3 min. read
Our Expert Insights series brings you real-world perspectives from our Commercial Markets experts on navigating energy upgrade and transition decisions.
In this video, Andrew Trapanese, Vice President of Engineering and Development, Commercial Markets, dives into the best ways organizations should prioritize energy projects and which generate the fastest ROI.
Watch the full video or read the transcript below.
Q: Why is prioritizing the right energy project so critical?
AT: I’m Andrew Trapanese. I’m VP of development and engineering for SitelogIQ’s Commercial Markets [division]. Prioritization is important because there’s so many potential projects that could be done. Quickly getting to where your highest opportunity is important, [so] everybody focuses their time and then works to optimize what’s the unique mix of various energy projects.
Q: How do organizations generally go about prioritizing projects?
AT: Organizations typically go about prioritizing energy projects simply [by] looking at their total utility bill spend divided by the volume of energy that they’re using for the facility to come up with an energy rate and an energy volume for that facility. That strategy can work really well at a very high level, but it’s not the most targeted way to identify the best sites that will have the highest return for them to really focus on developing specific projects for.
Q: What energy projects typically have the fastest ROI?
AT: The energy projects we usually see that have the fastest return on investment would be LED lighting or HVAC controls. These low hanging fruit energy projects can often become a source of funding for some of the other projects that have a fantastic long-term return or that they’re having trouble getting capital allocation for, but work that absolutely needs to be done.
For example, creating a roof that helps cool the facility or new windows and doors or a solar energy project. All of which have a much longer time horizon but may be more capital intensive to fund upfront.
Q: How does SitelogIQ help organizations identify the best energy projects to pursue?
AT: The criteria that matters the most in determining which projects to pursue first is really dependent on the owner’s goals and objectives. One of the things that SitelogIQ does so well is taking the time to identify with each facility or portfolio owner what their specific objectives are, what their constraints might be, and then using those to provide a prioritized list of the available efficiency and generation opportunities to either reduce cost or meet sustainability goals or target their specific needs.
Utility bills are complex and finding a partner to help you quickly analyze that complexity into the key metrics needed to really assess the value of energy project at each specific site is something that will allow you to very quickly get down to where do we spend our time.
SitelogIQ is your one-stop partner for energy efficiency, renewable, and electrification solutions. We handle all project steps, from design and installation, through incentive management. Let’s see what opportunities you have to reduce your energy costs and usage.