The following is a guest blog post by Scott Ungerer, Founder & Managing Director of EnerTech Capital and a board member of Tangent Energy Solutions. Last week Tangent Energy, a Distributed Energy Resource (DER) company in the EnerTech investment portfolio, made some pretty big news. Tangent and Cummins, Inc., a global power leader, announced a joint venture to promote edgeGEN™, a line of Cummins natural gas generators equipped with Tangent AMP™, a proprietary Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS). This joint venture is a major accomplishment for Tangent. As a worldwide leader in engine manufacturing, Cummins had a wide […]
Believe
One of the biggest influencers and mentors throughout my career was Tom Musser. This past week we lost Tom to cancer, and while I did get a chance to say thank you and goodbye, it just did not feel like an adequate way to show my appreciation. Tom was my uncle and the owner of Tri-M Group LLC, one of the largest electrical contractors and solutions companies in the mid-Atlantic. In the early days, a significant number of employees were family members, me being one of them, however, Tom never ran the company as a family business. He believed that […]
What I Learned While Teaching
Last winter, Dave Turner and I were privileged to be asked to help create and teach a course on “clean energy entrepreneurship” at Drexel University. I approached the class with the mindset that I was there to teach students the ins and outs of business start-ups and new energy sources, but I soon discovered that I was there to learn as well. The experience gave me a renewed appreciation for just how intelligent, engaged and well prepared these students were about energy and entrepreneurship. I am not sure I am skilled enough to communicate all of the benefits I took […]
Rock is dead they say, long live rock…
I was reminded of this lyric by The Who a couple of weeks ago when events in the news caused many in the energy industry to proclaim that Demand Response was dead. Far from it, I believe! The missionary work that EnerNoc, Enerwise and ECS did in the early years of DR created empowered C&I energy users. The flexibility customers practiced in their energy consumption (with guidance from the market creators above) created Demand Reponse as a customer value proposition; not a regulatory program. The regulatory programs were developed as a byproduct that enabled DR providers to monetize the new […]
Women Engineers are Vital to Energy Industry Growth
Like any company in growth mode, we are constantly on the hunt for new employees with the skills needed to meet the technical and operational needs of our customers. Recently, we added two very talented, engineers who have done an excellent job utilizing our technology to help energy customers save money. Both are recent graduates of the University of Vermont and want to learn the energy industry and participate in the development of distributed alternative energy assets. And one other thing, both are women. While this may not be as much of a revelation as it was a decade ago, […]
Same Story, New Website
Today we launched a new website for Tangent. The new site provides a great snapshot of our current product offerings which are Tangent AMP™, Demand Design™ and Demand Design PLUS™, but it also reflects the latest phase of our unwavering mission to support the enhanced role that customers play in the energy value chain. Yes the site is new, but our underlying belief that customer resources are an integral part of the energy grid goes back a long, long way. My indoctrination to the energy grid began at an early age. During road trips with my father, he would point […]
“Smart” is in the eye of the beholder
Suddenly, its not just the energy grid. Everything has to be smart. Everything you ask? Just for fun I entered random words along with “smart” into a Google search: Smart cameras? Yes. Smart glasses? Yes thanks to Google. Smart forks? Check. Smart fishing lures? They change color based on water conditions (I may actually look into this further)! Is there anything left that is not smart? Well, according to an article I reference in a presentation I make to analysts and investors, buildings are not smart. Granted, the article which is titled “Whats the Use of Having a Smart Grid Connected to Dumb Buildings?“ […]
Happy “World Facility Management Day”
June 27 is World Facility Management Day! According to this website World Facility Management Day “… aims at raising the profile of the facilities management profession on a global scale.” Personally, I cannot think of a more deserving group of people to be recognized with their own day. As a group, facility managers are responsible for the central nervous system of this countrys commercial, industrial and institutional businesses. In addition to their traditional role of safe, efficient and economical operation of plant and equipment, they are increasingly becoming the corporate sustainability champions. As one of the few energy services companies that approaches smart […]
Customers are the “Killer App”
More than any single category segment or technology, the economic future of the energy industry will be determined by the elevation of energy customers from mere consumers at the end of the value chain to active participants in the value chain. The ability of established industry participants like utilities, generators and commodity providers to manage this transition will determine the winners and losers in the industry. If you question the impact of customers, this recent Smart Grid News item should remove any doubt. It is titled Utilities: What Walmart’s power plans say about your future (it’s scary!). In my opinion, […]
Bucket Trucks, the Boss and the Jersey Shore
I like long car trips especially when I am alone. The rhythm of the road and solitude allow unrelated thoughts, memories, and roadside sights to blend together into cohesive moments of clarity. Sometimes this state of mind results in new insights and other times, a greater appreciation of things I already knew. On Saturday I drove to upstate New York to watch my daughter compete in one of her last collegiate swim meets. As I made my way north I slipped into my traveling mindset and let the connections flow. Driving through New Jersey just days after hurricane Sandy, I […]
