We provide a complete range of energy efficiency, energy management, energy procurement, renewable energy consulting services, and energy project development services.
Khepra Energy Group is dedicated to providing a complete range of energy efficiency, energy management, energy procurement, renewable energy consulting services, and energy project development services. We foresee many more opportunities in the future, largely due to the recent surge of stimulus monies that have been awarded to various state agencies.
Our vision is to implement solutions for energy efficiency to our clients. The result is cost savings and increased productivity from the simplification of facility management. Thus, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to provide our extensive energy experience and expertise for the betterment of our societies.
Over 14 years of energy engineering experience including the last 6 years providing energy consulting services. Energy specialization dealing with a diverse array of energy related issues including energy purchasing, electricity supply cost comparisons, and methodology development of tracking energy consumption within the Washington-Baltimore region.
Relevant experience includes:
Experience with analyzing feasibility of purchasing renewable energy, tracking electric supply cost comparisons, and management of the interface of real-time electric revenue meters with SCADA and EIS.
Performed energy engineering design reviews of programs/designs of major pumping stations, and developed facility load profiles.
Experience with analyzing energy needs at major facilities and developing strategies to efficiently and effectively manage clients’ load against PJM’s real time LMP, and financial hedge blocks and emergency situations.
Experience with analyzing electricity and natural gas demand data and assisted in implementing one of the largest electricity and natural gas procurements in the region.
Delivered energy analysis during the development and implementation of a $150M “Hybrid” Systemic Improvement/ Energy Saving Performance Contracting Program.
Wendell Rawlings thought he was living the life he wanted to live.
Just a few years after graduating from North Carolina A&T, one of the top engineering schools in the country, Rawlings had landed a comfortable job working as an energy efficiency consultant for Carnegie Morgan Resource Management. He had the engineering career he always wanted.
Then, one day in Baltimore, Rawlings got carjacked. Two teens stabbed him twice, he said. He survived, but began to wonder: "Am I doing what I should be doing?"
Rawlings -- the son of the late longtime Baltimore state delegate Howard "Pete" Rawlings -- left Carnegie Morgan and took an extended break from his career to work with nonprofit groups that work with local kids. The nonprofit effort was cathartic, and when the time came for Rawlings to return to work, he viewed his career with fresh eyes. Instead of returning to a large firm, and the 24/7 grind, he launched his own company, the Khepra Group, with an eye on making a name in the fast-growing field of energy efficiency consulting.
Khepra, launched in 2004, provides energy management, efficiency and procurement services to large organizations, government agencies and municipalities. It works with clients to reduce energy costs, and impact on the environment, in a way that also makes business sense.
The company counts the Baltimore City Public School System, Prince George's County schools and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) among its clients.
"It's about becoming more efficient and reducing costs," Rawlings said. "Organizations aren't going to say, 'We want green energy and we don't care how much it costs.' Our solutions are about finding more energy efficiency or renewable solutions that are also cost-effective solutions for that particular client and the situation they're in."
Rob Taylor, WSSC's energy manager, recently brought in Khepra Group to analyze the massive agency's energy use across all of its facilities. And Taylor said he's been pleased with the results: WSSC just picked up the option on its contract with Khepra, keeping the firm working for the commission through 2008.
"They've done work for us on electronic billing, enabling us to reduce our paperwork, eliminate billing errors, and pay our bills easier and faster," Taylor said. "They've also done things like connecting our electric meters for our data system and having it tie in to our energy information system, which is on the Web, so we can look at usage and demand."
For WSSC, that information is more than a little valuable. As one of the 10 largest water utilities in the U.S., WSSC buys about $23 million in energy each year -- much of it on an hour-to-hour basis.
With Khepra Group's counsel, WSSC has been able to cut annual energy costs by 16 percent, or roughly $1.6 million.
"We buy power in real time," Taylor said. "We're very attuned to the fact when power is priced high, we want to reduce usage. Then we can make up for it during low-priced hours." Rawlings said Khepra Group got its earliest clients, WSSC included, thanks in large part to the relationships he had built in his years with Carnegie Morgan. Now his firm is planning for growth.
Though the field is increasingly crowded, with both large energy companies such as Constellation Energy and smaller firms now offering similar services, Rawlings said he doesn't expect to be hurting for business any time soon. Energy costs, after all, aren't getting any cheaper.
"I always knew the market was big," Rawlings said. "It was just a matter of ramping up to service the market."
(from article in the Baltimore Business Journal - by Tim Hyland, November 23, 2007)
