World Energy Makes Bold Smart Grid Debut, Launches Auction-Based Exchange for Demand Response

World DR Exchange(TM) Creates First Online Marketplace for Demand Response, Helps Customers Maximize Share of Curtailment Revenues

WORCESTER, MA, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - World Energy Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: XWES; TSX: XWE), an operator of online exchanges for energy and green commodities, today unveiled the World DR Exchange(TM), a new auction platform that changes the economic and competitive dynamics of the multi-billion dollar demand response (DR) market. The World DR Exchange creates the industry's first online marketplace for demand response, enabling customers to source DR more efficiently and effectively. With World Energy, companies now can engage curtailment service providers (CSPs) in highly-structured auction events designed to yield price transparency, heighten competition, and maximize their share of demand response revenues.

"Just as we have done for energy procurement in deregulated markets, World Energy is now doing for demand response - creating an efficient, transparent and liquid marketplace that benefits customers and suppliers alike," said Richard Domaleski, CEO of World Energy. "For customers, The World DR Exchange answers the key question, 'what is the market value of my curtailable load?' - netting them more DR dollars in the process. For CSPs, it addresses the high cost of customer acquisition, providing a low-cost channel to qualified customers."

Demand response is one of energy technology's highest growth sectors, with Barclays Capital estimating the market could grow to $20 billion annually by 2020. In demand response, CSPs work with customers to curtail energy usage during times of peak demand, providing a valuable service to grid operators, one that can prevent blackouts and reduce the need for building new power plants. In return for this service, operators pay a set price per megawatt to CSPs, who in turn pass on a portion of this payment to their customers. For companies looking to keep more of their curtailment proceeds, the World DR Exchange offers a compelling new way to engage the CSP community.

"In a tight economy like this one, maximizing our demand response revenue was very important to us as a government utility, and World Energy delivered," said Doug Jackson, P.E., Director of Operations and Maintenance at the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN).

Added Tony DeFilippo, President of Chrislynn Energy Services, Inc., an energy consultancy with commercial and industrial customers in Pennsylvania and other PJM markets and ALCOSAN's advisor in this process: "World Energy understands demand response and made the process of sourcing a provider easy and, ultimately, more financially beneficial for our client. World Energy brought together the top-tier CSPs ALCOSAN wanted - and others hungry for their business - in an online auction event that fueled intense competition and delivered a clear winner. Simply put, the World DR Exchange helped ALCOSAN get more, a lot more, for its demand response."

Another satisfied customer, John Metzger, CFO of Gerber's Poultry, Inc., commented: "A month or so ago, we didn't know much about demand response, but today, thanks to a prior investment we had made in back-up generation, a recent seminar on the topic, and our work with World Energy, we have over $100,000 in new DR revenue coming back to our facility. This was a new process for us, and World Energy made it easy, bringing together several providers to bid for our business in a nicely structured online event.

"We found watching the auction unfold very exciting: there wasn't much bidding activity at first, but as the end point of the auction drew near, the bids were flying, driving up our overall share of revenue. World Energy provides an excellent process for sourcing DR, one that really drives competition and benefits the customer."

How It Works

World Energy is an expert in auctioning energy and environmental commodities. The firm has run over 14,000 successful pricing events on its award-winning exchanges, The World Energy Exchange(R) and The World Green Exchange(R). The World DR Exchange(TM) builds on this lineage, delivering a state of the art system and process for auctioning demand response.

The DR auction process mirrors that of World Energy's energy transactions. World Energy consults with its clients, develops and markets their RFPs to the CSP community, runs the online auction - typically a series of auctions testing various terms - and, upon selection by the customer, awards the winning contract. On the World DR Exchange, CSPs bid against each other in real-time "forward auctions," driving up the percent of DR revenue the winner will share with the customer. World Energy offers its services on a performance basis with its fees paid by the winning CSP.

"As former COO of PJM, the country's largest active demand response market, I saw firsthand the benefits DR provides to wholesale competitive markets," said Audrey Zibelman, President and CEO of Viridity Energy, Inc., a smart grid technology firm and participant in the demand response auction events that specializes in the development of virtual power generation. "World Energy provides an easy entry point for businesses into these competitive wholesale markets. The future smart grid supports deep and broad participation in these markets, which will in turn promote greater efficiencies along with greater market penetration for clean, distributed energy resources - a vision shared by both Viridity and World Energy."

For more information on World Energy and the World DR Exchange, including a video with Company President, Phil Adams, please see: www.worldenergy.com/dr.

About World Energy Solutions, Inc.

World Energy (NASDAQ: XWES; TSX: XWE) operates online exchanges for energy and green commodities. For buyers and sellers of electricity, natural gas, capacity, demand response, and green-energy assets, World Energy's proven approach has transformed the normally complex procurement process into a powerful, streamlined vehicle for cost savings. In addition to enabling customers to seek competitive pricing on traditional energy commodities, World Energy is taking a leadership position in the emerging environmental-commodities markets. Its award-winning World Green Exchange(R) supports the ground-breaking Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's (RGGI) cap and trade program for CO2 emissions. For more information, please visit www.worldenergy.com.

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: our revenue is 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; there are factors outside our control that affect transaction volume in the electricity market; and there are other factors identified in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE World Energy Solutions, Inc.