New Energy Control Center monitors building energy use 24/7

It’s one more sign of how energy is increasingly equivalent to security: From its new Energy Control Center (ECC) in Sunnyvale, California, Serious Energy is now providing round-the-clock energy monitoring for its commercial building customers, much in the way security companies have long offered security-camera and alarm monitoring.

The just-opened ECC offers commercial building owners and operators managed services through the company’s SeriousEnergy Manager, a cloud-based, multi-application building energy optimization platform. Located at Serious Energy’s headquarters and staffed by a team of energy analysts, the ECC provides energy monitoring and analysis, as well as optional automated control services.

“We have customers whose energy management needs span the entire spectrum,” said Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Energy. “We designed the ECC for companies that want to focus on their core business — and do what they do best — while we do what we do best … They won’t be wondering at 10 pm if their lights are on when they shouldn’t be. And they’ll know that everything they can’t see — from their economizer lockouts to their chiller head pressure — is working just as it should.”

The SeriousEnergy Manager platform includes:

• A policy management engine for continuous energy performance optimization. The technology can automatically and remotely make adjustments in HVAC settings, lighting and other building systems. It can also inform any number of stakeholders, such as facility managers and engineers, through any preference of alerting, whether by text, email or phone.
• Customizable applications for energy performance reporting across building, building portfolio or tenant zones of strategic value for multiple stakeholders — from C-level to sustainability and operating teams.
• SeriousInsight advanced analytics for automated fault detection and diagnostics, measurement and verification applications.
• Interoperable systems for monitoring BMS (building management system) data and meter data for electricity, gas and water.

According to Serious Energy, its platform can help customers reduce energy use and costs by up to 30 percent, and typically pays for itself within six to 24 months.