E.ON announced it has teamed up with US energy intelligence company FirstFuel, to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) benefit from energy saving tools which are usually only available to larger industrial and commercial businesses.
E.ON’s SME customers will be able to access its Energy Toolkit free of charge. It is hope thousands of small and medium-sized manufacturers could benefit from increased insight into how to better manage their energy use and where potential energy savings could be made.
The new Energy Toolkit offers information tailored to a business’s needs. The tool gives customers insight into their energy consumption, allowing them to monitor buildings and audit their activities before implementing changes. It is being trialled by around 20,000 E.ON customers before being offered to hundreds of thousands more from early 2015.
Anthony Ainsworth, business energy director at E.ON, said: “we’ve taken care to listen to our customers. What they want from their energy supplier is help in making sure they use, and therefore pay for, no more energy than they need.
“In particular, our small and medium-sized business customers want to be able to cut through the confusion and find solutions for their business which are centred on real data, allowing them to understand, compare and control their energy use.
“By introducing FirstFuel’s software into our Energy Toolkit-we’ll be offering advice and tools based around their own circumstances and giving them benefits usually only seen by larger companies.”
Firstfuel is based in Boston and has clients in the US including the Department of Defense and the U.S. Government. Its analytics platform has helped US businesses identify average savings of 15% on their energy bills, with approximately 50% identified as operational.
Swap Shah, CEO of FirstFuel, added: “We’re excited to work with E.ON to bring in energy intelligence and help continue as the energy advisor to its customers. Our focus is not only on bringing advanced analytics to bear for our clients, but also ensuring that we’re giving those organisations tools that drive outcomes in energy efficiency.”
The Energy Toolkit gives customers their own analysis conducted for each building, complete with an online portal showing energy consumption and costs.
As well as this it uses customer information, like electricity consumption data and addresses – and also takes on board local weather patterns, building data -to identify energy use patterns and calculate where and how the business can cut its energy use.
Anthony Aisnworth added: “Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t own their properties but that doesn’t mean they can’t take action to reduce their energy costs; our Energy Toolkit provides advice on where savings can be made without the need for major investment in the building itself.”
