By Marc Borrett, CEO, Reactive Technologies
How corporate energy users can better control energy costs using demand side management.
- Business energy users can increase profitability through demand side management
- Flexibility is key for corporate energy users to manage their energy budgets in an increasingly uncertain future
- The UK energy system continues to experience fundamental change
Macro changes in the UK energy system are increasing the cost of energy for consumers and making it more difficult for organisations like National Grid to reliably manage supply and demand of electricity in real time. These pressures are driving the need for greater levels of control and flexibility within the energy system. With the advent of cloud computing, large corporate energy users can now add sophistication to how they manage their energy so they can reduce costs and earn new revenue from providing valuable services to National Grid and others, from their existing assets.
Typically, corporate energy consumers manage energy in two dimensions. They manage how much energy they use (volume) and how much they pay per unit of energy they consume (price). Reactive Technologies’ cloud-based energy management platform, Tradenergy, is enabling the UK corporate sector to manage its energy spend across four dimensions, delivering far greater value and certainty. The third dimension is time; being flexible about when you use your energy and the fourth dimension is about creating the best value from this flexibility in consumption in a way that doesn’t impact on day-to-day operations. Value can be created by avoiding specific costs, to trading energy at peak times to being paid for providing a valuable service to National Grid. In combination, these add up to material recurring percentage energy savings on an annual energy budget.
Reactive Technologies achieve this by making temporary changes to the energy consumption of individual energy consuming devices, for example air conditioning units in an office building. When small changes are added up together, a sizeable energy shift is created. The energy shift could be a reduction in demand when the price of energy is high or an increase in demand when the price is low. Reactive Technologies does this in a way that is safe, reliable and secure and within parameters agreed and set by their customers. These energy shifts are the basis of the concept of flexibility which can be used to create savings or generate revenues from multiple sources. As the future outlook is governed by change, flexibility is the key watchword for large,corporate consumers needing to effectively manage energy costs and maintain profitability in an increasingly volatile outlook.
Learn more about how your business can benefit from demand side management here reactive-technologies.com
