Constellation and Novar Energy Management Technology Gives Retailers Nationwide Access to Automated Load Response

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Constellation, a business unit of Exelon, today announced that Constellation’s VirtuWatt™ Link web services application is now available with the Opus Building Automation System (BAS) by Novar, a Honeywell business unit and leading provider of multi-site energy management solutions.

“This offering allows retailers to incorporate load response as part of an enterprise-level energy management strategy without incurring a large, upfront capital expense or compromising business operations.”

The combined solution gives retailers the ability to automate and expand load response participation across multiple sites and regions through real-time electricity pricing, centralized management of building control systems and revenue-grade metering capabilities for programs requiring quick response times. Novar retail customers who participate in Constellation load response programs also have the option of applying the revenue they earn for controls and metering upgrades at additional locations.

“Retailers face unique challenges when it comes to managing energy use for distributed sites,” said Gary Fromer, senior vice president, energy management programs, Constellation. “This offering allows retailers to incorporate load response as part of an enterprise-level energy management strategy without incurring a large, upfront capital expense or compromising business operations.”

Constellation’s VirtuWatt Link web service facilitates automated load response participation by connecting with a building’s existing controls infrastructure. The application provides access to real-time price signals and grid information, load response event notification and meter usage data. Together with Novar’s Opus BAS and meter, VirtuWatt Link allows retailers to achieve the response times and level of automation performance necessary to participate in capacity, energy or quick-response economic load response programs nationwide.

“As a leader in multi-site control, monitoring and energy management, Novar is committed to finding new ways of helping our customers meet their energy budget, efficiency and sustainability goals,” said Dean Lindstrom, president of Novar. “With Constellation, Novar customers have access to an off-the-shelf solution for load response participation with the standardization and automation necessary to better manage their overall energy use. We can also help customers prioritize the implementation process by comparing which load response programs have the highest returns against which stores have the most costly energy footprint.”

Novar’s Opus Building Automation System helps national account operators with hundreds or thousands of facilities by providing a way of monitoring, controlling and managing how energy is consumed across their portfolio of sites – whether they are self-managing from their own corporate headquarters, or engaging Novar to manage them from the Novar Operations Center (NOC). Customers use Opus to simultaneously manage heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and refrigeration control, enforce corporate standards, and take advantage of financial incentives offered as part of Smart Grid utility programs that require the business to reduce electricity consumption on demand.

VirtuWatt Link is an extension of Constellation's VirtuWatt™ energy management platform. VirtuWatt Link can be integrated to any energy management or controls system that utilizes web services. Its architecture is designed to seamlessly handle demand response market signals and energy data from utilities and independent system operators, and is built to accommodate developing demand response protocol standards, such as OpenADR 2.0. Constellation commercial customers interested in more information may contact loadresponsetechnicalsales@constellation.com.

About Constellation

The Constellation family of retail electricity and natural gas suppliers (www.constellation.com), are subsidiaries of Exelon Corp., and are leading competitive retail suppliers of power, natural gas and energy products and services for homes and businesses across the continental United States. Constellation’s retail businesses serve more than 100,000 business and public sector customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100, and nearly one million residential customers.

Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) is the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with 2012 revenues of approximately $23.5 billion. Headquartered in Chicago, Exelon has operations and business activities in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Exelon is one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with approximately 35,000 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to approximately 100,000 business and public sector customers and approximately 1 million residential customers. Exelon’s utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to more than 6.6 million customers in central Maryland (BGE), northern Illinois (ComEd) and southeastern Pennsylvania (PECO).