T4G launches energy monitoring service

My company, T4G Limited, had a great article in today’s Telegarph-Journal, check it out below:

In the wake of the green shift and on the cusp of the birth of smart grids, a national software-for-businesses firm has launched an energy-efficiency practice headed out of its Saint John office.

T4G Ltd. announced Thursday it has hired energy-efficiency consultant Mike Carr to run the new line of business he said could exceed the firm’s current operations.

“Our whole economy is in a whole new paradigm,” said Carr. “From all sides everyone’s energy conscious.

“What we’re planning on doing is getting the user better information about how they’re using their energy so they can conserve,” he said. “The economic benefit of energy management is about 20 to 30 per cent of the energy bill.”

T4G offers customizable software and consulting in more than eight different areas of expertise to at least six different industries and employs more than 230 people in Saint John, Moncton, Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver.

With the new line of business the firm has about a dozen consultants spread across the country and in a new office in Maine.

“I’m building a team in every location because there are markets in every location,” said Carr, adding the line of business could expand to be larger than the rest of T4G.

Though there are plenty of other businesses and services emerging to target the energy-monitoring market, Carr said it’s so early stage the competition isn’t a concern.

“The market opportunity is bigger than the delivery capability of the market,” said Carr, who resides in Fredericton and works from the Port City office.

T4G has a customizable web-based service that allows non-residential customers to monitor and analyze their energy use based on existing monitoring tools attached to energy intensive equipment such as boilers and heating systems.

The firm will also consider custom software for large firms and provide energy management consulting and training to help its clients reduce their carbon footprint and energy bills.

“We’re a full-services business. We give them the complete package,” Carr said, who work as an energy-efficiency consulting before joining T4G in February, and has 10 years experience in the oil and gas industry. “We’re not interested in the hardware. The hardware is pretty standardized.”

As jurisdictions across the continent are either considering or implementing smart grids – which add a layer of information and communications technologies to the existing power distribution grid with the goal of making the whole system more efficient – Carr said T4G’s new business will play an important role in the new grid.

The firm’s software will become the user interface for communicating on the grid, he said.

“Right now they’re looking at their own use,” Carr said referring to his customers. “But in the future if (businesses are) going to produce energy and (they are) going to want to know when to buy and when to sell.”

The company also wants to help people make their homes more energy-efficient, which Carr said would be through the utilities.

“I expect in five years most jurisdictions are going to be on smart metering,” he said, adding many communities in California already use the real-time meters.

T4G plans to sell its software to utilities, which can provide the real-time energy use numbers and analysis from the software back to residents through their websites.

“Everybody’s panicking to reduce their footprint on fossil fuels to protect themselves from the volatility and the threats of high prices,” he said. “We hit peak oil in the 90s so it can only go up.

“Everybody’s facing rising energy costs and we have to be more energy efficient if we’re going to survive.”