12B — February 27 - March 12, 2015 — Green Buildings — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
G reen B uildings By Nicholas Davis, Agrion Americas
Forget cheap oil & gas – dig in on smart data and incentives for your properties
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$2.13/gallon average at the pump, and continued declines in natural gas pricing. How do these market con- ditions change your outlook in the real estate business? As an owner/operator or a service provider, the answer is that your strategy should not change much at all. You may save some gas money on your drive to work and your properties may realize mar- ginal savings from utilities buying cheaper energy from natural gas plants, but don’t expect these changes to make you look like a hero to your
shareholders. Utilities are going to be channeling a healthy chunk of savings to much needed system upgrades, grid mod- ernizations, and resiliency measures. These alone will likely offset any near term benefits the “passive energy consumer” will realize on their bill. The “active energy consumer” or better yet the “prosumer”, stands to realize substantial gains from the incentives utilities and gov- ernment agencies are offering for upgrading their energy systems. Your two objectives
for 2015 should be: 1) Put your property data to work. Smart meters and sensors have never been cheaper and more impactful. You can gain real visibility into how small changes and efficiency upgrades can save big money. Some conclusions are as obvious as, “Don’t heat and cool at the same time.” Others are more complex. They all have the potential to yield tremendous savings. 2) Take advantage of in- centive programs . ConEd and NYSERDA offer incen- tives like the Demand Man-
agement Program, which make it easy to save money and reduce grid strain. Free tools like www.gridmarket. com (a ConEd, NYC, NYState, and Agrion project) allow own- ers and operators to see how much money they can save by hosting a DER (distributed energy resource) like battery storage, and offer zero money down options and immediate savings to those lacking Ca- pEx budget. Commodity prices will rise again, as they always do. When OPEC says “We see oil under $20/barrel”, they do it so global behavior shifts back to highly fossil-dependent technologies. Then the prices spike again, leaving you high and dry. Dig in on data flu- ency and the multitude of incentive programs designed to help. Cheap oil and gas, or even affordable solar, will not save you. To learn more about great data partners or to take ad- vantage of the free GridMar- ket tool, feel free to contact nick.davis@agrion.org. Nicholas Davis is the managing director at Agri- on Americas. n Polevoy joins New Day Underwriting Managers HAMILTON, NJ — Jon Polevoy has joined New Day Underwriting Man- ability insurance coverage, with nearly 15 years of legal, engineering and insurance claims experience. As an at- torney-at-law working within the environmental, commer- cial real estate and construc- tion industries for the past decade, Polevoy offers expert consulting on the underlying laws and regulations govern- ing contract liability issues of New Day clients. Prior to joining New Day, Polevoy spent nearly 15 years working with several leading insurance, law and engineer- ing firms. Most recently, he was with Aspen Insurance. n Jon Polevoy agers LLC , a l e a d i n g specialty in- termediary of high-qual- ity environ- mental and construction- related pro- fessional li-
eadlines are buzzing with energy news in 2015. Solar penetra-
tion is on the rise – the in- dustry saw 40% growth i n 2 0 1 4 alone. Elec- tric cars and i m p r o v e d battery sys- tems are in t h e n e w s
Nick Davis
daily. Technology gains have created an oversupply in the oil and gas markets, driving crude oil prices to $46/barrel,
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