The City of Pittsburgh and Direct Energy Business Increase Energy Efficiencies

Pittsburgh, PA – The City of Pittsburgh has enlisted the help of Direct Energy Business to increase energy efficiencies in the century-old City-County Building, and several other landmarks in the city. Located at 414 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, the the City-County Building houses both Pittsburgh and Allegheny County offices and has been a landmark in the city since it was completed in 1917.

In January, Direct Energy Business installed Panoramic Power® wireless monitoring technology to the 6th floor of the City-County Building that houses a portion of the City's offices and data center. Panoramic Power devices transmit electricity usage information to a customer's dashboard that can be viewed on a desktop or mobile device. The solution is designed to give customers unmatched, real-time visibility into their business operations through meaningful and actionable electricity insights, enabling them to take action to lower their energy consumption, reduce operating costs and increase overall operational efficiency.

"Working with Panoramic Power is a key component of our Energy Intelligence Network," said Grant Ervin, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Pittsburgh. "By capturing a variety of usage data, we are able to obtain a keen sense of consumption patterns and behavior trends that will allow us to make more strategic decisions related to energy efficiency and capital upgrades."

"We believe in giving our employees insights into their energy usage so they can make smarter energy decisions, be more efficient and reduce their energy consumption and save money," added Ervin.

This comes on the heels of the announcement that Direct Energy Business is the supplier for The Western PA Energy Consortium progam which includes the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, Carlow University, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, and the Sports and Exhibition Authority. The County and the City participate in this joint electric purchasing initiative, which was created to pool the buying power of all the entities to gain more savings and efficiency in the city. In this procurement, these participants increased their renewable power acquired to 35 percent, through the purchase of renewable energy credits.