(Credit: Schneider Electric)
GreenStruxure and energy advisor TruEnergy are teaming up to help US building owners and operators find what they call “cost-effective, resilient and sustainable energy solutions.” TruEnergy will help accelerate the deployment of GreenStruxure’s energy-as-a-service (EaaS) business model, focusing on the medium-sized commercial and industrial building market across the US. The companies say they provide the “energy outcomes customers need with no upfront capital or operational costs.”
GreenStruxure is a joint venture between Schneider Electric and Huck Capital, launched in 2020, that offers modular, standardized renewable energy microgrids under an EaaS model. Customers have no upfront capital expenses and no risk, and they do not have to worry about operation or maintenance issues, the company says.
The growing installation of distributed electricity generation and storage technologies, along with the widespread availability of “smart” devices, has created room for new business models to emerge in the power sector in recent years, including the energy-as-a-service model. EaaS is a business model whereby a service provider offers various energy-related services rather than only supplying electricity. Energy service providers can bundle energy advice, asset installation, financing and energy management solutions to offer a suite of services to the end consumers, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
“The current role of conventional electricity retailers is changing to one of energy services companies for all types of consumer. ESPs in large economies such as Australia, China, Europe and the United States are investing in smart grid and smart metering systems,” IRENA wrote in 2020.
Commercial and industrial energy customers increasingly want to take control of their energy in order to keep costs low and predictable, to ensure they have power at critical times, and to minimize their carbon footprint, but it can be complicated in today’s energy environment. TruEnergy says the partnership allows the companies to “make this complex thing very easy.”