Category: Insights

Reducing recurring costs is becoming a priority for most businesses in today’s competitive environment. EMIS Solutions come in handy to support business owners reduce energy costs. With Sustainability and Digital Transformation being a rising topic in all corporate strategies, Energy Management Information Systems make the business case more attractive today.

Increased visibility & transparency into how a building is consuming energy and other resources

Monitoring and analysis is key to evaluating and discovering trends and inefficient behaviors and forms the basis for which to make data-driven decisions about saving actions.

Granular insight into area, process or appliance specific performance

Get insight into which set of appliances, piece of equipment, process, activity or behaviors is the source of the greatest inefficiency and cost to better target & prioritize energy conservation measures.

Evaluate the impact of environmental/operational factors on energy and other resource consumption

Many factors can play a role in the way that energy and other resources are consumed in a building. It is therefore important to analyze the impact of environmental or operational variables that could affect usage patterns e.g. occupancy, production, outside temperature etc.

Reduce operational and maintenance costs & lowered capital investments in equipment

Monitoring and analytics can assist in identifying potential issues with building equipment and facilities i.e. abnormal energy spikes, irregularities in consumption or offline equipment, warranting further investigation to remedy potential faults to avoid large capital investments, costly repairs and disruptions to operations.

Evaluate the efficacy of energy conservation measures to produce desired savings

Whether it’s trialing a new energy efficient technology, or retrofit or modification of behavior or operational schedules, proving that a proposed saving action can produce the desired energy and/or cost savings, is crucial to avoid investment of time, effort and money into a project that will yield little to no results.

Monitor the impact of business/buildings operations on the environment & its occupants

With the increasing concerns and mandatory reporting of CO2 and other GHG gas emissions, transparency of the impact that building/business operations have on the environment is important for regulatory energy compliance, stakeholder relations as well as business longevity. Furthermore, COVID 19 has necessitated an increased focus on occupant health and safety, requiring that building owners prioritize indoor health factors & variables, such as air quality, temperature and occupancy.

Encourage energy-saving behaviors through dynamic visuals and displays

It can be difficult to get building occupants, staff and employees engaged in energy-saving programs by distributing data sheets & reports that don’t inspire action or modifications in behavior to save energy. Using our energy monitoring dashboard to create dynamic visualizations can be an effective tool to engage occupants in saving energy.

Increase property value

The role of energy efficiency and strategic energy management software shouldn’t be underestimated by building owners/managers. Well-maintained, efficient facilities not only assist in reduced maintenance and operational costs, but can form part of a wider, holistic strategy to improve efficiencies across operations and improve sustainability. High-performing, green, buildings that prioritize tenant comfort, health and well beings such as those recognized by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), WELL and other building standards bodies have the potential to attract new occupants and can fetch higher lease and sale prices.

BENEFITS OF ENERGY ANALYTICS FOR BUSINESSES

Energy management software has the capability to collect the necessary data and give visibility to a substantial amount of energy consumption data at various sites. Analytics promotes data driven decision making that can lead to operating cost and energy consumption reductions. In addition to demonstrating waste behavior, such systems can highlight energy savings after the implementation of energy efficiency measures. Cloud based energy analytics platforms provide adaptable tools to streamline energy efficiency projects compared to widely adopted spreadsheet-based alternatives. Analytics facilitates the process of data collection, integrating high frequency data streams from metering hardware and straightforwardly incorporating additional information that is needed to build a well correlated model and automatically quantify savings. Team cooperation when working on energy efficiency projects can be enhanced with respect to spreadsheet calculations. Measurement and verification capability seems to be of particular interests as the number of efficiency projects based on actual measured values and not on deemed savings is steadily growing. Energy analytics allows for up to 95% customer retention rate with the differentiating offer of products and services as energy analytics can support solutions provided by consultants. Energy analytics also creates a profitable, ensured and predictable recurring revenue stream.

Some key features energy managers need to incorporate or look for in a system:

 

• Provide an edge with certification, project management features, integrate energy efficiency project management and need to comply with international performance code
• Automated and consistent analysis across organizations without Excel sheets saving both time and man hours to reduce cost
• Being on top of billing and reporting by having information when it matters
• Trend analysis to compare energy use over time and against others
• An alert system to notify as soon as abnormal energy use is detected
• Transparency into ongoing energy efficiency projects for trust and conflict resolution
• Awareness of the platform throughout staff to instill change and long-term engagement
• Eligibility for energy compliance and recognition awards such as the ISO 50001 and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
• What-if analysis before agreeing in capital project investment

 

Some key features energy consultants need to incorporate or look for in a system:

 

• Tailored plans according to needs of the clients such as different features of the dashboard enabled and charging based on number of meter points
• Total independence of use, admin users, create/delete meter point, set customer access right
• Pay per use as annual payments are inappropriate with client needs changing month by month
• A white label platform meaning the use of company colors, contact details, notifications sent from consultant email address, login from company website, etc., that allows for increased brand awareness and differentiation
• Innovating analytics that are engaging and secure as features get obsolete quickly so consistent new features are a must
• Boost user engagement by identifying active users and customer relationship management integration
• Security, specifically HTTPs use, is important as you are likely handling sensitive company information
• Hardware agnosticism is necessary in terms of technical support and the ability to work with virtually any meter type and frequency
• Automated commissioning is important in terms of plug and play capabilities that allow for easy installation and operation

EMIS Solutions

Reducing recurring costs is becoming a priority for most businesses in today’s competitive environment. EMIS Solutions come in handy to support business owners reduce energy costs. With Sustainability and Digital Transformation being a rising topic in all corporate strategies, Energy Management Information Systems make the business case more attractive today.

With different energy management solutions on the market, how can you choose the correct one that meets your own business needs?

 

1 –   Know your requirements

 

You should deploy the solution that fits your requirements. Start by asking yourself the following question to understand the energy flows that you wish to monitor:

• Do you want to measure and record data on electricity consumption only or do you also want to monitor thermal fuel use such as gas or oil consumption?
• Do you want specific areas and circuits to be monitored?
• Do you want the solution to integrate existing monitoring systems?

 

2 –   Go for real-time data

You should ask the supplier about what type of data will be available from the solution. Some solutions will provide only quarterly hourly energy data on your building or facility on a site-wide basis, as this is relatively straightforward to collect from energy utility meters. Other solutions will offer far better granularity on energy data collection when it comes to electricity use, offering real-time data not only on a site-wide basis also by area or circuit/appliance. This type of information offers far better scope for identification of saving opportunities.

3 – Do not go for monitoring only

The energy solution should be able to offer much more than just the display of energy data on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. Does the solution offer a cloud-based solution accessible from any device? Are there customer support and energy consultancy services provided? Can the solution automatically identify significant energy consumers and discover energy-saving opportunities for you?

 

4 – Match the solution to your expertise

It is important to understand who will be using the solution. Are the users looking for a complete Building Energy Management System which offers control of equipment and appliances? These solutions can often be over-specified, very expensive and sometimes complex for many people to use. A solution that is intuitive to use, allows you to monitor energy use in the areas you want and facilitates reporting & analysis may be a better option for your business.

5 – Label circuits before installation

Make sure that all energy flows to be monitored are correctly labelled before any works have started, as this is very important to ensure data for particular circuits or areas is reliable.

 

6 – Understand installation requirements

Ask the supplier if there will be any disruption to business operations during the installation and ensure that the works are carried out by a certified installer.

7 – Plan to engage with the solution

The success of most energy management solutions are determined by the level of user engagement with the solution. Will the users have time to use the solution? Will the users understand energy data or will they need support? Will the users be energy aware and capable of findings energy savings?

Choose an energy monitoring solution that saves time by pushing only relevant information to the users. Not all users will be energy experts so choosing a solution that provides energy analysis support will help those who are not capable of finding energy savings on their own. The appointment of an energy team or energy champion will also promote ownership of energy saving targets or goals and help overall engagement with the solution.