Energy Management

An organisation's energy bills are, more often than not, its largest variable cost and with forecasters predicting bills are set to rise 60% by 2016, it's worth considering a structured approach to controlling this major outgoing.

A primary driver here is for an organisation to save money; the secondary driver is to contribute to the UK's initiative to cut Carbon emmisions following the Kyoto Agreement, The Climate Change Act, The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme etc and the third driver is to show, stakeholders, supply chain, staff, industry competitors and other connected companies that their Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) policy is being followed.  For branding and public relation purposes, this is a very important Board level initiative.

Energy use is measurable and manageable but to begin to control these costs and promote the company's CSR objectives requires senior management buy-in and cultural change.  Nothing will happen without high level Champions driving home the message and publically broadcasting the progress that has been made; if not, bad habits will easily re-emerge.

So,at TAP we believe there exists a need for all organisations to adopt a structured approach to managing their energy consumption in a clear and manageable manner such that targets are set and reported upon and we see 5 clear steps to getting this underway, namely:

1. Get commitment
This is vital at both levels of the operational spectrum and involves Board room buy-in, communication and cultural change from staff.
2. Understand the issues
This involves an understanding of your own management process, energy usage, the drivers behind the need to change, and knowledge of barriers within, plus familiarity with measurement matrices.
3. Plan and organise
This will involve developing an energy strategy with an MD sign-off,setting SMART objectives and KPIs,an Action plan with key roles and responsibilities and a procurement policy.
4.Implement
This will involve starting on the Action plan and gaining some 'easy wins/low hanging fruit' so that stakeholders can witness progress;initiate training programmes and communicate to top and bottom.
5.Monitor ongoing performance
This will involve aseessing performance against KPIs and a plan for contiuous improvement plus a de-brief on lessons learned.Ideally the organisation should be striving towards independent standards such as ISO 14001(Environmental Management Systems) and 16001(Energy Management Systems).

The over-riding aim of all measures should be to save money by reducing consumption,which is likely to involve checking for waste,leaks and insulation and initiating a maintenance regime that does not rely on reactive response,but rather preventative measures.

TAP is well placed to guide companies through the principals of Energy Management and can direct more detailed requests to experts in the field.

Its not all easy,but its becoming increasingly necessary...bills will rise and Govenrment will legislate to achieve emissions reduction goals.