Frequently Asked Questions
About Eneration
What is Eneration?
Eneration is a healthcare-exclusive energy management company. We help hospitals and health systems reduce energy costs by 10 to 20% within six months, with no upfront capital, no equipment financing, and no long-term contracts. Our approach was built by the same team that made Gundersen Health System the first energy-independent health system in America, saving $6 million annually and reducing emissions by 80%. We know hospitals because we came from one.
Is Eneration an ESCO?
No. Eneration is not an Energy Service Company (ESCO). ESCOs typically require long-term contracts of 10 to 20 years, complex financing structures, and equipment ownership arrangements. Eneration operates on a shared savings model with agreements capped at 30 months. We assume the performance risk. If we do not deliver savings, we do not get paid. No debt. No liens. No long-term lock-in.
How is Eneration different from retro-commissioning
Retro-commissioning identifies where a building is underperforming but typically stops at recommendations.
Eneration identifies and then implements Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) facility-wide, under short performance-aligned agreements capped at 30 months.
What is “energy as a service”?
Energy as a service means you access expert energy management, analysis, and implementation without buying equipment or hiring staff. Eneration functions as your outsourced energy performance team. We bring the engineers, the data platform, the project management, and the performance guarantees. You focus on patient care. We focus on cutting your energy costs and improving resilience.
What is Eneration's expertise?
Eneration's team brings more than 60 years of healthcare energy and operations experience. Our founders and engineers built and operated Gundersen Health System's award-winning Envision energy program, which became the national model for healthcare energy independence. Our team includes mechanical and electrical engineers, a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, a PMP-certified project manager, and healthcare operations veterans. We work exclusively in healthcare, which means every solution is designed around 24/7 operational requirements, infection control, patient safety, and the regulatory environment hospitals navigate every day.
What types of facilities does Eneration work with?
Eneration's expertise is in healthcare, and the majority of our clients are hospitals, health systems, critical access facilities, clinics, medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers, and senior living facilities. While our roots and focus are in healthcare, we are open to working with organizations outside of healthcare as well. If you are looking for a proven energy partner, we would love to have a conversation.
how we work
How does the shared savings model work?
Eneration performs the energy analysis, identifies savings opportunities, manages implementation, and gets paid only from the savings we generate.
Under our Engage program, Eneration receives 70% of the verified savings for up to 30 months. The client keeps 30% during the agreement and 100% after it ends, plus the benefit of any infrastructure improvements made during the engagement. If we do not deliver savings, we do not get paid. The risk is ours.
Do we need budget approval or capital funds to work with Eneration?
No capital required. Eneration's shared savings model eliminates upfront costs entirely. There is no equipment purchase, no financing on your balance sheet, and no budget approval needed to start. Eneration funds the work and is paid only from the savings generated.
What does no upfront cost mean exactly?
It means exactly that. Eneration funds the energy analysis, due diligence, project scoping, and implementation coordination. There is no invoice for discovery. No fee to start. No equipment purchase. No financing on your balance sheet. Eneration is paid from a percentage of the savings generated, so there is nothing to pay unless savings are delivered.
How does Eneration get paid?
Under the Engage shared savings program, Eneration receives 70% of the verified energy savings for up to 30 months. The client keeps 30% during the agreement and 100% after it ends. Eneration pays for the energy analysis, project scoping, and implementation support.
If savings are not delivered, Eneration is not paid. Under Engage Hybrid, a fixed fee is combined with a smaller savings share. For consulting engagements, Eneration is paid at an agreed hourly or fixed project rate.
What is Eneration's role in implementation? How much does this require from our team?
Eneration leads the engagement end-to-end, including energy analysis, project scoping, vendor coordination, and performance tracking. Your team provides access and approvals. We do not require a dedicated internal energy manager or a project team on your side. Our goal is to minimize the burden on your staff while maximizing results.
How quickly do facilities see savings?
Most Eneration clients begin seeing measurable savings within six months of engagement start. The process follows five stages: Energy Performance Analysis, Due Diligence for Success, Discover & Deploy by month three and complete execution and by month six. Benefits beginning at month seven and beyond.
Eneration offers programs designed for every stage of a healthcare organization's energy journey:EngageEngage HybridGeneral ConsultingEnstructSolar Optimization
our services
What is Engage?
Engage is Eneration's flagship no-cost energy management program for existing healthcare facilities. Eneration leads a five-stage process: Energy Performance Analysis, Due Diligence for Success, On-Site Energy Discovery at month three, Execute Projects at month six, and verified Benefits beginning at month seven. Eneration is paid 70% of savings for up to 30 months. The client keeps 30% during the agreement and 100% indefinitely after. No upfront cost, no equipment financing, no long-term contracts. If savings are not delivered, Eneration is not paid.
What is Engage Hybrid?
Engage Hybrid is designed for healthcare organizations that are already planning capital investment in energy infrastructure. It combines a fixed fee with a smaller percentage of shared savings over 30 months. Clients get Eneration's full program management and engineering expertise applied to projects they are already funding, with the added accountability of a performance-based component.
What is Enstruct?
Enstruct is Eneration's new construction and major renovation program. It integrates energy expertise across the full building lifecycle through four modular components: Plan, Design, Construct, and Occupy. You do not have to engage all four. Depending on where your project stands, Eneration can step in at any phase. The earlier Eneration is involved, the greater the opportunity to reduce building lifecycle costs and influence energy performance. At the Occupy stage, Eneration operates under a shared savings model. Services are scoped and priced modularly so you only pay for what you need.
What is general consulting?
Eneration's general consulting offering is a flexible, energy optimization and program management partnership. A dedicated Eneration program manager works alongside your organization to deliver continuous improvement and sustained energy performance across your facilities. This includes energy dashboards and performance tracking, project backlog development and business cases, RFP and contract support, and ongoing measurement and reporting. For organizations that need project-specific support, consulting can also be scoped as a standalone engagement at an hourly or fixed rate. Scope and pricing are always modular. There is no minimum engagement size and no performance agreement required.
What is Solar Optimization?
Solar Optimization is Eneration's three-phase independent solar advisory program for healthcare organizations evaluating, planning, or managing solar investments. Phase 1 covers project feasibility, energy modeling, and business case development. Phase 2 covers RFP management, bid analysis, and vendor recommendations. Phase 3 covers contract advisory, construction oversight, and post-implementation validation. Like Enstruct, the program is flexible. Eneration can support your entire solar project or just the phases where you need help. With more than 20 healthcare solar projects completed and no equipment to sell, our guidance is always independent and always in your interest.
technology & methodology
Do you have an energy monitoring platform?
Yes. EnView is Eneration's cloud-based energy monitoring and analytics platform. Clients connect utility data and building systems to get a unified dashboard of energy consumption, cost trends, and performance against baseline. Eneration analysts monitor the data and flag anomalies, so you are not managing dashboards internally. EnView is included as part of Eneration's managed service.
What is weather normalization? How do you calendarize data?
Energy use varies with weather, so raw consumption data alone does not tell you whether your facility improved or just had a mild winter. Weather normalization adjusts your energy data to account for heating and cooling degree days, giving you an apples-to-apples comparison across time periods and seasons. Calendarization aligns utility billing periods, which rarely match calendar months exactly, to standard calendar months so data can be compared consistently. Both are standard steps in Eneration's baseline and savings verification methodology.
How do you establish a baseline?
Eneration establishes an energy performance baseline using 12 to 24 months of historical utility data, normalized for weather, occupancy, and operational factors specific to your facility. This baseline becomes the benchmark against which all savings are measured and verified. The baseline methodology is agreed upon with the client before any performance agreement is executed, so there are no surprises in how savings are calculated.