Multi-utility energy data and analysis lies at the heart of winning over your board of directors believes Paul Akrill, Operations Director at IMServ
19th September 2013: A survey carried out by independent analyst firm Verdantix has revealed that a lack of quantifiable benefits and insufficient cost savings were stated as the primary barriers to investing in energy management. But according to Paul Akrill, Operations Director at IMServ Europe, the best way to address these obstacles is with multi-utility data and careful analysis.
The Verdandtix survey is carried out annually and questions 250 heads of energy in 13 countries and across 20 industries. It revealed that 33% of respondents identified compliance with legislation as the most important factor and 32% ranked cost savings as the primary driver for spending on energy management. Better energy data management was revealed as the most common spending theme, with 96% of 250 corporations believing they need to enhance the volume, quality and frequency of energy data collection and reporting.
IMServ Europe is one of the UK’s largest independent energy management providers and works closely with many FTSE 250 organisations and companies within the commercial and industrial sectors, processing around 20 million data items per day. Paul explains the dilemma many companies face:
“Big data, dubbed “the new oil” by the World Economic Forum, can improve an organisation’s decision making, but only if customers can access energy information in a meaningful format. The ability to ‘see’ your energy consumption is critical to truly understanding how you use energy and where you could potentially make savings.
“One of the biggest hurdles in our experience is the onerous task of wading through all the claims that vendors make and trying to prove how these technologies will work for you. Often the most efficient and sensible approach is to gather data on energy use before an energy management programme, using a visualisation tool such as IMServ’s Energy DataVision (EDV). Then, implement your energy management programme, whether behavioural, technical or both, on a limited scale. Then energy managers can measure and verify the performance of these energy management initiatives to build a business case to present to their CFO for a wider roll out across the rest of a business’ portfolio.”
As well as installing multi-utility metering, IMServ provides organisations with the ability to graphically present their energy related data in ways that are simple to comprehend and which aid analysis. Presenting the data in a multitude of ways, the company’s powerful web tool, EDV makes it accessible to a wide variety of stakeholders. The use of highly visual dashboards engages and informs staff about energy usage and supports corporate behaviour change programmes.
Paul concluded: “We run many trials with companies, usually on a risk-free basis, to test energy management initiatives and use the data we collect to help them convince their board of directors that energy management investments have a viable ROI. Basing these business cases on hard facts that are directly applicable to the company’s situation makes the case much more convincing. Typically, once a company has been able to quantify its energy usage, savings can be made by combining behavioural and infrastructure changes. These energy savings can range from 10% to 30% which represents a significant amount of savings.
“And in some cases, this highly-analytical, fact-based approach proves that a company might already be doing everything it needs to do and there is not an argument for more spend on additional energy management technology. We recently worked with a well-known high street retailer with strong energy and green credentials where new technology would not have brought sufficient cost savings because staff behaviour was already of such a high standard.”
Rising energy costs and increasing pressures on organisations to monitor and manage their energy usage more effectively is driving the need to embrace energy intelligence. Corporate Social Responsibility, the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme 1, along with legislation such as the 2011 Energy Act (which made provision for the arrangement and financing of energy efficiency improvements) and the EC’s Energy Efficiency Directive 2012 are all fuelling the requirement for organisations to monitor and visualise their energy performance in greater depth than ever before.
Editor’s Notes
About IMServ (www.imserv.com)
IMServ Europe Ltd is one of the UK’s largest independent energy data management providers. The company offers carbon and energy management solutions, helping organisations across all sectors to save energy, reduce costs and control carbon emissions.
IMServ offers an all-inclusive portfolio that covers data collection, analysis, reporting and carbon management. To date over 180,000 sites in England, Scotland and Wales are benefiting from its solutions.
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