With the cost of energy spiralling, industrial and commercial users are increasingly turning to data to optimise the efficiency of their premises and processes.
The good news is that there are lots of digital tools available to help energy managers bear down on consumption…and the value of this data will only increase with the Market-wide Half-Hourly settlement (MWHH) reform due by 2025.
“I doubt there’s ever been a time when energy consumption data has been so critical for companies,” said David Sing, Group Managing Director (Assets) at Energy Assets, specialists in metering and data analytics. “So, it’s vital that managers have the best processes and practices in place to mitigate the impact of escalating costs.”
He says now is the time to “focus on getting the fundamentals right.”
This means:
- Installing advanced automated meter reading (AMR) systems to capture consumption data
- Ensuring half-hourly energy data is collected, monitored and analysed in granular detail through AM&T portals, such as WebAnalyser
- Establishing ‘standard’ consumption profiles and setting automated alerts to flag consumption spikes
Delivering data value through AMR
To help businesses improve their energy performance, Energy Assets is expanding its electricity meter data collection capabilities to near universal coverage across Britain’s I&C markets.
The reach of its AMR service now extends to around 99% of all power meters serving private and public sector organisations. This enhanced capability expands the company’s Data Collection and Data Aggregation (DCDA) services to a growing customer base of energy suppliers, brokers and end users.
“We’re now able to help more end users and their suppliers collect consumption data automatically, and to extract the information they need to improve their understanding of how they’re using energy and where they can make efficiencies.”
Changing energy landscape
The new MWHH reform will ensure that I&C users have access to the data they need not only to analyse their consumption patterns, but potentially to negotiate customised ‘time-of-use’ tariffs with suppliers.
“This half-hourly data environment will enable organisations to collect and analyse consumption data in granular detail,” said David Sing. “This will inform energy efficiency strategies, influence consumption profiles and potentially reward organisations for shifting some processes and operations off-peak.”
Feeding data via AMR systems into Energy Assets’ WebAnalyser monitoring and reporting platform enables users to compare actual consumption versus benchmark parameters and to measure the impact of any efficiency improvements. The tool offers a customisable approach to energy reporting, including monitoring consumption by period, comparing performance to ‘standard’ operating profiles, validating and analysing usage, and alerting users to unusual consumption patterns.