Energy management solutions for an Upstream Texas Oil & Gas Company

Overview

An upstream operator in the ERCOT North Zone runs a portfolio of production sites where electricity is a significant operating cost. Critical systems — pumps, compression, safety infrastructure — must stay on regardless of market conditions. Non-critical systems, including HVAC, lighting, and auxiliary equipment, have more flexibility. But without a centralized view of energy data or market pricing, the company had no mechanism to act on that flexibility.

Coincident peak charges in ERCOT are determined by a facility's load during the grid's four highest-demand hours of the year. For this operator, those charges were accumulating without any systematic effort to avoid them.
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Challenges

Three problems compounded each other. Coincident peak events drove transmission charges that added materially to the electricity bill, and without forecasting tools, the company had no reliable way to predict when those events would occur. Non-critical systems were running on fixed schedules regardless of whether power was cheap or expensive at a given hour. And energy data was fragmented across sites, making it difficult to get a clear picture of usage patterns or enroll in demand response programs that could offset costs.

"We didn't have the visibility to make proactive decisions around our electricity management" — [Operations Director, Upstream O&G Operator, Texas]

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Solution

Arcobi implemented a four-part approach covering prediction, load management, demand response, and data centralization.

1. Coincident Peak Prediction and Alerts (AI Forecasts)AI Forecasts delivered advance notice when ERCOT coincident peak conditions were likely. The operations team received alerts with enough lead time to adjust non-critical loads before the peak window opened, avoiding the transmission charge implications without last-minute scrambling.

2. Targeted Non-Critical Load SchedulingWith peak windows identified in advance, the team scheduled HVAC setpoint adjustments, lighting reductions, and deferred auxiliary equipment cycles during high-cost periods. Critical production systems were never touched. The curtailment burden fell entirely on non-essential energy draws.

3. Demand Response EnrollmentArcobi helped the operator enroll in ERCOT demand response programs, turning planned load reductions into revenue. The same curtailments that cut costs during peak events now also generated DR payments, improving the net value of each reduction event.

4. Centralized Energy Monitoring via DataHubDataHub consolidated energy data across multiple production sites into a single dashboard. For the first time, the company could see usage patterns by site and system, track performance against targets, and make energy management decisions with a full picture of their portfolio.
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Result

The company also gained capabilities they didn't have before: a real-time view across all sites, the ability to model curtailment decisions in advance, and an energy management process that runs proactively rather than after the bill arrives.‍

"We went from reacting to our energy costs to actually managing them. The alerts alone paid for themselves in the first peak season."

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Your critical operations don't have to absorb the cost of your non-critical ones. Let's map the curtailment opportunity across your site portfolio. Book a consultation with us.

Additional Use Cases

Chemical Injection Optimization: Enhanced efficiency using drag reduction agents (DRA).
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Electrification for Decarbonization: Transitioned from natural gas pumps to electric pumps, aligning with environmental goals.
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Pump Power Optimization: Improved energy efficiency in midstream operations.
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