Glasgow company partners with America’s second largest utility firm

GLASGOW-based arbnco has partnered with US energy firm Southern Company to deploy its energy optimisation suite.

The move will aid the American firm in helping commercial customers increase energy efficiency, reduce costs and enhance occupant wellbeing.

Based in Atlanta, Southern Company’s electric operating companies serve more than 550,000 commercial customers across Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

The initiative will integrate arbnco’s commercial building performance analytics and indoor air quality performance software solutions as part of Southern Company’s focus on its commercial utility customer portfolio.

The partnership is already delivering energy analytics and improved engagement for one of the world’s busiest airports, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport. Among the first commercial customers to pilot the initiative, the airport is using arbnco’s digital tools that automate real-time energy data to simplify its energy management, identify opportunities to improve energy performance, and in turn help it expand its sustainability programme.

Two of arbnco’s solutions are being deployed as part of the partnership: arbnEnergy and arbnWell. arbnEnergy uses intelligent algorithms to analyse the smart meter data of a commercial property, providing fully costed and specific recommendations on retrofit, renewable and carbon savings.

arbnWell uses sensor technology to provide ubiquitous monitoring of the indoor environment quality. The digital platform gathers a range of data from air monitoring sensors – including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and particulate matter (PM). This is combined with data on the building and occupants to provide analysis on air quality issues, deliver alerts on potential harms and provide advice on how to mitigate them.

Jim Heath, MD of Southern Company New Ventures, said, “As part of our portfolio approach to hitting decarbonization objectives across our systems, we are improving our focus on energy efficiency and demand side management advancements.

“Our partnership with arbnco provides real value, longevity and the potential to scale over time. Commercial customers like Atlanta Airport often have more complex utility needs due to the varying building types and usages, and with arbnco’s software we’re able to customize our approach to suit more unique requirements and support our ambitious customers on their decarbonization journeys.”

Maureen Eisbrenner, CEO and co-founder of arbnco, added, “This project will ultimately deliver a deeper insight into where building systems are consuming energy on the grid to support a balanced and resilient system for all customers. arbnco’s platform delivers transparent, simple to understand, actionable recommendations empowering all employees – whether they are in the boiler room or board room – to improve building performance.”