According to the companies, the combination gives retailers the ability to automate and expand load response participation across multiple sites and regions through real-time electricity pricing, centralized management of building control systems, and revenue-grade metering capabilities for programs requiring quick response times. Novar retail customers who participate in Constellation load response programs also have the option of applying the revenue they earn to get controls and metering upgrades at additional locations.

“Retailers face unique challenges when it comes to managing energy use for distributed sites,” said Gary Fromer, senior vice president, energy management programs, Constellation. “This offering allows retailers to incorporate load response as part of an enterprise-level energy management strategy without incurring a large, upfront capital expense or compromising business operations.”

Constellation’s VirtuWatt Link web service facilitates automated load response participation by connecting with a building’s existing controls infrastructure. The application provides access to real-time price signals and grid information, load response event notification, and meter usage data. Together with Novar’s Opus BAS and meter, VirtuWatt Link allows retailers to achieve the response times and level of automation performance necessary to participate in capacity, energy, or quick-response economic load response programs nationwide.

“As a leader in multi-site control, monitoring, and energy management, Novar is committed to finding new ways of helping our customers meet their energy budget, efficiency, and sustainability goals,” said Dean Lindstrom, president of Novar. “With Constellation, Novar customers have access to an off-the-shelf solution for load response participation with the standardization and automation necessary to better manage their overall energy use. We can also help customers prioritize the implementation process by comparing which load response programs have the highest returns against which stores have the most costly energy footprint.”

Novar’s Opus Building Automation System is designed to help national account operators with hundreds or thousands of facilities by providing a way of monitoring, controlling, and managing how energy is consumed across their portfolio of sites, whether they are self-managing from their own headquarters, or having Novar manage them from the Novar Operations Center. Customers use Opus to simultaneously manage HVAC, refrigeration, and lighting; enforce corporate standards; and take advantage of financial incentives offered as part of smart grid utility programs that require the business to reduce electricity consumption on demand.

Constellation’s VirtuWatt Link is designed to be integrated to any energy management or controls system that utilizes web services. Its architecture will handle demand response market signals and energy data from utilities and independent system operators, and is built to accommodate developing demand response protocol standards, such as OpenADR 2.0.

For more information about Novar, visit www.novar.com. For more information about Constellation, visit www.constellation.com.

Publication date: 4/8/2013