Now we can add a new kind of economic stimulus to the list of benefits of making one's home into an energy efficient one. According to an article in Washington Post, homeowners who invest to make their homes more energy efficient turn out to be better credit risk for banks to lend money. According to this article: A new study by the University of North Carolina suggests that the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. Using a massive sample of 71,000 home loans from across the country tha... [More]

As a technology products and services provider, we always worry about continuous innovation to add new features, functionalities and other bells to make sure we are seen as being on the cutting edge of technology. For instance, we are on the 4th generation of our E2DR® flagship DSM data tracking and analytics platform and working on the 3rd generation of our EnvCTR™ product for Title V compliance reporting product. But, at the same time, as one looks around at the industry, it see... [More]

Utilities have taken to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to promote the idea of energy conservation by providing their customers with the tools to track their energy usage. A recent article in NYT highlights some of these efforts. Utilities are doing this more to avoid blackouts and meet regulatory mandates and not necessarily just to promote energy conservation for its own sake. Traditionally, the utilities used their DSM programs to promote energy savings actions - such as weathe... [More]

Stephen Covey, the world-famous author and self-improvement sage, passed away yesterday. In addition to being a highly successful author, speaker and management consultant, according to people who knew him well, he was a genuinely nice human being. A rare combination in the times we live today where there are more people blowing their horns and doing whatever they can to get ahead and spend more time in the media spotlight. I wanted to include a couple of the more interesting news items about M... [More]

One of the questions that we frequently face in our discussions with utility companies is how can a utility get the maximum value from data it gets from its meters, from their DSM programs, from the T&D grid, etc? The so-called Big Data Companies [you know who you are] come up with complex answers supported by slick Powerpoint slides and correspondingly eye-popping budgets. Our approach always has been that the answer is much simpler if you first take time to understand what you want to achi... [More]