Schneider Electric’s acquisition of Summit Energy, one of our biggest competitors, is dominating the news early this week – and it should. Summit’s $268 million price tag – which is more than 4 times revenue – is good news for fellow energy procurement firms like World Energy Solutions and highlights the ongoing hunger of the big ESCOs – or as Michael Kanellos of Greentech Media calls them, “the four horsemen of the smart grid” – to broaden their energy management capabilities with investments in best of breed players.

The acquisition also signals a growing realization that energy procurement, one of the last bastions of paper-based brokerage, is serious business and ripe for a change. While renewables and energy efficiency initiatives continue to dominate the overall energy conversation, who would willingly turn down the opportunity to save 7-10% on their energy costs through more effective commodity procurement?

If you answered, “No one,” I agree. But the numbers tell a different story, with less than 10 percent of energy buyers availing themselves of online procurement methodologies to purchase electricity, natural gas and renewables, or to source demand response. That means billions of dollars lost for C&I, institutional and government energy buyers.

With Schneider’s acquisition helping put energy procurement in the headlines for at least a day, here’s to more customers putting the power of the Internet to work for them when they buy energy, availing themselves of the same processes and technologies energy suppliers themselves use and leveling the playing field so they can make informed buying decisions.