Kathleen W. Davis | Sep 30, 2013   

I first heard about Green Mountain Energy around the time I started writing for the power business, and, at that time, very few people in this business talked about renewable or sustainable energy. Fast forward about 15 years, and those two words are on everyone’s lips—and Green Mountain’s still growing.

In seven states (Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas), Green Mountain is a utility to its many customers. They provide direct retail electric service. (In fact, I was a Green Mountain customer when I lived in Dallas.) Green Mountain, though, goes beyond retail to partner with other utilities to offer cleaner power, energy certificates and carbon offset products that are available nationally.

Whatever the product, however, Green Mountain hasn’t strayed from those renewable, sustainable roots.

“Green Mountain was founded on an environmental mission, so we are always looking for ways to help our customers meet their sustainability goals, while also being conscious of their bottom line,” said Jeff Bettison, vice president of commercial sales operations, Green Mountain Energy. These days, Green Mountain is also looking to expand both those goals and that bottom line by reaching out to small businesses. They’ve started Smart for Small Business, a program that makes it easier for a business to go greener by offering an energy management tool to measure and monitor their energy use. 

With a bit of dedication, a business could save 10-20 percent off their bill, according to Bettison. Smart for Small Business targets customers using 50,000-300,000 kWh of electricity annually, which Bettison described as a “single location business” such as a restaurant or a small office. 

This is likely where we should lament that our Energy Central offices aren’t in Texas, the point place for the program. If we were in Texas, and we signed up for the program, we’d get a nifty renewable energy plan and a twice-as-nifty special thermostat (supplied by EnTouch, along with the programming behind it) that connects to the ever-popular cloud for monitoring.

But in an era when retail customers and commercial powerhouses are kings and queens (of social media utility connections and demand response programs, respectively), why has Green Mountain chosen the odd focus of small businesses? Well, they listened to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), apparently. According to the EIA’s most recent survey on commercial buildings, small buildings are the biggest footprint in the commercial market. (In other words, they make up almost 90 percent of commercial buildings here in the U.S.) When you pair that with the second finding—that those small buildings use 50 percent more energy per square foot—and the reasons for Green Mountain’s small business focus come in a bit clearer.

So far, according to Bettison, feedback has been quite positive about the program (it’s still young), especially with thermostat controls and use updates.

“With that ability to monitor and lock the temperature remotely, a customer doesn’t have to worry, for example, about going out of town for a conference and having an employee crank down the air and run up a bill. The owner can monitor or even lock-in a temperature without worrying it will get changed.”

And, if things do change inside that business, the owner can get notifications via email or text, making it easier to respond in a timely manner and not after the next bill comes along.

So, what does the program (and the thermostat with its nifty cloud connections) tell a business owner? Well, whatever the customer programs it to. 

Bettison added, “For example, patron comfort might be paramount to a restaurant operator, so their settings might reflect that, while a small office environment might be willing to accept higher set points for cooling and lower set points for heating.”

If you’re not sure just what your perfect preferences are just yet, there is also a “best practices” default setting as well. And you can monitor lots of stuff—temps and HVAC status included.

And, you can see those set points on the go, as well. No need to be in the office to participate in this program. It’s as mobile as you are—browsers and smartphones included.

But, no matter how lean and mean with power conservation a business can get with this program, in the end, it’s still about green, just as it’s always been.

“Our mission is to change the way power is made,”Bettison added. “We ‘walk the talk,’ and one way to do that is conservation programs like this one.”

This story first appeared in Intelligent Utilty daily, written Kathleen Davis, who is its editor, along with the bi-monthly Intelligent Utility magazine.

 

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