdantix said.

The research house said that announced VC investment in the sector in the past two years has exceeded $100 million, and it estimates an equivalent amount in corporate funding or acquisition spend by the likes of CA Technologies, IBM, IHS, Oracle and SAP.

Source:http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/09/28/energy-software-integration-posing-huge-problem-for-users/

NEW YORK and LONDON, November 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — CarbonSystems has been recognised as a leading provider of carbon, energy and environmental management software by Verdantix, an independent analyst research firm focused on sustainable business strategies and marketing opportunities.

CarbonSystems’ Green Quadrant leader position is based upon an independent, fact-based comparative analysis of the world’s leading companies offering carbon and energy software applications using a 99 weighted-criteria model.

“As the market for carbon and energy management software grows buyers find it difficult to generate a shortlist from over one hundred that exist in the market today,” said David Metcalfe, Director of Verdantix. “Buyers look for proof of value from previous deployments but with the infancy of the market this can often be difficult.

“CarbonSystems’ position in the leaders quadrant was underpinned by the breadth and depth of their client base, which ranges from large multi billion dollar organisations to smaller, emerging clients. The company has successfully transitioned from its Australian heartland, securing customers in Europe and the United States,” said Metcalfe.

Verdantix concluded that the world’s leading companies were differentiated from their peers by having more advanced carbon management and energy saving tools, a more compelling customer base, fully featured solutions, best-in-class functionality, greater organisational and financial resources, and stronger strategic partnerships. CarbonSystems was also recognised among ‘best in class’ vendors for data and audit security, and customer momentum.

Commenting on CarbonSystems’ leader designation, David Solsky, chief executive of CarbonSystems said: “This new report reinforces the benefits that our technology is delivering to over 100 customers. Our innovative, automated data capture tools, combined with a best in class security and assurance model, ensure customers can reduce the time and cost of managing environmental data, and deliver financial grade compliance and business reports on demand.”

“For firms that currently consume significant amounts of energy the risks of price volatility can have a material financial impact,” said David Metcalfe. “For firms with an energy management focus Verdantix recommends turning to the software suppliers such as CarbonSystems that have strong energy management and meter integration functionality.

Source:-http://www.science20.com/newswire/carbonsystems_recognised_leader_carbon_and_energy_management_software