About Agave®
Our Mission
To empower our clients with resources to better manage their energy through education, advisory, reporting, and savings. To be the global energy management expert.
The Problem
Commercial and industrial energy consumers today face ever-changing utility tariff rate structures and the challenges presented by these erratic charges. Unpredictable energy costs not only impact a company’s bottom line but create uncertainty around budgeting and profit forecasting. Furthermore, demand charges can be significant—at times more than 40% of a facilities energy bill. A recent Department of Energy Study indicates that in 2018 commercial and industrial (C&I) energy users in the US spend over $60 billion on these additional costs.
Energy consumers often feel that they have little control over the demand rate charges that inflate their bills. They lack data, which leaves them in the dark as to when and why they’re being charged. Delayed billing compounds the issue since invoices don’t arrive for 45-60 days following a demand event. Without a process in place to audit utility bills, validate usage charges, and contest unwarranted costs, many energy consumers overspend by blindly paying the bill.
The Solution
Agave® brings current utility rate information together with real-time energy usage data to provide C&I customers with the metrics, trends, and notifications that support informed decision-making.
The system’s automated delivery of reliable, up-to-date energy metrics helps bridge the gap between operations and finance data to better manage energy costs and optimize plant performance. The cloud-based SaaS solution is hosted on Amazon Web Services to provide clients with secure, continuous access to their data.
The integration of energy data and utility rate schedules offers clients up-to-date energy cost information and allows for continuous auditing. The system provides constant feedback on equipment performance and investment payback on projects, while the open system architecture allows it to be used independently or combined with an existing Agave® Evolution™ and/or plant control systems/SCADA system.
Agave® Systems provides insightful tools that can help manage and optimize a company’s energy spend, reduce costs, and improve operations resiliency.
Featured Affiliations
Empowering Energy Consumers
The combined offerings of Agave® Analytics Suite and Agave® Evolution™ deliver a complete enterprise-wide energy management system. Since its launch, Agave® has established case studies across 13 different industries—from agriculture and food processing to manufacturing, hospitality, and healthcare— that prove its value.
Notable applications demonstrating cost-savings include a grower who was able to save over 20% of the company’s annual utility bill by better understanding the timing of rate shifts and mitigating demand charges. In another case, a large poultry farmer used Agave®’s auditing capabilities to save over $95,000.
Advanced users can take advantage of analytics to improve operational efficiencies of their distributed generation systems and plant equipment through the tool’s virtual energy manager capabilities. As an example, one hospital client reduced energy costs by running its combined heat and power system more efficiently, driving savings of over $75k. These examples demonstrate how Agave® tools are helping the commercial and industrial users focus on their core businesses while taking advantage of automated feedback and analytics to operate their facilities in an optimal manner driving energy savings.
Origin
Agave® Systems launched in 2017 to address energy management and distributed generation technology integration needs in the commercial industrial marketplace. These requirements were discovered through the Agave® teams’ affiliation with its sister company Regatta Solutions, the leading California developer of distributed generation projects founded in 2009.
Accelerated changes to utility tariff rate structures, delayed billing and hard to understand demand event charges left clients without a process in place to audit and validate usage charges. Implementation of distributed generation technologies to comprise microgrids created additional challenges for midmarket clients who require cost effective solutions.
The first step was to transfer proven technology developed at Regatta to create Agave’s base technology. Agave®’s Evolution™, is an on-premises microgrid controller and building management system, that facilitates the operation and integration of solar, cogeneration, fuel cells, energy storage systems while balancing operational equipment like boilers, chillers, and pumps. While the Evolution™ controller provided on-site controls and automation for a client’s distributed generation and plant control systems it was missing a key ingredient—real-time cost analytics.
Agave® Systems developed a data analysis platform that combines software as a service tools and on-site control systems to help clients manage their energy usage and optimize their distributed generation resources. Agave® brings current utility rate information together with real-time energy usage data to provide C&I customers with metrics, trends and notifications that support informed decision-making. Agave® provides insightful tools that can help manage and optimize a company’s energy spend, reduce costs, and improve operations resiliency.