The Future of Energy and What It Means for Today’s Companies

Article by Constellation

Corporate leaders who want to better manage their company’s energy costs often look to traditional, common approaches. Examples may include replacing broken or inefficient equipment, making an effort to turn off equipment when it’s not in use or changing the standard settings of heating and cooling systems.

While these tactics can be effective, there are innovative technologies on the horizon that can make an even bigger impact on companies’ energy consumption.

Here are a few examples of innovations that companies in all industries may soon be able to consider as they look for ways to better manage their energy consumption and expenses.

Intelligent Energy Storage

For most companies — especially those with multiple office locations — it can be nearly impossible to understand and forecast overall energy costs. Even if a company has just one location, there will always be variables that impact demand and consumption, such as weather, location and types of equipment.

However, emerging technologies may be able to help companies better manage energy costs and minimize budget risk by taking into account companies’ historical energy use, weather forecasts and rates to more accurately predict energy patterns. In addition, intelligent energy storage systems can help regulate energy costs — drawing energy when costs are low and deploying it when costs are high — to further minimize risk and benefit companies’ bottom lines.

Electric Vehicle Charging

While electric vehicle (EV) charging may seem like an opportunity solely for individuals and their personal cars, this innovation can benefit companies as well.

Implementing an EV charging network can help company leaders transform their facilities to offer EV charging to employees, tenants and customers. This can help organizations meet sustainability goals, improve company benefits to hire competitive talent and attract high-value customers. In addition, it can even be a source of added revenue. In the right location — where parking and charging stations are at a premium — companies may be able to make a profit, which can offset monthly energy expenses.

Consumption Analytics

Managing facilities can be challenging, especially in regards to monitoring and regulating the energy consumption of multiple locations. For companies that rely on manufacturing or other critical equipment, facility managers must always know how each piece of equipment is performing and make sure it’s in good working order.

Consumption analytics can make that easier. It allows companies to connect to and monitor equipment, providing visibility to track equipment performance, repair needs and overall runtime. With that kind of data, it becomes much easier for company leaders to allocate resources and determine ways to reduce power consumption making a positive impact on the company’s bottom line.

Automated Energy Consumption Monitoring

When it comes to energy consumption, timing is everything. For some companies, certain equipment may be causing excess energy use because they are running at the same time and — unbeknownst to the company — driving peak demand and causing energy bills to skyrocket.

A cloud-based network that monitors energy use can combat that. With this technology, a machine-to-machine network monitors and reduces energy consumption spikes. It optimizes the runtime for equipment that is determined to be the root cause of high peak demand charges and automatically reduces electric bills without impacting the end user experience.

Interested in learning more about innovations in energy management and developing a strategy that benefits your company? Get in touch.