EnergyCAP, Accuweather partner for more accurate energy use comparisons

EnergyCAP and Accuweather have partnered to allow companies to take into account weather patterns, temperature and other meteorological data when making month-to-month and year-to-year energy consumptions comparisons. Companies can compare apples to apples by selecting similar months or years -- instead of comparing this year's harsh snowfalls with last year's mild winter.

Energy is an organization's most controllable operating expense.

"EnergyCAP's energy management and accounting software allows for all organizations -- from homes and small businesses to state universities and large corporations -- to track, manage, process, report, benchmark and analyze their utility bills and energy and sustainability information," Steve Heinz,
CEO, EnergyCAP, Inc., told FierceEnergy. "Such software is a powerful tool to help identify inefficient facilities, spot billing errors, prepare budgets, and generate comprehensive energy and sustainability reports -- saving energy, time and money."

EnergyCAP makes energy usage and cost data visible.

"Better data visibility and access allows auditing, analytics and reporting, and helps foster cooperation between utility and customer as both seek to eliminate errors and optimize energy usage and cost," Heinz said.

Legislation in Austin, DC, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, California, Washington, Colorado and Connecticut require benchmarking of commercial buildings through ENERGY STAR. EnergyCAP building data automatically receives ENERGY STAR ratings so clients can use EnergyCAP to comply with the benchmarking requirements. 

EnergyCAP is primarily used by utilities' customers who receive many utility bills, such as government agencies, educational organizations and businesses.

"Most EnergyCAP users receive hundreds or thousands of monthly utility bills.  These organizations seek efficiencies in utility bill receipts, processing, payment, auditing, and analysis," said Heinz.  "Utilities can provide tangible benefits to their larger customers by facilitating electronic billing, rate optimization, and billing data capture.  The essence of the smart grid is open data access leading to cost savings on both supply and demand sides of the meter."

Many aspects of utility billing today are antiquated.  Paper bills and changing bill formats are added expenses for large energy consumers. EnergyCAP provides utilities opportunities in electronic billing.

"Market penetration of EDI 810 electronic billing has been low, mainly because it's too difficult and expensive for most customers," Heinz said.  "EnergyCAP provides an EDI platform that not only provides customer value in accounts payable, but also captures rich energy usage details that are valuable for energy management.  More EnergyCAP customers mean increased EDI volume, which cuts utilities billing costs."

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