Proterra’s Energy Assessment Can Help You Take Control of Rising Costs
The majority of the work we do these days involves energy monitoring or assessment of usage in some form or another.
This is because the renewable energy systems that we install are nearly always designed to offset local energy use, and any revenue or opportunity to export is a secondary consideration, if it is worth doing. In many cases export is limited due to the condition of the distribution network, sometimes the transmission network, especially in the more remote locations or on the Isles around Scotland.
We therefore want to understand how our Clients use their power, to be able to design the most appropriate renewable energy system for them, whether that’s the type of generation, energy storage, managing excess power, energy security, or sometimes, doing nothing.
We have increasingly found that whilst energy assessments are a means to an end, they have also become more important to our Clients. Like many data-driven processes, once we understand something we can see ways to improve it. Generally this results in saving money. Reducing energy use and improving energy efficiency are a big part of reducing our carbon footprint, individually and collectively. However, we do need to use energy for our jobs, to live our lives and to enjoy ourselves: that’s just a fact. So thinking about how we use it is increasingly important.
There are a couple of themes that have come out of our energy assessments on some recent large projects, which we felt worth sharing:
The way we are being charged for energy is changing.
We are seeing changes in how electricity supply companies are charging for their services. Standing charges are increasing, cost per kWhr has increased but is increasing less now. In part this is because of headlines associated with cost of living. Whilst consumers (homeowners) are increasingly protected, businesses are not and so we have seen standing charges increase significantly in the past few years for businesses. There is another big change coming in the near future to business standing charges for business as some of the costs that were historically added to the kWhr price are moved over to standing charge.
Be aware of capacity and demand charges that are levied on larger commercial contracts.
These are around peak consumption or your average consumption. Knowing how much you actually use (or might use) will help you to understand whether these are still valid. Using modern energy storage kit can help you reduce short term peaks of consumption from the grid and allow you to reduce these charges. Tidying up your electricity (dirty power is costly power) can reduce your usage and reduce the costs you might pay. We’ve been doing it for years with hydro generation back onto the grid, but it also applies to consumption.
Being careful how you buy your power.
For larger energy users out there, there are options for buying power, either directly from the main energy company, or through brokers. It’s really important before entering into a contract to understand whether the incentives or perceived benefits are in your best short-term, but also long-term interest. We’ve seen contracts with huge termination charges, charges for not using as much as you thought you might (if you put in some form of renewables / or manage your loads), broker charges that are opaque, tariffs that are supposed to track changes, but only go down if you extend your contract (that’s a devious one).
Like many things these days, the energy sector has become more volatile and even the experts sometimes disagree on how pricing will change in the future, Mystic Meg would have her work cut out… Having control over your energy is more important these days.
Want to know more about Proterra Energy Assessment and Monitoring Services?
We can provide support with understanding your bills, your actual energy use and how managing and generating your own energy can help. Feel free to get in touch.