Northern Resources offers a range of services to identify cost-effective opportunities to reduce operating costs, and successfully implement these opportunities including:
Energy Management for Merger, Acquisition and Divestiture
Energy and Environmental Management Services for Merger, Acquisition and Divestiture
As corporate and private equity investment groups evaluate merger and acquisition (M&A) candidates, the greatest threat to a successful transaction, a profitable venture or a clean exit is an expensive and uncontrolled energy and environmental management infrastructure. The experts at Northern Resources can launch an “energy hunt” to root out and tame your firm’s energy supply and demand assets as well as optimize your annual operational energy costs – thus contributing to your venture’s overall success. We are the M&A energy and environment management leaders specializing in transactions and ventures for middle market industrial products, distribution, consumer products, financial services and commercial real estate firms.
M&A Due Diligence
Engage Northern Resources to candidly evaluate and critique the energy and environmental management infrastructure of your acquisition target or merger partner with our M&A Due Diligence Program. Our experts have deep experience in the dynamics and nuance of commercial office buildings, distribution centers, manufacturing operations, retail stores, branch banks, and commercial real estate. With our energy management data collection and analytics platform as well as with on-site inspections and evaluations, Northern Resources can produce a detailed written evaluation and a financial profile of the operating costs and fair market value of your energy and environmental management infrastructure thus providing greater certainty to the transaction’s valuation. Our experts can produce a “value and growth” plan so that your firm can realize capital project and operating expense savings through the life cycle of your investment.
M&A Value and Growth
The success of any business depends upon the continuous delivery of value and growth. With Northern Resource’s M&A Value and Growth Program, you can have greater confidence of achieving your venture’s on-going expenditure and exit targets. Northern Resources will build a “value and growth” plan using actual spending data for your venture down to the most pragmatic level of granularity.
M&A Quick Wins
Problems found during due diligence? Need to resolve a nagging issue before the closing? If so, the Northern Resources M&A Quick Wins Program is just for you. Northern Resources can provide your firm with a rapid response and on-demand expertise to clear up any inconsistencies encountered with your target firm’s – or your firm’s — energy and environmental management infrastructure.
Independent Development and Evaluation of Performance Contracts
A performance contract is an agreement between an Energy Services Company (ESCO) and a facility owner in which the ESCO engineers and implements facility improvements. The owner agrees to finance the project (operational lease, bonds or straight finance) and the owner agrees to pay the ESCO’s project implementation costs and the ESCO guarantees the savings over the agreed upon term. The project implementation cost could be as much as 60% more than a client directed design to build procurement structure.
The ESCO guarantees the owner a minimum level of energy savings from energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits and helps the owner secure financing based on that guarantee. Over the contract period, typically five (5) to fifteen (15) years, savings from reduced utility bills are used to pay for the capital investment in the equipment, the installation as well as related financing expenses.. After the term of the contract, the facility owner retains 100 percent of the savings to use at its discretion. Owners of diverse facility types, including schools, hospitals, and manufacturing and government entities, have successfully used performance contracting as a low-cost, low-risk way to improve facilities.
As the Owner’s Representative, we monitor and coordinate all aspects of the performance contract from development of the project plan and , initial bid through project completion.
As Professional Engineers we serve our clients as their representative agent to assist in evaluation of their performance contracts. We inform and advise our clients of specific practices and technologies over the wide range of energy conservation products and strategies.
Northern independently verifies calculated energy savings, methods of energy savings and life cycle economics including cash effective energy conservation measures and the economic benefit to our client of financing their own projects. In addition, Northern Resources can independently measure and verify the results of a performance contact implemented by others, using its Web-based energy information solutions.
We also review proposed contracts to identify terms and conditions that may not be in the best interests of our clients. As owner’s representatives, Northern begins by examining all of your facilities to better understand the nature of your energy use. We develop a company-wide plan to address energy supply and management at each facility. We then provide timely and valuable information and innovative solutions through our proprietary, web enabled energy tracking cost, usage and production tracking tools.
We represent owners on energy performance contract projects that involve a wide array of technologies and applications, including lighting, heating, venting, air conditioning, energy management systems, motors, heat exchangers, windows and roofs, and boilers and chillers water systems.
We are professionals experienced at energy efficiency, and we excel at developing, designing and delivering energy solutions. The cornerstone of our process involves taking the time to understand our customers’ operations so we can engineer with the right solution – one that gives our customers greater control, lower costs and enhances their working environments.
Facility Energy Check-Up
The Facility Energy Check-Up is a high-level energy audit that identifies potential areas for both supply-side and demand-side savings. The Facility Energy Check-Up is performed remotely by gathering data from meters, invoices, utilities, and customer interviews. The information is then used to identify savings opportunities and define a service proposal for the customer.
Customer Challenges:
- Does not have a strategic energy management plan.
- Have budget constraints or cost reduction goals but do not know how best to deliver them.
- Do not know how to integrate their supply-side and demand-side energy strategies so that they complement each other and provide the greatest amount of savings.
- Do not immediately see the value of energy services when offered piecemeal without regard to the overall energy strategy.
A customer has high energy bills and wants to see if we can do anything to reduce them. There is no money budgeted and the customer doesn’t want to perform a full audit without preliminary feedback. Northern performs a Facility Energy Check-Up and identifies potential savings with basic re-commissioning recommendations.
The Energy Check-Up gives the client an overview of their energy portfolio in one or several facilities and identifies specific energy services that Northern can implement to help them meet their cost-reduction goals. In some cases, this information will be used by the customer to develop an overall energy strategy. Either way, the Energy Check-Up identifies areas of opportunities for energy cost savings and/or efficiency improvements in the customer’s facility for both supply-side and demand-side energy management.
Database development services
Northern develops web applications solutions to facilitate understanding and improve the usefulness of utility usage and cost data, production and environmental data.
Energy Tracking – Northern develops database tools for energy tracking to gauge the effectiveness of energy conservation programs. Our web enable energy tracking application is designed to simplify day-to-day data entry and reporting.
Energy Demand Management – Northern develops customized databases to support effective facility and plant management. Our web enabled tracking application helps organizations:
- Consolidate and document energy audit data
- Track equipment
- Track energy conservation project corporate wide
- Manage mechanical, electrical, piping and technology (MEP-T) replacement projects
- Upgrade of building and plant energy systems.
Preliminary Facility and Process Energy Audits
Northern provides a comprehensive suite of energy management services to maximize the performance of your energy supply and demand assets and to optimize your energy operating costs. Our facility and process audit services suite includes:
- Building energy surveys assessment
- Utility rate analysis
- Contract billing audits, identification and recovery of improper billing charges
- Baseline energy audits
- Shared saving verification
- Computer modeling, Lifecycle cost analysis
- Identification of energy conservation measures (ECM)
- Measurement and Verification, Saving and Cost analysis of energy conservation measures
Northern’s team of Professional Engineers and technicians include many who specialize in the fields of energy engineering analysis, mechanical, electrical, piping and technology (MEPT) design, finance and construction. They also have experience with the many complex issues surrounding performance contracting. We also help clients to successfully navigate through the performance contracting process by managing the selection of a suitable Energy Services Company (ESCO) and providing project-management services during the construction and commissioning phases of work.
We provide you with objective and transparent results with online energy tracking tools that you can use to monitor progress and analyze energy use and cost.
How we can help
- Gas and Electric Overview Tariff and Rate Analysis
- Green Power Purchasing for LEED Credits
- Calculate the true cost of a KW Call option for demand response
- Peak kW analysis including: load analysis plug load, computers, onsite generation
- Demand response energy management technology to reach energy efficiency goals
- Small-Scale energy projects, including lighting retrofits, equipment replacements, VFD controls Controls Optimization, including Start/Stop, Schedules, Sequencing Equipment Starts, Resets, Pre-cooling
- Utility Program Overview, including rebate opportunities, Demand Response, Time of Use Rates
- Energy Savings Performance Contracting
- Government or Utility Incentive Programs
- LEED mandates by state and local agencies that may affect decision process and Priorities
- Utility Bill Management or Metering with Energy Report Analysis
- Onsite Awareness Program for Behavioral Changes
- Energy Star Benchmarking and Certification