Energy Policy Archives - Gebs Energy Management

Take Control Of Your Commercial Energy Supply

What To Consider:

For your Commercial Energy Supply, there are some simple things to consider to ensure you get the best deal and then manage it effectively:

How many Units are you buying?

When you have signed that contract make sure you regularly record your consumed units from your meter, otherwise you won’t know when you have used your agreed quota of kWh’s (See point number 2).

What are the penalty charges?

Understand the cost, per unit, if you use more or less than any agreed upper and lower limits, respectively, in the timeframe of your contract. Like the excess mileage on a rental car, these can be quite steep and again it can be where they hide their profit.

Cost of the standing charge

Some suppliers, both domestic and commercial, charge a low kilowatt hour rate BUT have an additional higher Standing Charge rate, per unit. This enables them to say they have cheaper energy charges but they compensate via this other per unit cost and this is often again where they hide their profit.

Don’t go ‘out of contract’

Make sure you know and remember when your contract is up for renewal and don’t go over it. Make sure you renegotiate or change your supplier before you roll over to their Standard Tariffs. Out of Contract supply is the most expensive way to buy your energy and many of our business clients save money immediately by going back into a fixed-term contract.

Not all brokers are the same

As in all walks of life, there are good brokers and bad brokers. Some have specialised and dedicated experts who understand their client’s requirements and operating pressures. Then there are others who are just agents of a franchise and know as much about energy and energy markets as you do about piloting a spacecraft. I met someone recently whose main job is as a freelance training provider but they also act as a broker for a well-known, utility supply franchise. In this instance, they may be able to reduce the cost of supply kWh but it isn’t really in their interests to help clients reduce their consumption. It’s all about commission and acquiring another sale. If you do go to a broker do some research and see whether brokering supply and cost reduction is their main specialism (Linkedin is good for that) rather than ‘something else they do’ and don’t forget to ask about the financial penalties for reducing usage.

Buy in the Summer Time

The best time to buy energy is before January and ideally in the summer months.

Good Housekeeping Counts

Finally, if you are paying your energy costs directly and they are not included in the rental of the premises, remember it is all about good housekeeping. Track your usage, identify and eliminate excess energy waste, make savings through behaviour change, non-negotiable processes and procedures and considered equipment purchases. If you have a simple routine right from day one, then wasting energy is less likely and you won’t need to pay unnecessary costs (which is direct profit) and less Climate Change Levy.

Writing An Energy Policy

Your Energy Policy

A documented and published Energy Policy will show to your stakeholders that Energy Management is an organisational core value. It will allow you to commit the business to an energy efficiency strategy which will lead to increased profitability and a reduced environmental impact.

How Do I Start?

So you have your policies in place, HR, Finance, Purchasing, IT, Fleet, Security but what about Energy?

An effective energy policy can be as little as a few sentences, or as much as a number of paragraphs, but, it should be documented and publicised.

What Should It Include?

The Energy Policy should establish top management commitment to energy performance improvement and state the company’s energy priorities. Key though, is that the policy is documented and all staff, suppliers and customers are able to understand it.

who has accountability
what the organsational overall energy targets are
how progress will be monitored and reviewed.
human resources and training commitments
how energy management will be integrated into wider business processes
economic investment criteria
integrating energy efficiency into existing capital investments
reporting procedures
links to other energy/carbon reduction programmes

SAMPLE ENERGY MANAGEMENT POLICY

EXAMPLE Company Ltd Energy Policy

Date:

EXAMPLE Company’s corporate mission is to provide:

The best possible productsand highest level of customer service our customers
Maximum value to our shareholders
A rewarding work environment to our employees

In pursuit of this mission, EXAMPLE Company will strive to achieve a world-class reputation for energy management. We are committed to using energy in the most efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible manner possible.

Energy management will play a key role in our organisation, across all business functions. It will support our plan to maximize profitability, strengthen our competitive position, and provide customers with the highest quality of services. Our efforts to reduce energy use and reduce our carbon footpring will also support our commitment to our employees, the environment, and the communities in which we are a part.

Toward this end, EXAMPLE Company shall work towards continuously improving energy performance. We will establish specific implementation plans by [date/timeframe], and will have made significant achievements in this area within [X] years’ time.

EXAMPLE Company’s objectives as related to this policy are the following:

Provide the best possible environment for occupants of our facilities, while simultaneously maximising energy performance
Reduce operating expenses and increase profit by actively and responsibly managing energy consumption
Make available staff, funding and , tools and equipment for projects with a proven energy efficiency value.
Demonstrate commitment to our community and leadership in the [insert industry] by reducing our carbon output associated with energy use

EXAMPLE Company will endeavor to meet or exceed the following energy management targets in service to these objectives: [Select or modify an appropriate, realistic set of targets]

Reduce energy consumption in existing buildings by [insert %] over a 5-year period
Reduce energy intensity [insert kWh target] by [insert %] in existing buildings over a 5-year period
Achieve and maintain ISO5001 certification within our organisation by [insert date].
Ensure all capital purchases consider energy efficiency and achieve [insert %] energy savings.
Reduce carbon emissions associated with energy consumption by [x%] by [year]
Continually measure and improve our energy performance against our baseline of [insert baseline consumption] [insert date]
Reinvest savings from our energy efficiency programmes into additional energy efficiency projects.

This policy shall apply to all of EXAMPLE Company Ltd’s, sites, business units, employees, and contractors in service to our organisation.

Approved by:

Name CEO/COO/Chairman of the Board_____ Date ______________________________

Are We Prepared For Our Energy Winter?

Winter 2012 -2013

The harvest this year has been a late one around our offices. After an unexpectedly long, wet and cold winter, which started in late August 2012 and ran through relentlessly until June 2013, the farmers locally have just finished combining and bringing in their bailed straw and wheat. I think last year’s protracted Winter-conditions took them by surprise, just like the rest of us.

Every scrap of stored hay and straw in the barns adjacent to us was used for animal feed and bedding, even the old and very poor quality stuff that had laid there for years to plug holes in the barn sides. Towards the end of the winter, the farmhands were even sweeping up the loose bits on the floor of the barn. There was also a marked increase in the cost of hay and straw, due to the gradually reducing supply and inevitable increased demand.

Be Prepared

This year, it looks like the livestock holders are prepared for the worst. More fields have been bailed, rather than ploughed-under, and our barns are now stuffed to the edges with bedding and feed stores.

Taken Our Energy Supply for Granted?

By comparison have we, in our businesses, been complacent and taken for granted our energy supply? For many years we have used our gas, electricity and oil with little thought to the on-going cost or the fact that it is a finite resource. But have we made enough hay whilst the sun shone?

Energy Winter

Our businesses have, metaphorically at least, also presumed upon a short winter and adequate supplies of hay. Increasingly though, Experts and Authorities believe that we are now at the beginning of our ‘Energy Winter’ and its going to be a long one.

Dwindling Resources, Increased Demand

The global demands on already dwindling resources are being increased as the standard of living and industrialisation rises elsewhere in the world. That’s where the analogy fails us. The energy barn is big, but it is not infinite and there is no foreseeable “new harvest” coming through, no chance to correct the failed assumptions of the previous year.

Too Late To Take Control?

With this in mind, are we too late to take control and mitigate those increasing kWh costs? The answer has to be a resounding No! Rather than a desperate floundering scatter-gun approach to managing consumption though, we need to be considered and plan our energy management strategy, make realistic changes to our working practices, understand how, when and why we use our energy, monitor and create energy targets and objectives, start forecasting and planning consumption, steering clear of knee jerk spending but making sure energy usage is relevant and applicable to all.

Understand, Plan Forecast & Prioritise

Understanding the business’ consumption patterns, measuring and monitoring your usage, allows the business to forecast and plan energy requirements based on variables such as the outside temperatures or degree days, your workflow, to name but a few, all relevant to the organisation. This will allow the organisation to prioritise and minimise usage and consumption at times of unexpected need and unplanned necessity.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT ROADMAP

An Energy Management Roadmap?

A map, a route, a pen picture, a plan, a strategy. If you build a house, would you get an assortment of bricks, timber and roof tiles then just throw them together and hope for the best? When you go away on a trip, do you just set off and hope you get to your destination?

A Project with out a Plan?

And how about business Projects? If you don’t know what you are trying to do, how will you know when you have done it? If you don’t know where you started from, how far have you come and far is there still to go? How do you know your business is doing the right things, the things that offer the greatest return for the effort?

Don’t ‘Just Do It’

Nike has a slogan ‘Just Do It’ and we’ve seen “Energy Specialists” urging customers to ‘Take Action’ forget about the Consultants report. However a good consultants report should provide you with a plan to succeed, deliverables and choices that ensure the biggest positive impact for your spend. It is also a starting point for you to decide whether you have the capabilities in-house to do what’s necessary or to identify what help you need to make those gains.

Energy Audits, a Stake In The Ground

Every experienced Energy Management Consultant knows that the Energy Audit is the first step to managing consumption costs. It is proposed that the Energy Audit will be a NON-NEGOTIABLE action, under proposed EU Law. It is also a key part to implementing ISO50001:2011 Energy Management Systems, which may give exemptions from parts of EU legislation. These proposals will legally require a company to submit Energy Reports and without an Energy Audit you could face legal repercussions and fines; you would certainly not be eligible for ISO50001 certification.  Even without that, it makes sense to have one though. You see an Energy Audit has inherent value of its own. It brings together in one place your businesses energy profile. It identifies what types of energy you are using, how it is paid for and how you are currently consuming it. It looks at the technology in-situ, its age, its efficiency, operating times, condition, current and potential efficiency and whether it is well maintained including any service records.

Buildings, Lighting, Ventilation, Heating, Controls, HVAC

A thorough Energy Audit takes into consideration your premises, your occupancy times, how it’s maintained and what condition it’s in e.g. poorly insulated pipes, dirty skylights and windows, holes in the walls, broken windows. It looks at how the environmental and lighting systems are controlled, when they were last serviced or upgraded and what controls are in place.

Not just the wastage but the good consumption patterns.

From analyzing half-hourly consumption, the findings of a good and comprehensive Energy Audit should identify where energy is managed well and where there is wastage and suggest practical steps to make change and provide cost-effective solutions to reduce consumption. It is the turning point, the Vanguard for change and energy efficiency.

Due Diligence and a Viable Business Case

If a double-glazing Salesman turned up at your front door and promised you an instant solution to your growing domestic energy costs, purely by replacing your windows, you’d be dubious. Even if the double-glazing was a good price and you had the money, you would still want to consider whether it might be better spent on solar panels, a replacement boiler, new radiators, roof insulation etc. On reflection, you may not need to spend anything, perhaps you just need to find a cheaper tariff or turn the heating off in the rooms you don’t use or when you are out.

The point is, you would ensure you had properly analysed the situation and formed a clear idea of what would yield the best results before you started, certainly before you spent any money. Why should it be any different at work?

Energy Audits Have Value

Surely it’s inconceivable that a well managed and mature business would consider a programme of significant change requiring substantial capital expenditure on the word of a travelling salesman, without the necessary supporting business case and due diligence? Take Action, Forget about the Energy Audit and Consultants report? You’re not going to do that, are you?

Energy Management – Why are those first steps so hard?

Procrastination – Fear of Failing?

The hardest part of every report I write is the beginning. It is the first paragraph which causes me the most difficulty. Although many of our findings are common across our client’s businesses, that first paragraph has to be relevant and cause the reader to want to read on. Starting it is also the time when I tend to procrastinate or delay, I might decide that moment is a good time to catch up with my filing, check the web-feeds for Energy Efficiency news, do the office washing up and dare I say it I even log into Facebook, anything rather than sit down and make a start on that report.

I do sit down though and I do force myself to write those sentences; as one of my MBA Lecturers said, once you’ve made a start on that first paragraph the words will flow.

It is easy to do the same with any problem or challenge but the solution tends to be the same. If we look at Energy Management. We all acknowledge that rising prices are a problem and that there’s things our business really needs to do about it. We also, if we think about our consumption, probably have a pretty good idea where and how in the organisation it is being wasted. So why are we procrastinating and leaving things as they are?

Why Don’t We Manage Our Energy?

Some of the reason’s we’ve been given for not tackling energy efficiency are

‘surely my PC/lights/phonecharger being left on won’t make a difference’

‘you don’t understand our business, it’s not that progressive’

‘the board aren’t interested’

‘we have so many other initiatives and processes, we don’t have time for Energy Management’

‘but I’m too hot / cold normally’ (dependent on the weather)

‘we might upset the ladies upstairs’

‘the ladies get cold’

‘the ladies are of a certain age’ (ladies seem to get the blame an awful lot when it comes down to office temperature)

‘we don’t have the time’

‘we started it but no-one was interested so we don’t do it any more’

Energy Management, Not Extra, Just DIfferent

Often the simplest explanation is that businesses don’t know where to start the task of managing their energy consumption. Like getting the first words down in the paragraph it is easier to focus on something else rather than grasp the nettle and get on with it. Energy Management does not have to be ‘extra’ work, but it does mean doing things differently and smarter. It doesn’t mean your office has to be too warm/cold or uncomfortable for ‘ladies of a certain age’ – it just gives you control.

Gain Control, Make Savings

Once you have control and energy consumption transparency you will start to make savings; which the Board should be interested in because it reduces overheads and tax liabilities and, given that the phone charger left on is probably one of many within the organisation, the new routines will show clearly that switching of unnecessary equipment will make a difference.

Get Started, See Results

Finally once you get started, the results of your endeavours will drive the programme forward and the fear of failing will be replaced with the satisfaction that you are making a difference.

Energy Teams a crucial part of ISO50001

Keeping Cool

Today the temperatures in the UK are soaring again. Currently, outside our Gebs Energy Offices, it is 82 degrees C – although I’m not going to complain about the weather. Our workspace is an old barn conversion but we don’t have air-conditioning. However we still have the benefit of comfortable temperatures, as our walls are massively well insulated on top of solid stone-wall construction, and that combination doesn’t let the heat through.

Gebs Energy to the Rescue

But this blog is not about our insulation levels. Today I was carrying out some ½ hourly data analysis when a dog barking disrupted my concentration. Every time I tried to put my mind back to the work in hand, the dog interrupted my efforts; and this went on for a good 45minutes. Given the fact that we love our own dogs, and 2:30pm is not a good time to walk your pet on such a hot day, I decided I’d better go and check that the dog wasn’t lost or with an owner who had collapsed with heat exhaustion. So I set off in this sweltering heat and headed out over the fields and into the woods a good mile and a half away, while the dog kept barking.

When I arrived at the wooded glade close to where the noise was coming I met an elderly couple sitting on a log, the dog was playing at their feet. Feeling a little self-conscious I explained what I was doing up in the woods (dressed in work clothes, carrying a dog lead, a ball but no dog). I explained to them that I just wanted to check they, and their dog, were all okay. Luckily, they appreciated my concern and explained that their dog just likes to bark when it plays and, after a bit of a chat, off I went back across the dusty fields and into the office.

Motivation

Once in the cool with an iced water, it got me thinking about my motivation for this adventure. I went out there for good reason. Some people may call it nosiness, but I’m simply not one of those people who can sit back and wait for someone else to take responsibility.

Building your energy team

In any workplace, department, section or team you can find similar types of people. They’re always looking to see what might be on the horizon, anticipating problems and willing to help find solutions. Once they have been given the reasons and justifications, such people tend to embrace the new approach to Energy Management and efficiency. They are the ones you need to incorporate and harness into your Energy Teams.

Teams built from all stakeholders

Your Energy Team should help the Energy Management System to be embraced by all within the business. Our tip for your Energy Team is that it should have cross-functional representation, not just the normal health and safety reps, which we commonly find. A broader cross-section allows for all opinions and ideas to be considered and evaluated. Other key stakeholders to include are your Trades Union, if applicable, and their traditional adversaries from your own HR Department. This helps smooth the integration of any new procedures or working practices and shows that the Energy Policy and Strategy has been properly considered. Input from the former grouping adds weight to what you are proposing to the staff, shows it is reasonable and fair and this in turn makes it simpler to get the shop floor onside.

Energy Teams a crucial part of ISO50001

Energy Teams are a crucial part of ISO50001 implementation. Getting the mix right can be challenging but, if done well, can speed implementation and make Energy Management more successful and proactive. The Energy Team can be a channel for new ideas and engagement as well as making the process more relevant to all stakeholders.