Happy New Year from the 360 Energy Team!
My prediction is that 2019 will be a year dominated by energy stories. Already this year, pipeline approval problems, lower oil and gas prices, carbon tax, climate change, and energy export revenues affecting the Canadian dollar have made the news. And it’s only mid-January!
As important as these energy stories are, the most important one will go unreported. The most important energy story is that your business can actively manage energy and reduce your annual costs. In fact the return on investment in energy management typically has a very high return with limited risk.
You may find that concept surprising. People don’t often give energy much thought, because they don’t believe they can manage or control it. Using and paying for energy is simply the cost of doing business. End of story.
At 360 Energy, we change the energy story for our customers, year after year after year. 2019 will be no different.
Our growing network of customers learns how to better control and improve their management of energy. And in the process, they save money, empower their employees, reduce their carbon footprint and build strong, positive reputations in their communities.
Our customers’ energy stories are really stories of innovation, creativity, and optimism. In 2019, we will be sharing a few of them here.
Please enjoy this issue of The 360. We trust it will interest and inform – perhaps even inspire – you.
And may your story in 2019 be satisfying, prosperous, and happy!
Sincerely,
David Arkell, CEO
Taking Action on Canada’s Carbon Tax: An Update you can’t miss Canadians are hearing a lot about a federal carbon tax, and may be uncertain about how it applies to their business. Uncertainty is understandable. The program evolved quickly in late 2018. Details are still unclear on a number of provisions. Click below to find out all the latest updates you don’t want to miss.
Who Pays Carbon Taxes?
Carbon Costs are fast approaching for customers in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.
Join 360 Energy for our Carbon Tax Preparedness Webinar to learn more about how the federal carbon pricing program works.
Find out how will you be impacted and what you can do to manage it, so you can start developing a strategy to mitigate your carbon tax costs!
Climate change – A quick refresher
You’ve likely had family members or co-workers express an opinion about climate change.
Have you had a sneaking suspicion they didn’t fully understand how climate change works? Have you longed to have a concise and easy way to explain the climate change process to them?
360 Energy recently came across an easy to understand, barebones explanation.
Take advantage of weather normalization knowledge
Any energy user should understand the extent to which weather impacts their gas and/or electricity consumption.
Here’s a simple tool (regression analysis) used to determine if there is a relationship between weather and energy usage. An energy manager or consultant can do this, but here we show you how to do it yourself:
- In an Excel spreadsheet, set up a column with your heating degree days for each month;
- In a separate column, enter your natural gas usage (for example) or electricity for each equivalent month;
- Under the “Formulas” tab, find the RSQ function (try looking under “More Functions”, and then using the Statistical drop-down menu);
- Use all heating degree day cells in the degree day column as the X variable and all natural gas usage cells in the natural gas usage column as the Y variable.
A regression outcome of approximately 0.75 or better indicates a relationship.
If the regression value is strong, it is recommended you continue to track gas or electricity usage per heating or cooling degree day, and look at determining the mathematical formula for the relationship. This can be done by using the scatterplot and trendline, or linear forecast functions in Excel. This will allow you to confirm cost savings from energy conservation measures.
We’ll look at weather normalizing in more detail in the next Coach’s Circle.
