Dive Brief:

• Intelligent efficiency could save commercial and industrial (C&I) customers over $50 billion per year by 2020, according to a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
• The report suggests there are significant opportunities for intelligent efficiency in the C&I space as big businesses seek to reduce operating costs.
• Measuring and verifying savings will become simpler and more cost-effective through intelligent efficiency, according to the report, but structural barriers with regard to energy data protocol and in the utility industry must be resolved before full savings can be reached.

Dive Insight: 

The C&I space is well-suited for intelligent efficiency adoption. The residential market boasts comparatively small savings and C&I consumers are far more willing to implement automated efficiency to improve their bottom line. But it's not all about saving money: an earlier ACEEE report found that the U.S. could reduce its energy use by 12%-24% if intelligent efficiency reaches widespread adoption. As a result, advances like intelligent efficiency will continue to face some degree of resistance from utilities until their revenue is decoupled from electricity sales nationwide.