Esri: An Example of Smart Energy Rebate Use
The Redlands-based company gets the nod from Heather Clancy at SmartPlanet in her coverage of the importance of finding a good energy services company to dig out energy rebates (including those expected to be announced by President Obama later today).
For an illustration of how your company could use this money, consider the case of ESRI, a developer of geographic information software. I spoke in late June with John Parker, the data center operations manager for the company, about the company’s server consolidation project, a project that was focused not just on cutting ESRI’s electric bill but also on driving other operational efficiencies in its data center. Somewhere along the way, Parker’s team paused to have an outside engineering firm come in to perform a baseline audit. This $50,000 audit was covered by his company’s utility, Southern California Edison, which is looking for ways to help its customers reduce their power consumption. What’s more, that company also evaluated some of the technology that ESRI was considering. Ultimately, ESRI was able to cover about half the data center project upgrade costs with rebate money, Parker says. The main inconvenience to him and his team was/is getting the greenlight for the equipment it wanted to buy and the ongoing documentation it needs to provide demonstrating energy saving.
