Why energy data management should be a business priority
Taking control of your energy usage is essential, now more than ever. But to understand your energy consumption, you must first understand your energy data. Data management can seem daunting for both SMEs and larger companies, but the benefits significantly outweigh any initial apprehensions.
Keeping track of data from a number of different sites can be unwieldly and difficult to manage and even more difficult to understand. Effective data management will help inform your business decisions, keep your energy costs low, and help future-proof your sites.
So, let’s look at how managing your energy data could benefit your business.
Energy management
Energy management involves taking pro-active control of your energy usage and procurement as part of a holistic energy strategy, to improve energy performance within your organisation. Harnessing data technologies can help to streamline this process and provide more accurate and granular insights.
It is important that you put a formal energy management strategy in place, that is appropriate for your organisation. The strategy will be unique to your business, but should cover the following key areas:
- Organising energy management
- Regulatory compliance and incentives
- Investment
- Procurement
- Automatic monitoring and targeting
- Opportunities identification
- Organisational culture
- Communications
The Carbon Trust has put together a useful explainer on these eight areas here.
Once you have adopted an energy strategy, you should put in place digital technologies for energy management (DTEM). These are technologies that gather data from energy metering, building and process management systems, and use software to analyse and report on this data.
Optimised data, combined with smart energy management software, will allow you to track the progress of your sustainability journey. The use of these technologies will help you to monitor energy consumption and response with effective remedial action. You will be able to make real time control adjustments based on system set points, quantify your savings and undertake benchmarking.
Depending on what targets you’ve set for carbon reduction, you can measure your performance with our easy-to-use software. Our technology offerings span monitoring, metering and controls solutions, with the latest smart technology – so you can stay fully informed about your energy usage, and stay in control. Ultimately, this will improve your bottom line. Visit our solutions page to find out more.
Energy digitalisation
The UK government has announced several steps towards energy and data digitalisation over the past few years, having recognised the need for digitalisation of the whole energy system – from demand and supply, to markets and networks. The Energy Digitalisation Strategy was developed by the government in collaboration with Ofgem and Innovate UK, in recognition of the need to coordinate national policy to this end.
Data exchange enables flexibility across the energy system, allowing for optimisation of assets across networks to reduce energy consumption. Energy data is also critical for decarbonisation of the energy system. Improved data quality and data sharing will allow for better planning and operation of our energy infrastructure. For example, it could help local authorities and network companies to combine information on the network with local knowledge about buildings and citizens, to decide how best to decarbonise.
Focusing on sustainability
Taking control of your data management is crucial when trying to reach a new level of sustainability. Businesses around the world are recognising the importance of becoming greener, and more importantly, so are consumers. A greater awareness of your impact environment could lead to real gains, in terms of your clients and investors.
The increasing availability of high-quality data and analysis means that businesses can now gain detailed insights to inform their corporate sustainability programmes. You can use data to set a baseline, actionable goals, and to measure progress. Data can be illustrated in your sustainability reports to key stakeholders. You can also maintain transparency in your business operations by complying with external reporting frameworks.
What’s more, many sustainability compliance programmes will require accurate data from you, and good energy data management will be crucial if you want to attain certain environmental standards. See this as an opportunity to invest in energy data management, to gain insights and deepen your sustainability practice.
Not only will this help with creating more revenue, it could also save you money. And coming back full circle, energy can only be saved once data is collected.
Where does t-mac come in?
Understanding your data and how best to utilise it can be confusing. But the benefits, in both the long and short-term, makes it entirely worth it.
This level of comprehensive support, along with our pioneering technology, is what sets t-mac apart. We provide our clients with the help they need from start to finish providing a data-driven sustainability strategy for the future.
Our IoT-enabled energy management service allows us to understand your energy controls and help you to decide on the best course of action for your business. It allows you to take control of your building’s critical energy systems – including energy, water, security, heating, lighting, access control, and point of sale.
To learn more about t-mac’s next generation energy solutions, contact us today.