EnergyCAP® Professional

All cost avoidance calculations are readily available for review and audit. This detail screen shows how the baseline year has been statistically broken down into weather and non-weather related components on a day-by-day basis. EnergyCAP performs adjustments automatically, but also lets the experienced user fine-tune the process. EnergyCAP displays and explains all savings calculations for easy verification.

EnergyCAP stands for Cost Avoidance Program, and that's exactly what EnergyCAP helps you do. EnergyCAP uses the U.S. Department of Energy's standard method (IPMVP) to calculate cost avoidance—the dollars you avoided spending due to energy management efforts. The "View Savings" screen shows monthly cost avoidance, and lets you examine the calculation details by clicking on a month. EnergyCAP zeros in on the money-losing "red bars" so you can manage by exception.

EnergyCAP, Inc. (ECI) is occasionally asked to substantiate its assurances that the EnergyCAP software in general and all cost avoidance calculations in particular are independent and unbiased. Because EnergyCAP is used to measure and verify energy cost avoidance and savings, and because these calculations are sometimes the basis of energy management contractual provisions, this is a valid user question and concern. EnergyCAP’s integrity, objectivity and impartiality are maintained through these practices and standards:

Ownership and Control
ECI is 100% owned and controlled by Steven D. Heinz, PE, CEM. Heinz is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and legally responsible for compliance with all professional and ethical standards. Heinz does not own any interest in any client organization and does not receive any revenue or other consideration, other than routine sales revenue, from any business-related organization or entity.

Compliance with U.S. Department of Energy Standard
EnergyCAP complies with the primary industry standard, the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP), available from the U.S. Dept of Energy or www.IPMVP.org.

Programming Safeguards
No individual outside of the ECI programming team has ever had access to source code. The FASER source code and associated intellectual property, when purchased from Enron by AEI, were physically delivered directly from Enron to Good Steward (ECI's former name), which AEI had designated for receipt and safekeeping of the materials. There are no undocumented switches or settings that could be used to alter cost avoidance results.

Common Use of Software
Every user has the same program; no customized or non-standard versions of the software are published. The savings calculations in EnergyCAP Professional are also incorporated in another version of the software, EnergyCAP Enterprise, which is used by such clients as Yale University, Smithsonian Institution, National Guard, City of Baltimore and others.

Independent Audits
Independent audits have been performed of both FASER and EnergyCAP by university faculty who specialize in Accounting and its application to the energy assessment, and they have confirmed that EnergyCAP adheres closely with Option C of the IPMVP protocol, that EnergyCAP is appropriate for use in the type of comprehensive program that EEI helps client school districts to implement, and that the methods used to calculate cost avoidance are conservative and tend to undervalue the savings.

Additional Safeguards for Energy Performance Contracts (EPC)
A practice encouraged by Omnicomp and ECI for EPCs is to have the client operate the energy savings software. This policy was adopted by EEI in the 80’s and continues today. The savings of taxpayer dollars through use of the EEI energy savings program are generated and verified by school district officials, using ECI. All of the other major performance contractors and energy services companies today use a less independent method — they track the energy savings for their client using tools and techniques that may or may not be understood or even disclosed to the client.