What Businesses Should Look At When Improving Their Energy Management Strategy

As climate change has brought a focus on consumption and emissions, businesses have started to realise that it’s not only the environment that benefits, their bottom line does too. There have been a variety of trends to come and go but renewables, good energy management and sustainability/energy strategies seem to be here for the long-term due to proven success.

Even though there is a lot of pressure on business with regulations being introduced as well as plenty of opportunity with grants, businesses often don’t know where to start with planning an outline or improving their energy management strategy. We can sympathise as the topic is so broad, that’s why we have put together a few points that are a good place to start.

Due to the implications and potential fines involved, looking at the legal requirements and constantly changing legislation is a good place to start. This will unfortunately take a bit of research on a case by case basis as different rules apply to different sectors and the size of companies also comes into account.

One key point to look out for is if you are required to report on your energy consumption and efficiency s certain companies are required to, just like you are required to submit VAT. It is worthwhile looking into Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting and the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme amongst others for further information and clarity to what applies to you.

The UK has a legally binding target to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 and it is thought that businesses account for 50% of the current total, so you can expect restrictions and the focus to only intensify over the coming months and years.

Different parts of the country may have different opportunities. For example, in the North of the UK there are typically more wind farms and therefore access to this as a renewable energy supply, whereas down in the South there are more options for solar power. Even though the majority of energy is supplied by the major energy companies, there could be options to build relationships with independents who focus on these kinds of renewables.

The same logic applies to looking at creating your own energy to offset or replace your current usage. Access to this kind of equipment is getting easier and easier, so keep it in mind when creating your strategy.

There’s a choice when it comes to energy providers/tariffs and the features you install along with an energy management system. The best thing you can do is weigh up those options, see if you can get a cheaper energy tariff whilst also choosing a provider that either uses renewables or offsets the usage.

With an energy management system, even the basic system will significantly cut your energy consumption, the Pilot Group EMS averages a saving of 40% for customers and certain case studies have even exceeded 50%. There also comes the option to integrate the management of lighting and air conditioning which if scheduled and managed correctly can then save even more. To decide on what you require comes back to your data and where your larger outgoings are, if it’s heating then looking into an EMS could be invaluable, if it’s electricity then lighting or employee buy-in should be a focus and so on.