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The Challenge
DTE Energy faces a plethora of environmental challenges, from Title V compliance to the EPA Acid Rain Program. In addition, it is pursuing ISO 14001 certification for all of its power plants, and faces an array of data management challenges in connection with this. To address these issues, DTE Energy needed a way to track and manage data over multiple facilities and across departments without having to increase the amount of staff time spent on data management.

The Solution
In 1995, DTE Energy implemented ESP's opsEnvironmental™ software for air emissions management. It followed later with the implementation of opsEnvironmental™'s sister product, ecoAsset Manager™ for emissions portfolio management. Armed with this powerful solution, the company now efficiently manages all types of environmental data straight through from compliance to the trading floor. Benefits achieved include:

Title V Compliance Visibility. The software sends automated e-mail ticklers to staff at all 11 Title V facilities to help them stay on top of their permit-related tasks. And reports which pull in data from each of the facilities to document compliance status help ensure that corporate staff has clear visibility into Title V compliance status at each of the facilities.

Emissions Portfolio Optimization. Using opsEnvironmental™, DTE Energy prepares a monthly report that compares fuel usage data against permit limits. This report helps plant managers meet their compliance requirements, and also helps emissions traders determine how much they need to buy or sell to meet their compliance requirements. When the trades are executed, the transactions are then logged into ecoAsset Manager™. At the end of the year, the transaction records are reconciled with EPA's database. With this the cycle is complete: the software has assisted DTE Enrgy from permit limits through to emissions allowances.

ISO 14001 Compliance Tracking. DTE Energy uses the software to track and report on a variety of EHS metrics covering air, water and waste. Metrics tracked include stack emissions, NPDES discharges, TRI chemicals, and others. Data from multiple plants is efficiently gathered and stored in a central location, and reports are then easily generated.

And while the software helps DTE Energy save time and assure accuracy, perhaps one of the most important benefits is that it has encouraged staff to be proactive. "People really like the software's e-mail ticklers," says Keehn. "Recently they have been asking for more. It is so nice for me to have people come up to me and ask me for ticklers."