EnerNOC says 2009 to be a growth year

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Energy efficiency company EnerNOC Inc (ENOC.O) reaffirmed its 2008 revenue outlook and said 2009 will be a growth year, as it expects to benefit from the current economic downturn, with companies across the board looking to slash costs.

"During tough economic times, a company needs to turn inwards and look for cost saving measures. And one of the undermined areas to find cost savings is in energy management," EnerNOC's Chief Executive Tim Healy told Reuters.

EnerNOC uses its technology to manage large companies' power usage and reduce their costs. The company helps utilities and grid operators curb and control peak electricity demand.

Demand response companies like EnerNOC have software that automatically adjusts an air conditioner's temperature or turns off a swimming pool pump when electricity supplies are tight. Customers are warned ahead of time about the changes with devices that broadcast signals from the utility.

"A solution like ours is by that nature attractive, as it is in line with the general prevailing attitude to look for savings," Healy said.

Healy said he still "absolutely" stood by the company's 2008 revenue view of between $101 million and $107 million, and about $19 million for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Analysts on average are looking for fourth-quarter revenue of $18.7 million, according to Reuters estimates.

"2009 is going to be another growth year for the company," Healy added. "We aren't looking to any federal stimulus to help with that growth. I have never looked forward to a year more than I'm looking forward to what we'll achieve in 2009."

He also said the seasonality of the company's business would continue, and likely escalate, in 2009.

"As a result of putting some of EnerNOC's former first and second quarter recurring revenue into the third quarter, we might see more than 50 percent of 2009 revenue achieved in the third quarter."

Between 40 percent and 45 percent of the company's 2008 revenue came in the third quarter due to the way contracts took shape, the way they entered into new regions and the way the PJM region is structured, he said.

PJM or the Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland Power Pool coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in states including Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, among others.

Healy said the company was well on track to being cash flow positive from operations in the second half of 2009 and achieving full-year earnings per share profitability in 2010.

He backed the company's view of having between 2,000 megawatts (MW) and 2,200 MW of demand response capacity under management for fiscal 2008.

A megawatt under management is a megawatt that the company can reduce with the electricity grid and for which it can start earning revenue within about a month's time.

Healy also said the company stood to benefit from the Obama administration. There was a "refreshing" amount of interesting dialogue around energy efficiency, clean energy, and actually looking and studying exactly what the challenges were to get energy efficiency more widespread, he said.

"Imagine if you have people in the federal administration saying what if we can find ways for the utilities to have some sort of a financial incentive to want to do more energy efficiency than anything in their arsenal. I think that is what is so encouraging these days."

(Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)