This past Sunday I attended two graduation ceremonies. First, my brother's fiance (soon to be my sister-in-law!) got her Ph.D. from Brown. When that was over, I walked across campus to see one of my close friends at the undergraduate ceremony, where his girlfriend was getting a B.A.. The weekend was essentially one big celebration. Congratulations again to all my Goucher friends. You're educated!
Work has continued to be a process of learning different protocols and acronyms. Much like at Goucher, there are acronyms for everything, and much like a freshman, I don't know them yet. But I'm learning.
My Peace Practice classmates might be interested to know that there's a lot of talk of "negawatts" here at EnerNOC, which is a term coined by Amory Lovins. Basically, negawatts are what I was talking about in the last post. It's a negative watt. Producing an extra watt of electricity is all well and good, but if you can reduce the NEED by one watt, you've created the same benefit without the harm to the environment or the power grid. That's a "negawatt."
That's about all I've got for now. On an unrelated note, I'm adding the following disclaimer to all my posts, since I work for the company I'm talking about:
The views expressed here are my own and not the views of the company (EnerNOC, Inc).
To some people it's obvious, to lawyers, not so much. Point is, everything in this blog represents the opinion of me, the author, and not necessarily anyone else. Because I am a free-thinking individual. This is not an official blog sponsored by the company, this is just some kid sharing what he's learned over the course of his internship, and should be viewed as such. It should be noted that the legal disclaimer also applies to my opinions on legal disclaimers (I think they're silly, but I don't represent the company in saying that).
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thoughts From Day 2
So, I've had two days of work, and it's gone well so far. I'm fighting some sniffles I think I got from my dad last weekend, but it's not too bad. Otherwise, Boston's been good to me so far.
As promised, here's what EnerNOC does, in three short, exciting paragraphs:
Let's say the power company for a given region has 20 power plants. 10 of those will be on at all times, providing the baseline energy that area will use for most of the year. The other 10 are backup, or "peak" plants. During the summer when it's really hot out and everyone turns on their air conditioners, all of a sudden we need more power. That's when these peak plants turn on. But these peak plants are less efficient, and the power companies lose money turning these things on, plus they're bad for the environment.
EnerNOC comes along and says, "okay, it costs you $1m to turn on peak plant #3, and it provides you with an additional SUPPLY of 50 megawatts (mW) of power. What if you could pay EnerNOC just $500,000, and we reduce DEMAND for electricity by 50mW?" To the power company, they're the same thing, but EnerNOC does it cheaper. The power companies win because they don't have to build new peak power plants, and they can fire up existing ones less often. They also reduce their impact on the environment.
So how does EnerNOC actually reduce demand? Well, they spend that $500,000 we just talked about. They take a cut (to pay their employees, including scruffy interns like myself) and use the rest to pay big stores, office buildings, factories, etc. to reduce their burden on the power grid. The specifics depend on the location: an office building might turn off every other lighting fixture and lower the setting on their heating or cooling unit. A supermarket might switch to backup generators. The demand response solution is different for each place of business. Then, when EnerNOC sends out the call that a demand response event will be happening, the company is all set to go. The customer flips a switch, they reduce their power usage for the duration, then turn it back on at the end of the event. The customer saves money on their energy bill, and in addition to that, gets a check from EnerNOC for participating.
In summary, an event goes something like this:
So how does Eli fit into all this? That's totally what you were going to ask, right? Well, right now, we're not in the thick of event season, but it's going to start in about a week, and we need to be ready. During an event, if a site isn't turning off its lights like they're supposed to, we need to be able to call them, figure out what the problem is ASAP, and coach them so they can carry out their end of the bargain. My job is to make sure different spreadsheets, software and databases are up-to-date and ready to go before next week so we can waste as little time as possible searching for missing pieces. Events only last a few hours, so everyone needs to be at 100% efficiency. We can sleep later. During an event, it's all about coffee.
Sounds like finals week, right?
Much love to my soon-to-graduate friends at Goucher. I'll miss you all next year; good luck with your summer plans.
As promised, here's what EnerNOC does, in three short, exciting paragraphs:
Let's say the power company for a given region has 20 power plants. 10 of those will be on at all times, providing the baseline energy that area will use for most of the year. The other 10 are backup, or "peak" plants. During the summer when it's really hot out and everyone turns on their air conditioners, all of a sudden we need more power. That's when these peak plants turn on. But these peak plants are less efficient, and the power companies lose money turning these things on, plus they're bad for the environment.
EnerNOC comes along and says, "okay, it costs you $1m to turn on peak plant #3, and it provides you with an additional SUPPLY of 50 megawatts (mW) of power. What if you could pay EnerNOC just $500,000, and we reduce DEMAND for electricity by 50mW?" To the power company, they're the same thing, but EnerNOC does it cheaper. The power companies win because they don't have to build new peak power plants, and they can fire up existing ones less often. They also reduce their impact on the environment.
So how does EnerNOC actually reduce demand? Well, they spend that $500,000 we just talked about. They take a cut (to pay their employees, including scruffy interns like myself) and use the rest to pay big stores, office buildings, factories, etc. to reduce their burden on the power grid. The specifics depend on the location: an office building might turn off every other lighting fixture and lower the setting on their heating or cooling unit. A supermarket might switch to backup generators. The demand response solution is different for each place of business. Then, when EnerNOC sends out the call that a demand response event will be happening, the company is all set to go. The customer flips a switch, they reduce their power usage for the duration, then turn it back on at the end of the event. The customer saves money on their energy bill, and in addition to that, gets a check from EnerNOC for participating.
In summary, an event goes something like this:
- A power grid operator calls EnerNOC and says "today from 2:00 to 5:00PM, we need you to cut 100mW"
- EnerNOC contacts all its customers connected to that power company and says "Hey, we're having a curtailment event from 2 to 5."
- At 2, companies initiate their plans (turning off lights, etc.). Supermarket A might be responsible for 1mW, office building B might do .7mW, factory C might do 4mW. In the end, it all adds up to 100mW.
- at 2:01, EnerNOC starts making calls to businesses that have not reduced power usage to find out what's going on. These calls continue throughout the event.
- The event ends, and lights go back to normal. The Data Analytics Group compiles all the data and (dur dur dur) analyzes it. They send around a report that says which businesses performed well, which businesses underperformed, if we met our goals or not, etc.
- We make changes to our procedure and get ready for the next event.
- Power companies: They pay EnerNOC less than it would cost them to fire up peak plants, and thus save money
- The "customer" businesses: They're literally getting paid to turn off lights. How awesome is that?
- The environment: Peak plants are bad, keeping them off is good
- Me: I get employed!
So how does Eli fit into all this? That's totally what you were going to ask, right? Well, right now, we're not in the thick of event season, but it's going to start in about a week, and we need to be ready. During an event, if a site isn't turning off its lights like they're supposed to, we need to be able to call them, figure out what the problem is ASAP, and coach them so they can carry out their end of the bargain. My job is to make sure different spreadsheets, software and databases are up-to-date and ready to go before next week so we can waste as little time as possible searching for missing pieces. Events only last a few hours, so everyone needs to be at 100% efficiency. We can sleep later. During an event, it's all about coffee.
Sounds like finals week, right?
Much love to my soon-to-graduate friends at Goucher. I'll miss you all next year; good luck with your summer plans.
Monday, May 18, 2009
And So It Begins
Hello friends,
Welcome to my brand-new blog! In 37 hours or so, I will be starting my internship at EnerNOC, a wonderful company doing wonderful things for the environment. On the site there is both a video and a cute animated presentation that explain what EnerNOC does. I don't think I could explain it any better than they do, but in my next post, I'm going to try anyway.
For now, I'll just say this: I love EnerNOC because they're in the business of making environmentalism affordable. I'll explain how in the next post, but the gist of it is that they are paying businesses to reduce electricity usage. I love that.
The more I learn about envrionmental policy, the more I feel that pushing people to change their light bulbs or stop wasting water in their homes is great, but only an individual scale. When it comes to businesses, they're going to do whatever's going to make them the most money. The larger the business is, the more that model applies. Corporations will occasionally do something arbitrarily "green" or "for the community," but it's often limited in scope and usually seems to be geared towards attaining some kind of "family-friendly" label. Target is willing to donate money to help build a new park in some town, but only under the assumption that they'll create goodwill in that community which will lead to an increase in sales. Plus, they get to talk up how charitable they are, which makes more people want to shop at Target.
There is a constant process of cost-benefit analysis. If Target donates $50,000 to the creation of this park, they make $100,000 in increased revenue due to their new customer base. It's a calculated risk on their part, and if they think they only stand to make $30,000 in the long run, they'll build a park somewhere else. At the top, it's not about altruism. It's about business.
But in the end, cost-benefit analysis is part of what makes businesses work. My framework, then, is a more global one: can we envision a world where being a good person is not only the right moral decision, but also the right economic decision? The folks at EnerNOC and a few other places have that vision.
The truth is, we live in that world, but not everyone is aware of it. If Target could find a way to run their entire business efficiently without using a single piece of electronics, they would do it in a heartbeat. A business of that size has a huge electric bill, and if they could find a way to cut that, they would. Corporations don't waste electricity because they enjoy killing trees as they rub their hands together maliciously and twirl their mustaches. They would love to cut energy costs, but they just don't see how. That's where EnerNOC comes in.
The co-founders of EnerNOC came up with a great idea for how to make environmentalism the right business decision. Their methodology impresses everyone I've talked to, especially in the Peace Studies department. And guess what? The founders both have degrees in Business Administration, a field which many people would consider the antithesis of Peace Studies. I guess the bottom line here that there's only one way to create positive change. It just takes a vision and a lot of know-how. And some outside-the-box thinking. Although, as environmental guru Amory Lovins likes to say, there is no box.
I'll keep you posted as I find myself some vision and some know-how. This should be a great summer.
Welcome to my brand-new blog! In 37 hours or so, I will be starting my internship at EnerNOC, a wonderful company doing wonderful things for the environment. On the site there is both a video and a cute animated presentation that explain what EnerNOC does. I don't think I could explain it any better than they do, but in my next post, I'm going to try anyway.
For now, I'll just say this: I love EnerNOC because they're in the business of making environmentalism affordable. I'll explain how in the next post, but the gist of it is that they are paying businesses to reduce electricity usage. I love that.
The more I learn about envrionmental policy, the more I feel that pushing people to change their light bulbs or stop wasting water in their homes is great, but only an individual scale. When it comes to businesses, they're going to do whatever's going to make them the most money. The larger the business is, the more that model applies. Corporations will occasionally do something arbitrarily "green" or "for the community," but it's often limited in scope and usually seems to be geared towards attaining some kind of "family-friendly" label. Target is willing to donate money to help build a new park in some town, but only under the assumption that they'll create goodwill in that community which will lead to an increase in sales. Plus, they get to talk up how charitable they are, which makes more people want to shop at Target.
There is a constant process of cost-benefit analysis. If Target donates $50,000 to the creation of this park, they make $100,000 in increased revenue due to their new customer base. It's a calculated risk on their part, and if they think they only stand to make $30,000 in the long run, they'll build a park somewhere else. At the top, it's not about altruism. It's about business.
But in the end, cost-benefit analysis is part of what makes businesses work. My framework, then, is a more global one: can we envision a world where being a good person is not only the right moral decision, but also the right economic decision? The folks at EnerNOC and a few other places have that vision.
The truth is, we live in that world, but not everyone is aware of it. If Target could find a way to run their entire business efficiently without using a single piece of electronics, they would do it in a heartbeat. A business of that size has a huge electric bill, and if they could find a way to cut that, they would. Corporations don't waste electricity because they enjoy killing trees as they rub their hands together maliciously and twirl their mustaches. They would love to cut energy costs, but they just don't see how. That's where EnerNOC comes in.
The co-founders of EnerNOC came up with a great idea for how to make environmentalism the right business decision. Their methodology impresses everyone I've talked to, especially in the Peace Studies department. And guess what? The founders both have degrees in Business Administration, a field which many people would consider the antithesis of Peace Studies. I guess the bottom line here that there's only one way to create positive change. It just takes a vision and a lot of know-how. And some outside-the-box thinking. Although, as environmental guru Amory Lovins likes to say, there is no box.
I'll keep you posted as I find myself some vision and some know-how. This should be a great summer.
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