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Mitigating Rising Energy Costs with Smart Energy Solutions

As businesses continue to contend with high energy prices, it becomes increasingly vital that you use the energy you do purchase as intelligently as possible. Energy efficiency is a major aspect of that, and as the ways we both generate and use electricity become more complex, so does achieving better energy efficiency.

Smart energy technologies are one of the rapidly growing solutions that allows energy to be utilised more efficiently. Put simply, smart energy management is about gathering, analysing and acting upon as much data on energy use as possible.

What are smart energy solutions?

Smart energy solutions comprise individual devices, such as smart meters, as well as smart microgrids that can be used to provide relevant data on energy use in real-time. Smart grids increasingly make use of a Demand Response model, controlling energy more efficiently by monitoring total demand across the grid at different times of day and moderating the available energy that is generated, stored, purchased or sold to the grid to maximise both energy and cost efficiency.

In the case of smart microgrids for an individual site, intelligent management of on-site generation and demand allows for greatly reduced energy costs by minimising, or even eliminating, energy purchased from the grid. They can also make better use of renewable generation to unlock significant carbon reductions.

The ‘Internet of Things’ plays an increasingly important role in smart energy, allowing individual appliances and equipment to provide real-time data on their energy consumption and performance. The energy consumption for a building or site can be significantly improved by intelligently controlling building systems such as heating, cooling or lighting, using sensors that feed back data and maintain optimal conditions without using energy when not needed.

Why smart energy is important

By analysing this data effectively, you can make informed decisions on how to effectively manage power flows and make the most intelligent, cost-effective use of available energy. This allows you to dynamically manage your consumption, reduce overall energy spend, and unlock greater operational efficiency. The more data you have to hand on how your site is consuming energy, the more options you have in terms of managing it better.

The ongoing electrification of heating and transport will continue to increase the UK’s electricity demand, and the widespread introduction of smart energy management will be vital to ensure that increased demand is met in the most sustainable way possible. Without careful management of energy consumption in real-time, the alternative is to invest heavily in additional generation that will only be called upon during periods of peak demand. Smart energy solutions help significantly to balance out peaks and troughs in overall demand.

Benefits of smart energy

Implementing smart energy solutions for your business comes with several benefits. A comprehensive understanding of your energy usage, in real-time, is invaluable when it comes to implementing further infrastructure improvements, such as on-site generation or battery energy storage. This allows the technology best suited to your particular site and energy usage to be identified more accurately, as well as providing greater insight into its impact once installed.

Proactively taking action when smart energy solutions identify inefficiencies and energy waste is an increasingly vital aspect of energy efficiency which can significantly reduce your overall energy costs and increase the sustainability of your energy. Analysis of your consumption data can also be used to minimise the risk of equipment failure and costly downtime.