ENERGY SERVICES
A Sustainable Return on Investment
Q & A WITH ENERGY MARKET LEADER CLAY SANDIDGE
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While energy consciousness is important for individuals , it is at the organizational level that the concept takes on world-altering significance . Businesses , industry , institutions , and entire nations are now grappling with the question of how to operate responsibly , aware of where unrestrained fossil fuel consumption leads . P2S designs new and retrofitted energy-efficient facilities , but beyond that , we work to spread awareness of the benefits and possibilities that energy-efficient design offers .
Energy Market Leader , Clay Sandidge , is familiar with this dual role as a salesperson and advocate . He has over 30 years of experience in the renewable energy sector , which has imbued in him a commitment to reducing a business ’ environmental impacts . We spoke to Clay to gain insight into how energy services deliver a solid return on investment , the costs , and different means of financing energy projects and what the future has in store for energy-efficient design .
Can you tell us about your background and experience in the energy sector ? Clay Sandidge : I ’ ve worked in the larger Architecture / Engineering arena for 30 years of my career . I ’ ve worked for oil companies and major architectural engineering firms . About 20 years ago , I started transitioning out of doing work for the large investor-owned utilities like Southern California Edison and began doing work in the oil industry for firms like Shell and Exxon . I saw that it was not sustainable to remain in that business . I started transitioning into alternative and renewable energy resources and started pushing my clients in that direction . About 15 years ago , I got involved with energy efficiency upgrades and looking at various distributed energy resources and looking at how clients could become more energy self-reliant . Ten years ago , I started my own company , Muni-Fed Energy , with the business model of helping companies wean themselves off the energy grid . We did many energy efficiency audits ; we incorporated a lot of LED lighting at places like ports where high-mast lighting is a major energy expenditure . We converted street lighting to LED for municipalities , which resulted in significant decreases in energy costs . A year ago , Muni-Fed merged with P2S , and now I ’ m managing the energy market . We ’ re moving forward into the next generation of P2S energy services . Using the institutional knowledge we have at P2S , we ’ re going to help more clients move to self-energy-generation .
Energy services can mean a lot of different things to different people . How do you define energy services ? CS : Energy services do have a lot of different connotations . To me , the energy sector is a transition to clean energy and greater energy efficiency . It ’ s a transition to new methods of generating and delivering energy . These new energy sources have to be reliable and resilient , and delivery has to be consistent . Energy services ensure resiliency and reliability within your facility ’ s footprint , while simultaneously increasing efficiency and reducing consumption . So with services like energy audits , monitoring-based commissioning , and others , the goal is to identify a building ’ s baseline footprint and project load growth needs and then move towards those projections in a clean , efficient , and environmentally friendly way . We know that we have to move away from fossil fuels , and the energy sector gives us a blueprint to do that . We
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