With energy costs increasing and more regulation to comply with than ever before, energy intensive businesses are looking for new solutions to help them manage their energy use. Mark Daniels, E.ON’s Head of Corporates Marketing & Development, tells us all about their new energy management solution.
One of the concerns we regularly hear from customers is that they need help managing their energy use. Businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce energy costs and take greater control, from both a cost efficiency and environmental compliance perspective.
The ability to demonstrate responsibility within the Corporate community is becoming ever greater, driven by regulatory programmes such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), and there is potential for some businesses to make significant cost savings by changing energy consumption patterns to use less in peak cost periods.
The key to energy management is first to understand where and when your business is using energy. This can identify areas where consumption could be reduced and where control measures can be applied. Quick and easy access to information is fundamental.
Couple this with useful analytical tools and you have a powerful resource to drive more effective energy management.
In 2014 we introduced our Energy Toolkit to provide our customers with this resource. It’s a web based service with a variety of useful features and tools to enable users to monitor, analyse and control their energy use.
As well as an in-depth reporting function, the Toolkit also contains a configurable dashboard and email alert service. While reporting can identify where and when energy is being used, the dashboard can help engage staff in a company-wide energy reduction plan – presenting information in simple graphs that can be shown on a computer screen or TV monitor for public display.
The ‘buy in’ and engagement of staff can go a long way towards the achievement of energy management goals, which is why the presentation of information that can be easily understood by staff members at all levels is an important factor.
The dashboard can also be viewed on smart phones and tablet devices, enabling users to keep up to date with energy usage on the go. Email alerts can be set to let users know when energy use moves outside of usual boundaries, which can really help in managing a reduction plan and keeping it on track.
We encourage all our Energy Toolkit users to share their efficiency plans and targets with us so that we can work with them to help them achieve their goals.
Case Study:
Wabtec UK Group
- A global company supplying the world’s leading manufacturers in the railway and industrial engineering market
- Headquarters in Burton on Trent with 10 sites operating in the UK and a worldwide infrastructure
- Approximately 2,786 staff in the UK
Wabtec UK Group has been using the Energy Toolkit since November 2014. They previously used electronic billing data to monitor consumption which relied on manually created reports which took up precious time and restricted understanding of energy use.
With the new Toolkit all reports now run automatically, using pre-set templates, and bespoke reports can also be tailored to their needs.
Kiro Tamer, Wabtec UK Group Environmental & Sustainability Engineer, says: “The Toolkit enables us to review historic energy usage and download reports at a touch of button, meaning detailed data can be reviewed to assess the effectiveness of our energy usage and agreements, ensuring that we only use and pay for what we need, such as agreed electrical capacities etc.
At Wabtec UK we are committed to using technologies such as the Energy Toolkit to help us improve efficiency and set precise goals for the future.”