What Is Energy Management? Investing in a Greener Future

Energy is everything – figuratively and literally.

While the world attempts to navigate the global environmental crisis, it’s becoming increasingly evident and critical that companies assess their energy management practices, procedures, and policies.

Businesses and leaders looking to reduce their carbon footprint and do more for the global energy savings movement are implementing energy management software. Modern technology enables significant energy savings, improves overall facility management, reduces carbon emissions, and helps measure actionable outcomes.

The primary objectives of investing in energy management are:

• Resource conservation: Reducing energy consumption by using fewer energy sources
• Climate protection: Reducing the use of fossil fuels
• Cost savings: Improving energy efficiency to make it more affordable
• Permanent energy access: Making basic energy bundles (clean cooking, electricity) more accessible for users

Importance of energy management

If you’ve been reading the news for the past 20 years, you know that we are going through a climate crisis. And you know what they say about that, right? Every little thing counts in a crisis. 

So although managing energy consumption at an organizational level may seem like a small action, it’s the first step toward creating a sustainable environment, which is critical in the global movement toward reducing energy needs.

The need to save energy is a global effort to reduce the environmental damage to the planet and lower our dependence on fossil fuels. However, individual organizations can’t wait for governmental regulation to achieve these goals. Every company must begin controlling and reducing energy consumption now.

For businesses, energy management is essential for reducing several factors that add to the worldwide energy-saving crisis and meeting more ambitious goals, such as national and international consumption reduction targets.

• Cost reduction: Energy efficiency reduces energy use which saves money, increases energy security, and lowers pollution and the overall cost of renewable energy systems.

• Carbon emission reduction: Understanding and evaluating energy metrics helps companies reduce their carbon footprint (production and use of carbon compounds). Businesses that strive to reduce carbon emissions are viewed as promoters of sustainability, which also helps increase economic profits.
• Risk reduction: Managing energy levels lowers the risk of energy price increases and supply shortages. A strong energy management system allows for reduced energy demand.

How does energy management work?

The term “energy management” is often broadly used to refer to energy savings for business, governmental, and personal use. The process of energy management ensures that energy suppliers use renewable energy sources to meet consumer demand.

A simple energy management process involves four main steps.

1. Collect and analyze data

Collecting, metering, and analyzing energy consumption data provides stakeholders with better insights into the costs per unit of energy. Accurate energy data is essential to reduce power demand and improve the return on investment (ROI) on energy products and procurement.

Historically, the data collection approach involved reading meters on a weekly or monthly basis, a method now deemed tedious. Recently, the approach has shifted to a modern one with automated energy data collection. Technology such as interval-metering systems measures and records energy consumption levels at regular periods of time every 15 or 30 minutes.

Energy efficiency management systems provide detailed consumption information, enabling users to visualize and predict energy use patterns. This data also helps identify overlooked energy waste.

2. Identify energy-saving opportunities

Finding every way to optimize energy use is key to improving energy efficiency and energy management. Some examples include information gathered from meter data, equipment status and schedules, set points and flow rates, and routine energy waste.

Looking for energy-saving areas doesn’t have to be complicated. The simplest and most cost-effective energy-saving methods often require little to no financial investment.

Something that can help organizations in their energy management goals can be as simple as encouraging staff members to switch off equipment at the end of the day.

3. Take action to target energy optimization areas

Once enough information is available about the scope of energy improvement, the next step is to target specific opportunities. Begin with more straightforward energy optimizing solutions, such as targeting routine waste generation and replacing or upgrading inefficient energy equipment.

Analyzing interval data is an uncomplicated way of estimating energy wastage during the work day. For companies that have the resources to spend on energy management programs, upgrading insulation and replacing lighting equipment both reduce the amount of energy waste production.

Identify whether energy consumption is overused during non-work hours to reduce energy waste.

If energy is being wasted only on the weekends and nighttime:

• Use interval data to calculate the energy (in kilowatt hours or kWh) being used. Refer to this data as “A.”
• Estimate energy wastage by comparing actual consumption amounts with consumption amounts if the equipment wasn’t running. This data set is called “B.”
• Calculate total energy (in kWh) being wasted using values derived from A and B.

If you have no idea how much energy is being wasted on the premises:

• Ensure that equipment is switched off through regular perimeter checks.
• Evaluate the interval meter data recorded after equipment has been switched off.
• Estimate potential power savings (in kW) by subtracting target kW data from typical kW data for non-work hours.

Although these energy-saving measures don’t consider specific equipment or building-related opportunities, they are useful in quantifying the potential savings each opportunity can provide.

Whatever the method used, ensuring that real meter data is more accurate than relying on rules of thumb.

4. Track progress for continuous improvement

Monitor and track energy-saving progress on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis by analyzing energy data. Repeat the steps of identifying energy efficiency opportunities and implementing solutions to increase energy-saving efforts.

An energy management plan cannot stop simply at identifying and taking action – it has to involve a well-defined reporting process for continual improvement and additional savings.

To truly understand the effectiveness of the actions being taken:

• Ensure that energy savings attributed to behavioral changes receive ongoing attention.
• Check the controls in case equipment settings are adjusted to ensure they are working properly and in sync with energy consumption patterns and predictions.
• Develop data-backed plans to get leadership and decision makers invested in boosting energy management efforts across the organization.

Energy management use cases

The energy management process sees applications for industries and personal use. It's essential to remember that energy management helps control and reduce the overall energy consumption levels of physical spaces, which are fundamental to saving energy and reducing operational costs.

Facilities management

Commercial spaces, such as facilities, can benefit from energy management practices by implementing energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems. Equipment targeted toward energy optimization helps facility managers track energy consumption and incurred costs. 

Along with better energy use, energy management has been proven to play a role in reducing operating costs while bumping up productivity at the same time for efficient facility management.

Logistics, operations, and transportation

Success in the logistics department is a major operational advantage for any business. Energy management can increase efficiency, lower warehouse management costs, augment production rates, and improve inventory control.

For the transportation industry, energy efficiency reduces transport demand and avoids increased transportation activity. With better energy use and tracking methods, companies can shift to more efficient modes of transport and refine the quality of vehicles and fuels they use.

Manufacturing

Contrary to popular belief, energy efficiency saves substantial costs and provides a safe working environment.

A few ways manufacturing can benefit from energy management are:

• Replacement of old machines with new, modern, energy-efficient models
• Regulated production and maintenance planning activities
• Implementation of innovative energy storage technologies, like lithium and cobalt batteries in electromechanical devices

Energy procurement

The process of selling and buying energy units is intricately tied to energy management plans. Developing an effective approach to making transactional energy decisions can lower energy bills and lead to smart, proactive buying decisions.

Best energy management software

Energy management software monitors and reports real-time energy systems used to help businesses save money on their energy costs. The software contains tools that alter energy usage to promote energy-efficient consumption and reduce carbon emissions.

To be included as a software solution within this category, a product must:

• Monitor energy consumption from multiple sources.
• Engage with energy-consuming systems by altering energy usage.
• Produce auditable energy consumption reports.
• Contain data analytics tools to understand consumption-related data.

*Below are the five leading energy management software based on G2 data collected on August 17, 2022. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. Autodesk Insight

Autodesk Insight is an energy management system that empowers architects and engineers to design more energy-efficient buildings. The platform features advanced simulation engines and performance analysis data. It integrates with Autodesk Revit.

What users like:

“Autodesk Insight is a very useful guide for the whole building life cycle. It provides global access to the project. We can easily visualize and simulate our project through Autodesk Insight in Revit. It is a very powerful guide during the energy simulation of the whole building. The software also provides real-time feedback to deliver better outcomes.”

- Autodesk insight Review, Asha K.

What users dislike:

“It doesn't seem realistic to use for smaller projects or projects where the client cannot afford to care about the project's energy efficiency. It is also not intuitive, as the tools are confusing and difficult to use. It also lacks some green building requirement features necessary for energy calculation.”

- Autodesk Insight Review, Madeleine C.

2. RETScreen

RETScreen is a clean energy management software for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and cogeneration project feasibility analysis. The application also works well for performing ongoing energy analysis.

What users like:

“Very detailed information about specified plans such as photovoltaic (PV) systems. It came in handy when I had to look for information about the location, energy usage, emission, cost, and risks of the PV system I had proposed. I also really liked the detailed final report in which it summarized all the things that have been done in the system.”

- RETScreen Review, Karl J.

What users dislike:

“The tool is quite simple and will not give advanced analysis in cases where you need to give a technical presentation.”

- RETScreen Review, Mohammad N.

3. Goby

Goby is an intelligent, comprehensive, and intuitive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) platform. It helps businesses establish, monitor, and communicate ESG initiatives, including actions that provide an imperative to retain capital, accelerate sustainable, responsible growth, and mitigate enterprise risk.

What users like:

“The software is organized and streamlined so that all my records are clear and easy to find. I like that there are links and multiple ways to get to my desired pages. The dashboard provides a good summation of the data.

I also love the customizable reports I can export and the uniform application to all our office properties which has improved accuracy, shortened timelines, and enabled useful reporting.”

- Goby Review, Oscar D.

What users dislike:

“I dislike how some user interfaces interact with other applications and programs. Perhaps, there can be a way to improve this for future use. ”

- Goby Review, Oral B.

4. Autodesk Green Building Studio

Autodesk Green Building Studio is a flexible cloud-based service that allows you to run building performance simulations to optimize energy efficiency and work toward carbon neutrality early in the design process. The system expands a company’s ability to design high-performance buildings at a fraction of the time and cost of conventional methods.

What users like:

"Autodesk Green Building Studio is becoming an essential tool for architects. It provides the ability to gain insight into the building's energy performance, even in the early design stages, thus improving the design decisions toward more sustainable buildings."

-Autodesk Green Building Studio Review, Jalal H.

What users dislike:

“Because the data used for performance modeling is highly reliant on the quality of architectural Revit models, if there are any issues with the Revit model, they will often impact outcomes in the simulations.

We often have to recreate components and models in the service directly. This does not mean the loss of all data imported from Revit. Still, users need to understand the imported data sets and identify any issues.”

- Autodesk Green Building Studio Review, Marcin S.

5. Metasys

Metasys is a modern building energy management efficiency solution. It connects commercial HVAC, lighting, security, and protection systems so they can communicate on a single platform. The software enables users to deliver the information needed to make smarter safety, comfort, and productivity decisions.

What users like:

“It was easy to install with good instructions offered. I used it to integrate and interoperate FX BACnet controls. I engineered graphics using the AGA binder tool compatible with Microsoft Viso. The SCT tool was beneficial for building the system off-site without remote access. Engineering trending and alarming were easy to understand and set up.”

- Metasys Review, Sean Y.

What users dislike:

“The software could be improved by allowing multiple tiers of users with different authentication levels that consider the least privilege principle. This would improve accuracy and security within the software.”

- Metasys Review, Zachary R.

Energy saved is energy made

The benefits of energy management are manifold. Decreasing energy consumption is directly related to cutting production and demand costs. In addition, focusing on energy efficiency substantially improves greenhouse gas emissions and greater corporate social responsibility.

 Want to learn more about creating a sustainable business model? Explore green data centers for better operational and data productivity.