Would Getting Utility Data 10x Faster Give You an Edge?

Faster, easier data helped ARC Alternatives do their Deep Energy Efficiency Study of the SJSU Chiller

If it’s not fast, it’s dead on arrival.

ARC Alternatives, a small San Francisco-based consulting company, wins contracts when they can analyze and deliver results quickly. Once they started using UtilityAPI, they were able to deliver those results more than 10x faster.

ARC is a collective of engineers and project managers. Their clients include public sector organizations, large institutions, and school districts in California. ARC figures out how those clients can save both energy and money.

ARC’s clients want the same fast, data-based answers that your customers do. How much will a proposed improvement cost? How much energy will they save? Is there a better way?

Before they found UtilityAPI, gathering data was often the hardest part of their workflow. ARC’s clients have many utility meters, many with limited or missing histories. In order to compile historical energy usage data, they had to work with local utilities to get their clients’ records. Once those utilities granted them access, they then had to track down the relevant historical data within the accounts.

The process could take weeks, depending on if/when the utility got around to responding. In short, the stuff of nightmares. We know many of you share this pain.

Once ARC partnered with UtilityAPI, that particular pain disappeared. UtilityAPI now makes energy data available with one simple authorization. What used to take weeks now takes less than 24 hours. Sometimes, it only takes five minutes.  “UtilityAPI has modernized the method of retrieving historical utility data,” says Simon Olivieri, an ARC Alternatives engineer.

This ultra-fast access helped ARC streamline their process. And it made them hungry for more data. Now that ongoing data updates have strengthened their client relationships, ARC uses UtilityAPI for automated regular updates of usage data, which we call ‘ongoing monitoring’ as well.

The future belongs to the fast. Thanks to UtilityAPI, ARC Alternatives can take their shot at leading the pack.