|
Software Provides the Big Picture on Energy Consumption System Integrates Tools for Auditing and Regulatory Compliance
April, 2007
| |
|
|
|
10 Ways to Save
1. Eliminate Billing Errors. Utility companies aren't perfect. Mistakes happen.
2. Fast Processing and Auditing of Utility Invoices. National chains and large property management companies that receive thousands of monthly utility invoices can use energy software to rapidly process bills via manual entry and EDI, avoiding outsourcing fees.
3. Make Wise Energy Purchase Decisions. Customer choice programs save money by letting clients select the lowest-cost vendors, generators and producers, but these decisions require accurate and current energy use data.
4. Sub-metering, Cost Allocation and Re-Billing. Managing the cost accounting for a large multi-tenant complex is a difficult task. Use a single software for sub-meter readings, virtual accounts, application of tariffs, cost allocation and reporting, and make sure it interfaces with your company's accounting system.
5. Uncover Account Ownership Errors. Are you really paying for just your own utility accounts? It sounds simple enough, yet large organizations often find they're still paying for former leased space.
6. Motivate Occupants to Conserve. A real estate portfolio features thousands of switches and thermostats, yet the occupants who control them have little motivation to conserve. Show that energy reduction is important, and that energy conservation activities are monitored.
7. Identify Inefficient Facilities and Spot Leaks. It's been said, "You can't manage what you can't see." Good EMS software will benchmark trends, profiles and comparisons to help identify and correct inefficient facilities. Hidden energy and water leaks can be unmasked.
8. Pinpoint Building Control Problems with 15-Minute Interval Data Charts. Fore example, energy efficiency software showed a building owner that heat pumps were inefficiently cycling on and off during nighttime hours.
9. Perform Energy Savings Measurement & Verification. Performance contracting is the preferred method for energy retrofit projects, but not without accurate and timely cost avoidance reports.
10. Improve Budgeting, Accruals, Accounting. Make sure that software has comprehensive budget and accrual features that will save time and money on the tricky and often time-consuming tasks of utilities cost accounting and management.
|
| |
|
By Gerald Rubenovitch
Energy is not a trivial cost centre in a real estate portfolio. It's one that needs to be evaluated and controlled continuously.
Enterprise energy management software (EEMS) provides a unified view of energy assets and consumption. (It may also be called energy accounting software, energy information software, energy tracking software and utility bill management software.) Such energy efficiency software records monthly utility bills; automatically audits them to spot billing, metering or consumption problems; prepares a variety of management and analysis reports; and helps to ensure overall organizational energy efficiency.
The management of utility invoices can be costly to administer and difficult to control. Energy management solutions are proven to reduce overhead, cut down on processing time, capture lost utility costs, reduce energy expenses and boost income from operations and minimize the impact to the environment. Accurate and timely energy information is foundational to everything else in energy management - utility bill processing, energy procurement and utilities accounting, budgeting and reporting.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SAVINGS
Total leased commercial floor space in Canada is estimated at more than 4.8 billion square feet or 450 million square metres, while aggregate energy operating costs in Canada for leased commercial property are approximately $7 billion annually. Many building owners have recognized the value of reducing energy costs and have already made significant energy saving investments. Such investments can create a "win-win" situation for landlords and tenants alike, and there remains a tremendous opportunity in this market to save even more.
Conformity to government regulations, be it smart metering or upcoming greenhouse gas emissions monitoring, as well as corporate governance requirements - for strategic planning, cost controls, and risk management - provides powerful incentives for a better enterprise energy management system. These issues add to the overall need for greater financial control over relatively large and widespread expenditures, and it has become obvious that real estate management can affect operations, revenues, and compliance in more ways than most executives realize.
A company typically can expect savings in the 4% to 10% range with a well-planned EEM, but decision makers would be wise to dismiss claims that an EEMS system alone can save a company 25% to 50%. That's just not sustainable year after year.
APPLICATIONS
EEMS can run on a company's existing computer network, on-line web based or on a stand-alone dedicated system. There is tremendous value in sharing energy saving successes across an organization, therefore an EEMS system should support the use of thin client or Web-based interfaces. Finding the combination of advanced enterprise energy management software products, integrated with third party metering products will create a solution that fits a company's particular needs.
Businesses can approach an EEMS program in two ways: hire a consultant or buy their own system. Both approaches can provide positive results.
A consulting firm will audit how power and utilities are consumed, look for billing errors, tariff classification, and daily use. Typically the audit firm will recommend how to cut utility expenses without installing expensive equipment. Since most small to medium-sized enterprises are squeezing every dollar out of their investment, any savings is important and will flow right to the bottom line. However once the audit firm is done and has left, companies need to sustain and advance on the initial effort.
"Energy management is the most visible method and promises the greatest ROI, but ultimately can be used to leverage even further efficiencies and ways to reduce building lifecycle costs," says Ronald J. Zimmer, President and CEO of Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), a non-profit organization that promotes advanced technologies for automating homes and buildings. For example, CABA figures reveal that interior lighting (30%) and cooling (25%) are the two largest energy costs to be managed.
"If you invest $1.25 per square foot on lighting efficiency, the payback is 50 cents per square foot per year," Zimmer says. "That's a 2.5-year payback and a 40% ROI."
Nevertheless, capital funding is almost always limited, and management biases often tend to favour core processes over ancillary functions, including energy and utilities. Even if facility staff is fully aware of energy improvement opportunities, they may lack sufficient time and appropriate management support to implement and maintain efficiency measures. Energy management software can be a first step to a comprehensive energy management program.
Gerald Rubenovitch is Vice President of Sales with Telisoft Inc., a Canadian enterprise applications company and the developer of EnergyCAP energy management software. He can be reached at geraldr@energycap.ca.
|
|