General Mills focuses on energy savings

General Mills has chosen EnerNOC as its preferred partner for demand response. The company has added its West Chicago facility to EnerNOC's demand response network.

General Mills, a manufacturer and marketer of consumer food products, has chosen to work with EnerNOC to help prevent brownouts and blackouts in the West Chicago area.

This will be done by reducing demand on the electricity grid by as much as five megawatts -- the equivalent of roughly 2,500 households -- when called upon by EnerNOC. In exchange, EnerNOC rewards General Mills with periodic payments.

The company decided to go ahead with this initiative to bolster its sustainability efforts and practices.

"We feel that demand response is something that's good for our business, our community and the nation at large," said General Mills' spokesperson Jim DeLaPena.

Tim Healy, chairman and CEO of EnerNOC said energy conservation at the community-level, whether by individuals, small businesses, or large organisations like General Mills, can powerfully impact how electricity is managed and used.

"Demand response is an opportunity for businesses to do something that is positive for the environment and actually generates money for them, without the need to lay out capital," said Healy.

The company uses its Network Operations Center, or NOC, to remotely manage and reduce electricity consumption across a network of commercial, institutional, and industrial customer sites and make demand response capacity and energy available to grid operators and utilities on demand.