EnergyConnect, Inc. is working with Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) in Northern Illinois to reduce electricity costs in 2007 by providing additional energy management tools to commercial and industrial customers to manage their energy more efficiently.

EnergyConnect is combining its demand response services with ComEd’s Energy Insights Online to provide business customers a state-of-the-art energy management tool and the opportunity to receive payments for reducing energy use during periods of high demand.

Under EnergyConnect’s program, a customer would use ComEd’s Energy Insights Online to provide data about the customer’s electric use to EnergyConnect to help coordinate voluntary electric curtailments. Enrolling in Energy Insights Online facilitates EnergyConnect’s demand response service that pays customers to reduce electric demand.

To promote this combination of services, EnergyConnect is offering to advance the customer’s cost of enrollment to Energy Insights Online and the monthly subscription fee. This program permits participation without any upfront costs or risks when the customer enrolls in the program. Additional savings can be realized through better energy management and compensation for reducing electricity use during periods of high demand.

ComEd’s Energy Insights Online provides customers with their previous day’s hourly meter data on a secure ComEd Web site. With this system, an energy manager for a business customer can compare their facility’s electric use over various time periods, track consumption against the temperature, and prepare reports for budgeting purposes.

“Having access to energy consumption data is an essential element in the development of an energy management program,” said Tom Miroslaw, portfolio manager of Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate services firm and an EnergyConnect customer. “Energy Insights Online is an excellent tool for collecting and analyzing electric consumption data and using this information for energy conservation strategies. In the course of preparing for demand response participation, one of our energy conservation strategies, we are using the Energy Insights Online system to maximize our performance. As we look at higher electricity prices next year, this will help us manage our costs and generate revenue too. This is exactly the type of value adding program our clients expect us to bring to them.”