5 tools for energy management

With demand for power on the rise, and electricity prices expected to climb about 10 percent in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, tools that help businesses and consumers cut back on energy use are garnering attention—and big money from investors.

In 2008, smart grid technologies and energy management companies scored record venture capital investment, according to San Francisco-based Cleantech Group. The $7.7 billion invested in cleantech in 2008 was up from the $3.4 billion invested in 2007.

While energy management tools show great potential for reducing power bills, they can also reduce strain on the grid, which is a growing issue for U.S. utilities. Easing electricity demand through increased efficiency and demand response could reduce the need for new electricity generation in the next 20 years by almost 50 percent, according to a report released in November 2008 by Cambridge, Mass.-based energy consulting firm, The Brattle Group.

Sustainable Industries takes a look at five energy management technologies with the potential—and, in some cases, already the track record—to have a huge impact on the way companies and individuals track and use energy. Using innovative business models to bring their products to market, the following companies are poised to take off in 2009.

Power Assure
Location: Santa Clara, Calif.
Number of employees: 4
www.powerassure.com
Everyone’s heard the old adage about idle hands, but D.K. Foster has turned his attentions to a different problem—idle servers.
“An idle server is a bad server,” Foster says.

In 2007, Foster founded data center energy management company Power Assure after seeing an emerging need to deal with data center power consumption. Data centers are growing at a rate of about 25 percent per year, and there’s not enough electricity in the world to support them, Foster says.