Enterprise energy management is green technology similar to smart grid except on a corporate campus scale. Pushed forward by both private sector green initiatives and public sector funding, much emphasis has been placed on improving enterprise energy efficiency. While some organizations may embark on green projects with the goal of saving the environment, for most it's purely a matter of dollars and cents. Less energy use means less spending. To that end, enterprise energy management networks enable organizations to monitor and manage building systems such as lights or heating and cooling in the same way they manage IT resources--by giving them IP addresses and making them part of the enterprise LAN and WAN.

Enterprise energy management has long existed in one form or another, from simple programmable thermostats to large-scale environmental control systems. The significant shift now is in how these management solutions interoperate with the rest of the enterprise, as well as with outside utility providers. Because they are IP enabled, enterprise energy management networks allow for bi-directional communication between building facilities, enterprise network administrators and the power utility.