Press Releases
ConsumerPowerline hosts NYC's first steam education eventStrategic Energy Asset Management Firm Extends Leadership Position by Preparing NYC's Largest Steam Customers for Impending Steam Tariff Changes
NEW YORK, June 23, 2006 - In a demonstration of its leading position as an energy consumer advocate, strategic energy asset management firm ConsumerPowerline (www.consumerpowerline.com) held an educational seminar to teach New York City's large-scale steam customers how to protect themselves from rising steam costs and the impact of the planned 2007 Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) steam demand charge. New York City is one of several major cities in the country with a "steam loop" that provides large commercial, industrial and residential buildings with high-pressure steam to help heat them in the winter, cool them in the summer and provide hot water year round. Con-Ed provides steam throughout the entire city, but the vast majority of this resource is consumed either in midtown between 34th and 57th street and in lower Manhattan below Canal street.
In 2007, Con-Ed will change the way it charges its customers who are on the steam loop, instituting a demand charge. This change will impact large-scale steam customers potentially increasing the total steam bill for many of them. As a result it will be particularly important for steam customers to have a plan and an informed strategy to minimize their steam costs.
"ConsumerPowerline has led the fight to bring clarity and equity to the electricity marketplace, and we are bringing the same technical expertise to the steam arena. Our clients look to us to help them manage their energy assets regardless of their form. Steam is an incredibly expensive, historically under managed resource that now has pricing uncertainly associated with it," said Vinay Gupta, chief operating officer of ConsumerPowerline. "Earlier this year, we partnered with Mosto Technologies to expand our expertise in handling issues with steam management.
Now, we are aggressively working with our clients to prepare them for the coming rate changes, and to institute strategies and tactics that will allow them to monitor, manage and negotiate more effectively, when it comes to steam resources."
"Buildings on the Con-Ed steam loop often spend as much on steam as electricity. Just one faulty high-pressure steam trap can result in losses of more than $35,000 per year. In most buildings, 10-20 percent of steam traps are defective, and many larger buildings have dozens of these traps," said Steve Mosto, founder and CEO of Mosto Technologies. "By implementing our monitoring systems, and taking control of the data associated with steam usage, ConsumerPowerline / Mosto clients have precise information to negotiate better rates for steam usage from Con-Ed. Additionally, our clients know when they are wasting steam, and can quickly remediate the problem avoiding the massive costs associated with leaky high-pressure steam traps."
About ConsumerPowerline
ConsumerPowerline (CPLN) (www.consumerpowerline.com) provides strategic energy asset management (SEAM) to its customers under an aligned incentive model while seeking to transfer power and financial returns to the end user. ConsumerPowerline's products and services help its customers pay the least for energy, get the most for energy they buy, and earn the most for what they can reduce. The firm is unique in how it approaches the market - using deregulated market opportunities to first create new revenue for customers. This new income, and the accompanying new information, facilitates customers achieving a lot more a lot sooner. Among the firms comprehensive strategic services are energy curtailment services, engineering, strategic commodity purchase and industrial procurement. These services include advisory plans for companies on how to manage their energy use in times of 'grid crisis,' and to sell the results of this managed use (reduced consumption at emergency moments) back to the local and regional energy markets.
The firm's clients include: CB Richard Ellis, Morgan Stanley, Macy's, Starwood Hotels, Hines Property Management, Forest City Ratner Corporation, Co-op City, Macklowe Properties, RFR Realty, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Newmark Properties, Douglas Elliman Property Management, Cooper Square Realty, Wentworth Management, and dozens of other substantial end-users of energy.