BUE News and Events

There are many ways businesses can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they release into the earth’s atmosphere, a.k.a. their carbon footprint. Here are 3 strategies to get you started:

1. Planting trees is a simple but vital action since trees do the hard work in absorbing CO2 in the atmosphere. Trees absorb only a percentage of CO2 so the next step is to reduce the actual amount being created.
2. Lighting assessment - For instance, conduct an evaluation of facility lighting to find where efficiency and energy saving changes can be implemented. Installing lighting that uses less electricity and has a longer life span helps decrease carbon emissions. The initial investment in modernizing lighting is usually offset by the cost savings in a few years.
3. Lastly, installing a carbon meter or carbon conversion software can help track, hour by hour, the amount of carbon emitted during production. Knowing what activities produce carbon and how much they produce will provide a focus for where reductions can be made. The more electricity, gas, and fuel used, the more CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. Therefore, the less we draw on these materials, the lower our carbon footprint.

Buffalo, NY – March 22, 2012 – With the recent additions of Connecticut, Ohio and Washington D.C., BidURenergy (BUE) now operates as a licensed energy supply consultant in every competitive American arena securing the lowest energy rates for its clients.

In deregulated energy markets, consumers are able to procure their natural gas and electricity through a third party supplier rather than through the utility company. The energy procurement process can be complex but BUE, an independent company working for its clients and not for any supply company, helps clients navigate the system to obtain the lowest rates on their utility bills. For more information on deregulation visit www.BidURenergy.com, which includes an interactive map displaying all the states in which BUE is licensed to operate and which energy markets (electric and/or gas) are deregulated.

Midwest Generation has agreed to close its Fisk Generation Station and its Crawford Generation Station due to pressure from the Chicago Clean Power Coalition. Midwest Generation had planned on lowering emissions or closing the plants within the next six years to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxic Standards released in December 2011. Both power plants were built in the early 1900’s and were not previously regulated under the 1990 Clean Air Act like new power plants have been.

As more coal-fired power plants are closed, electricity generation is becoming more dependent upon natural gas and other clean energies. Natural gas has always been more expensive than coal, although the price has lowered in recent years because of increased supply; however, the price has never gone below that of coal. Energy market trend analysts see the future prices of electricity rising because natural gas is a more expensive fuel. Furthermore, electricity prices become even more correlated to natural gas prices due to the fact that there are fewer competitive resources to generate electricity.

Over the past decade many stakeholders including utilities, system operators, and regulators have been working to modernize the electric utility delivery system, also known as “the grid”, starting with infrastructural changes. The 21st century grid is referred to as the “Smart Grid” because devices throughout the system have been computerized allowing utilities and operators to monitor and adjust activities from remote locations. Changes to infrastructure vary across geographical areas depending on population size, economics and population needs. Massive amounts of data are being generated from both the grid and consumer side leading to the next phase in the smart grid evolution. Utility companies need to establish systems for analyzing the data to deliver the seemingly infinite value in the grid to both management and consumer operations. Possible areas data analyses will impact are in timely detection of required maintenance along the grid, real time usage statistics, early notification of stresses on the grid (i.e. demand response), finding uses for other smart energy technologies, and rate reduction due to lowering usage during peak hours.