New Energy East launches energy information service.

As part of its continuing drive to supply customers with the most precise energy monitoring capabilities available, NewEnergy East, the New York headquarters of one of America's largest energy service providers, has launched an energy information system that provides customers with near real-time

The system, made possible by the increasingly competitive environment in the New York marketplace, allows customers to receive load profile and consumption reports via e-mail or fax, with hourly updates, according to NewEnergy Vice President Ed Wasilewski.

One of the first customers to sign on, the real estate firm TrizecHahn, is using the system in its New York properties "to monitor, control and better manage our energy usage," said Gerald V. Schumm, vice president of the Northeast Region. He also notes that such a system will help TrizecHahn react quicker in addressing inefficiencies or problems with energy consumption.

"Competition lowers the price for electricity, but to really maintain control of your expenditures, you need to monitor and control usage effectively, and this system is a quantum leap forward," Schumm said. "Now, instead of having to wait for our monthly bill to arrive, we can, identify inefficiencies when they appear and address them quickly. One such instance pays for the cost of the system. Everything else is savings to the customer."

TrizecHahn plans to expand the program to include buildings in New Jersey and Connecticut.

The system uses technology that is installed with the existing meter, which stores usage information and then downloads that information hourly to a central server. A customer can then access the information via a secure Internet site.

The system will also e-mail or fax alerts to customers if their usage approaches a pre-determined alarm parameter, which indicates they are consuming more electricity than they should under normal circumstances.

"Customers now have the opportunity to do more than simply pay their electric bill every month, and we're very pleased to provide yet another option to reduce energy costs," said NewEnergy's' Wasilewski.

NewEnergy, formerly New Energy Ventures, is an AES Corporation company. With $10 billion in assets, AES currently owns/has an interest in 105 power facilities totaling over 31,000 megawatts in North America, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kaazakhstan, the Netherlands, Hungary and the United Kingdom. AES distributes electricity to 14 million customers and has more than $5 billion in projects in construction or late stages of development.

NewEnergy is America's largest energy service provider. Its New York headquarters services the tri-state are and upstate New York, and is currently the second largest provider, in the Con Ed marketplace.