Gain competitive advantage and maintain productivity by developing an energy strategy to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

With the winds of the cold economic climate continuing to blow, one Northern Ireland company, ESB Independent Energy (ESBIE) is encouraging businesses to gain competitive advantage and maintain their productivity by developing an energy strategy to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

ESBIE has found that companies are keen to take action and are actively seeking strategies to take control of their energy consumption, to ensure they maximize their energy efficiency.

Furthermore as businesses have become more reliant on electronics and new forms of technology, issues surrounding power quality such as power disturbances or inadequate wiring and grounding have become more prevalent and can seriously disrupt the operation of a business.

According to Managing Director Susan Kinane, ESBIE can assist and empower businesses to make quality decisions about their electricity consumption throughout the year, which will maximize energy efficiency and minimise cost.

Susan explains, “Many firms are excellent when it comes to focusing on their core activities, but it can be difficult for them to get a strong handle on their energy needs.

“As a company, it is our strategy to grow long term relationships with our customers. We want to understand how our customers operate their business and through building an understanding we will help them reduce electricity consumption, maximise energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint. In achieving these goals our customers will achieve significant savings on their energy spend.”

“Manufacturing firms want to manufacture and service providers want to provide services. Companies want to invest time and resources in undertaking the core activities of their business. Many don’t have the time to build up the necessary technical expertise and knowledge to effectively tackle their energy efficiency problems. We at ESBIE pride ourselves in providing this resource to our customers. We can help them take control of their energy usage and achieve all of their energy goals.”

“Often companies want to change their consumption habits and become more efficient, but they don’t know where to start, and that’s where we can help. To formulate an energy strategy you first have to analyse your current energy consumption patterns and needs.”

Susan sets out a number of elements within ESBIE’s Energy Consulting Services which can help businesses to maximize the efficiency of their energy usage:

Energy Audit
A key component of ESBIE’s Energy Consulting Services is the implementation of an audit of customers’ energy usage. This is universally applicable to all industries and identifies steps that can be undertaken to achieve savings through increasing efficiency. The audit can also identify any power quality issues, which can then be resolved. More detailed audits can also be coordinated to look at specific areas of perceived inefficiency within a company’s overall business operations. After all, even a small percentage change in terms of efficiency can result in very large financial savings for a company.

Energytracked
Energytracked is our energy and environmental monitoring and targeting system, which analyses e.g. the energy usage associated with general utilities, thereby enabling businesses to identify and cut out unnecessary energy wastage. To further assist, ESBIE has also introduced an Electronic Billing Information System, EBIS Extra, which assists customers in understanding electricity usage patterns and facilitating them in making decisions to reduce electricity consumption, costs and CO2 emissions.

Company / Staff Awareness
Directly involving employees and making them an integral part of an energy strategy will help drive efficiency within a company. ESBIE’s Energy Consulting Services incorporate energy awareness presentations and information campaigns to educate employees about the importance of achieving energy goals and the role they can play in this.

Concluding Susan said, “Our knowledge and expertise provides the opportunity for customers to concentrate on what they do best, which is compete for business nationally and internationally and enables us to get on with the business of making them more efficient and minimizing their energy costs in the process.”