What does your day to day look like at Bright Power?
My day-to-day work focuses on both compliance and energy audit-related analysis. For compliance, I assist clients by completing Local Law 84 (LL84) submissions and gaining insights from their EnergyScoreCards subscriptions. This includes everything from answering energy usage questions to ensuring that utility count data is up to date. Another part of my day to day is helping clients understand Local Law 97 (LL97) emissions and how their buildings are performing.
For energy audits, I create EnergyScoreCards for properties undergoing an audit, then collect building and utility information, and collaborate with the project team to verify that usage data is accurate. I also partner with our Energy Audits team to provide customized recommendations based on the analysis to help our clients improve their buildings’ performance.
What led you to your role at Bright Power?
After earning a degree in Chemical Engineering, I completed an internship with an engineering firm in NYC, specifically working on their audit team. Through this work, I learned that I really enjoyed the analysis and modeling aspects of the job. I enjoy investigating anomalies in usage and analyzing building performance. It feels like solving a puzzle, and I enjoyed being the go-to person for solving these data-related questions, which ultimately led me to my current role as an Energy Analyst at Bright Power.
Can you tell us about a recent project that you enjoyed being a part of?
The success stories I enjoy most are when we find unexpected savings for our clients.
One recent project that stands out is finding anomalies in client data that led to uncovering significant savings. In this case, while completing LL84 submissions, we found unexpectedly high energy usage and a low score for a newer building that was expected to perform efficiently. With further investigation, we were able to discover that the client was being billed for utilities in another space of the building, which should have been billed separately. We recommended installing submeters to track individual usage more accurately going forward. If our analysis had not found issues in the data, the client would most likely have continued overpaying for utilities.
I also really appreciate being able to build long-term client relationships and report on realized energy savings. After conducting a post-occupancy review and delivering a report with recommendations in February 2023, one of our clients implemented eight energy conservation measures (ECMs). Our follow-up report, showing data from March 2023 to now, demonstrated an 8% decrease in overall energy use and a 4% decrease in emissions. This improvement was significant, especially since the client, a shelter, covers all utility costs.
This experience reinforced the importance of thorough data analysis. It also highlighted how crucial it is to dig deeper into data to uncover underlying issues that might not be immediately apparent. Moving forward, I’m more committed to ensuring that every piece of data is scrutinized and that we provide actionable recommendations to our clients. It’s gratifying to see that our recommendations lead to tangible improvements in energy efficiency and cost savings.
What do you enjoy doing outside of Bright Power?
I love going out for Italian food and watching reality TV. I’m also catching up on the Sopranos.