FS Energy Completes Massive Electric & Gas Purchasing Program

NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- FS Energy has announced the completion of an energy aggregation program that significantly reduces energy costs for over 250 buildings in New York City.  The FS Energy Aggregated Purchasing Program, which comprised of the purchase of 130 million KWH in electric load and over 600,000 Dths in natural gas load, is considered one of the largest ever completed for multi-family real estate in the city.

FS Energy leveraged the purchasing power of Cooper Square Realty, the largest residential real estate management firm in New York City, to secure rates on electricity and natural gas that will effectively reduce the average building's annual commodity costs by as much as 15 percent, depending on usage.  The program is expected to net a total annual savings of $1.5 million based on current utility commodity rates. The participating buildings are independently owned and operated, making this aggregation and the anticipated results even more impressive.

"We are very pleased to be able to offer such significant savings to Cooper Square Realty-managed properties," says Ron Merhige, COO of FS Energy. "FS Energy was founded two years ago with the goal of helping our clients reduce energy consumption, cut costs and have a positive environmental impact. Through the FS Energy Aggregated Purchasing Program, we took the initiative to identify an opportunity for our clients and secured the best rates available, delivering significant savings at no cost whatsoever to our customers," he adds.

Energy aggregation occurs when a group of customers consolidate the purchase of their energy commodities and leverage the size of the purchase to negotiate reductions in costs. Utilities such as Con Edison and National Grid do not guarantee the best rates possible for energy commodities and thus encourage customers to research and compare prices of energy service companies (ESCOs) to get the best rates.

"This energy aggregation program is the latest step we've taken to achieve our goal of reducing clients' energy consumption and costs by 25% by 2013," notes David Kuperberg, President of Cooper Square Realty. "This no-cost solution, by FS Energy, has put money directly in the pockets of our clients at a time when many buildings are being challenged financially," he concludes.  

FS Energy is a full service energy management company specializing in multi-family properties. In addition to energy aggregation and procurement, the company assists clients in creating comprehensive, state of the art energy management plans that can include oil to gas conversions, capital improvements, energy assessments, billing audits, maintenance staff education, demand management strategies and compliance checks. 

FS Energy is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (TSX: FSV; FSV.PR.U andNASDAQ: FSRV), the largest residential property manager in North America, managing more than 1.3 million homes in 5,300 communities. Cooper Square Realty, the New York City affiliate of FirstService Residential, manages more than 450 buildings throughout New York City.

For more information about FS Energy, please visit www.FSEnergyServices.com.

ABOUT FS ENERGY

Based in New York City and founded in 2009, FS Energy is the energy management and advisory subsidiary of FirstService Corporation. FS Energy is successfully reducing energy consumption and costs and increasing the asset value of FirstService managed properties through customized energy management strategies. FS Energy takes a cutting edge approach, leveraging its portfolio size and groundbreaking proprietary data collection to determine the most appropriate cost and consumption reduction initiatives. Already a leader in New York City, FS Energy is well on its way to achieving its goal of reducing energy consumption and costs by 25% across its New York City portfolio by 2013.

More information about FS Energy is available at www.fsenergyservices.com.

ABOUT FIRSTSERVICE

FirstService Corporation is a global leader in the rapidly growing real estate services sector, providing a variety of services in commercial real estate, residential property management and property services. As one of the largest property managers in the world, FirstService manages more than 2.4 billion square feet of residential and commercial properties through its three industry-leading service platforms: Colliers International, the third largest global player in commercial real estate services; FirstService Residential Management, the largest manager of residential communities in North America; and Property Services, including North America's largest provider of property preservation, maintenance and management of residential and commercial properties through franchise and contractor networks.

FirstService generates over US$2.2 billion in annual revenues and has more than 20,000 employees worldwide. More information about FirstService is available at www.firstservice.com.

COMPANY CONTACTS:

Dana Collins

FS Energy, LLC

(212) 634-5495

Esther Koo

Southard Communications

(212) 777-2220

SOURCE FS Energy