With its unique background and experience in cutting edge approaches to business, government, policy, and technology, Ecomergence is available to provide strategic consulting services on the impacts of the Smart Grid transition just beginning throughout North America and the world. A key concept as we transition our electricity infrastructure to a digital platform is integration, because networks naturally operate as integrated systems rather than distinct independent elements. Ecomergence helps communities, businesses and utilities understand the implications of this new way of looking at energy and electricity.
All stakeholders in the new smart, distributed energy ecosystem - energy consumers, energy producers, vendors and government agencies - now have an active role to play in the transition to a digital, sustainable energy ecosystem. But participation requires orientation around the new principles of change - Ecomergence excels in orienting stakeholders to this new perspective.
Technology will be integrated in incremental steps, and at each step of the way, consumers will be watching and wondering about the changes taking place. Skeptical of unproven benefits, they will challenge the pace of change as well as the expenses. Ecomergence recognizes the vital role that the community and energy consumers play in these digital transitions. Ecomergence has the skills and experience needed to help manage the issues already beginning to emerge as the transition to a Smart Grid gets under way.
Services
Corporate Strategic Consulting
Energy Efficiency Ecofit Projects
Energy efficiency retrofits, called by some "the first fuel" because of the relatively short payoff period and high return on investment, are too often overlooked in our utility system that mostly focuses on supply-side resources. Ecomergence labeled such retrofit projects "ecofit" projects because of their compelling economic benefits and potential for carbon footprint reduction. Energy efficiency retrofitting - ecofitting - generally falls into two categories: Building Envelope Enhancements such as spray-foam insulation as shown in the picture to the left and Energy Efficient Appliance Replacements such as EnergyStar appliances promoted by the DOE and CFL lightbulb and other programs popular with many utilities. But despite these governmental and utility efforts, societal adoption of Ecofitting has barely scratched the surface relative to its potential.
Ecomergence is currently experimenting with partners on neighborhood programs and other approaches that will make a comprehensive Ecofit project a more convenient reality for homeowners and building owners.
Government Consulting
Local governments and city-owned utilities are in a perfect position to leverage their control over three critical infrastructures: electricity, water, and transportation. The Pecan Street Project has revealed how these three infrastructures are interwoven - change one and you change the other two, neglect any of the three and suboptimal outcomes result.
Ecomergence is available to consult with local governments and city-owned utilties to share the lessons learned in the Pecan Street Project and stimulate new levels of consumer awareness and adoption to promote better strategic planning, more efficient operations and attainment of long-term sustainability goals.
Ecomergence is available to consult with local governments and city-owned utilties to share the lessons learned in the Pecan Street Project and stimulate new levels of consumer awareness and adoption to promote better strategic planning, more efficient operations and attainment of long-term sustainability goals.
Community Integration Integration of components, stakeholders, and communities into a complex system is a key insight drawn from the Pecan Street Project, which involved hundreds of hours of discussion envisioning a new energy ecosystem. The Community Integration Model that emerged from the Pecan Street Project Phase One discussions in 2009 enhances the Smart Grid Model by incorporating two other key infrastructures - water and transportation. Further, the new model brings the community and energy consumers into the process as instrumental players in the shift to a distributed energy ecosystem, incorporating changes at the edge with changes at the core.
In Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change, author Pat Murphy explores the futility of trying to continue our energy intensive lifestyles. Using dirtier fossil fuels (Plan A) or switching to renewable energy sources (Plan B) won't work - only a dramatic lifestyle change to make community the solution (Plan C) will lead to a sustainable, equitable world, only the twin solutions of community (cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (reducing consumption of consumer goods) will reduce CO2 emissions sufficiently.