CHICAGO, IL and WORCESTER, MA — (Marketwire) — 09/20/11 — World Energy Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: XWES), a leading energy management services firm, today announced it has helped the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (“District”) successfully procure more than 1.2 billion kWh of electricity. Through a series of competitive online auctions run on the World Energy Exchange®, the District was able to test multiple terms and products in a highly transparent and objective way, receiving over 120 bids from suppliers in a competitive format that drove down prices and netted the district and its constituents nearly $20 million in rate savings.
The District, which reclaims wastewater and provides stormwater management for a residential population and industrial flow equivalent to nearly 10 million people across an area of 883 square miles that includes the City of Chicago and 130 suburban communities throughout Cook County, turned to World Energy to help improve upon its prior paper procurement process. Along with delivering millions in savings, World Energy successfully supported the District–s unique procurement requirements, increased supplier participation by over 60% and enabled the District to award contracts within an hour of the event–s completion.
“Keeping Lake Michigan, our drinking water supply and inland waterways clean and safe for the residential and business populations of Cook County is a 24/7 mission that requires millions of dollars in annual energy expense,” said Darlene A. LoCascio, Director of Procurement and Materials Management at Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. “World Energy–s approach to energy procurement helped us lower that cost. Their process gave us access to an increased pool of suppliers, delivered valuable price transparency, and provided a real-time competitive dynamic that made suppliers work harder to win our business, resulting in a 30 percent rate reduction for the District.”
Added Phil Adams, President, World Energy Solutions: “Providing energy buyers the advantages of transacting in a transparent and highly-liquid marketplace is a hallmark of our business, and has been for the last decade. Anyone looking to understand the merits of our technology-enabled procurement process over paper-based approaches needs look no farther than the example posed by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. In one hour on our platform, the District received over 120 bids on 12 different products, positioning it to secure massive savings and quickly and cleanly close the deal.”
The successful procurement kicks off a five-year energy sourcing agreement between the District and World Energy, with a five-year option to extend.
World Energy Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: XWES) is an energy management services firm that brings together the passion, processes and technologies to take the complexity out of energy management and turn it into bottom-line impact for the businesses, institutions and governments we serve. To date, the Company has transacted more than $20 billion in energy, demand response and environmental commodities on behalf of its customers, creating more than $1 billion in value for them. World Energy is also a leader in the global carbon market, where its World Energy Exchange® supports the ground-breaking Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative–s (RGGI) cap and trade program for CO2 emissions. For more information, please visit .
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the following: our revenue and backlog are dependent on actual future energy purchases pursuant to completed procurements; the demand for our services is affected by changes in regulated prices or cyclicality or volatility in competitive market prices for energy; and there are factors outside our control that affect transaction volume in the electricity market. Additional risk factors are identified in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For additional information, contact:
Dan Mees
World Energy Solutions, Inc.
(508) 459-8156
Erika Moran
The Investor Relations Group
(212) 825-3210