Don’t Get Burnt By Rising Energy Costs!
Our Tips To Understanding The Energy Market
How Can You Help Your Business Stay Compliant And Stay On Top Of Your Energy Consumption?
Introduction
It is no secret that energy costs have been steadily rising for many years, impacting both commercial and residential consumers. The price rise has become much steeper in recent times,
creating a financial drain for businesses and becoming a major concern whether you are a business owner, Financial Director or Energy Manager.
It is all too easy to get burnt by rising energy costs, even before you begin to consider how this might impact your environmental goals.
Businesses of all sizes are feeling the strain and with the ongoing energy crisis showing no sign of reducing, we need to explore how to better understand energy markets and how you can
stave off rising costs.
What Has Caused Rises In Energy Costs Recently?
While energy costs have historically risen in accordance with other elements, such as wages and the overall cost of living, the recent jump in cost has been unprecedented. You may be
wondering why this is – in truth, there are many elements that have converged to cause this unprecedented circumstance.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a large hand in the increased energy costs. The demand for energy dropped as many workplaces, hospitality facilities and educational buildings closed their doors which caused energy prices to drop suddenly. However, after the first lockdown was over, the world began to go back to some sense of normal. As offices, schools and other places began to reopen, the demand skyrocketed again and prices rose as well. As it stands, the normal demand for energy is higher than ever before.
The pandemic has not been the only factor impacting this change, though. There have been some natural contributors to the rising costs, such as low winds in the UK resulting in lower amounts of renewable energy being generated. The UK also has lower gas reserves than many other areas of Europe, making stockpiling next to impossible, while outages at nuclear power stations have resulted in the UK requiring more gas than ever during energy generation.
The cost of carbon has increased, causing an immediate knock-on effect to energy tariffs, while the shutdown of the main interconnector from France also created issues. This was due to a fire and it led to UK energy costs to spike – this may not be remedied until late 2023, meaning that prices are likely to continue to be higher than one might expect.
More recently, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has had an enormous impact on European energy costs. Europe uses a large amount of Russian gas, sourcing more than 40% of gas from Russia in 2021 alone. The ongoing conflict has disrupted the supply chain and global sanctions on Russian exports of gas and oil has set costs skyrocketing again.
The bottom line is that the energy market is live, always growing and changing. It is traded every half an hour, leading to prices fluctuating so regularly and so sharply that it is not as simple as waiting for the best deal.
How Can Your Business Stay Compliant And Stay On Top Of Your Energy Consumption?
With so many different elements to consider when it comes to ever-changing energy costs, it can be difficult to know how to keep your business compliant with current expectations. This becomes even more complicated when you turn your attention to keeping your energy usage low to try and reduce costs.
Tackling these unprecedented energy costs can be disheartening, especially if you do not have the right expertise to understand the complexities involved in these changes. With these costs
looking to remain high for years to come, you will need to future-proof your business with energy efficiency projects and renewable self-generation technology.
Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting
Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) is a mandatory scheme for larger businesses. This scheme seeks to introduce businesses to the benefits of these reports, encouraging energy
efficiency measures. Your business can see economic and environmental benefits from SECR, supporting you in cutting costs and reducing carbon emissions. While it may be difficult to see
how you can improve productivity when worried about tackling rising energy costs, SECR is here to make it easier.
SBTi
The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) seeks to give businesses a clearer view on reducing carbon emissions. It outlines best practices in reaching net zero targets, based on well researched climate science. This can also help your company to save money and future-proof your business, with a firm focus on climate change. In a world where consumers really care about the carbon footprint of the companies they choose, the SBTi can help you to stay competitive where it counts
Develop An Energy Procurement Crisis Management Plan
Energy procurement can feel like a sunk cost during times where prices only seem to be climbing. However, having the correct strategy in place will give you a better chance of controlling your spending, putting you in a better financial position even with higher prices. This can help you to tackle any unforeseen crises and helps you to better understand the energy market. With more control over your energy costs and how much you consume, this strategy minimises the chances of being stung by unexpected charges or fees. Getting in touch with an energy management expert can help you to better create a crisis management plan that works for your company.
Simple Ways You Can Help Lower Your Businesses Energy Consumption
There are some simple, everyday ways that you can lower your energy usage and cut your costs as much as possible. While keeping informed on legislative changes is important, you can also take easy steps such as encouraging your staff to be mindful of how they use energy. This can include encouraging them to turn off appliances and lights when they are not in use, or you could even install motion sensor lights or time-controlled appliances.
While the lighting is a large part of business energy consumption, you should also consider installing a smart meter to see how much your overall energy usage is. This can help to save money and reduce your overall carbon footprint.
Other elements to look at might be reducing the usage of heating and cooling equipment by wearing appropriate clothing – this could be written into your employee handbook, as it will help you to be able to monitor your heating controls. You can use temperature set points and create visual policies that help staff to understand how to use heating without overusing it.
One factor you may not think about is your water usage, but this is an important element to think about as staff may run water more than strictly necessary. Damaged or dripping taps can
increase water usage without anyone noticing.
Overall, it is a great idea to complete an energy audit of all facilities. It can be challenging to do this alone, so getting in touch with an energy management specialist such as Energy Impact can help you to discover the best choices for your specific business. From reducing paper use to increasing the lifespan of your equipment, you will receive excellent advice on how to make changes that save money and reduce your environmental impact.
Why Work With Energy Impact?
Bringing in an energy management specialist is a great way to develop new strategies for dealing with the ongoing energy crisis, as well as any unforeseen circumstances. Energy Impact can help you to get the best deal possible, even during times when that might seem incredibly challenging. Energy Impact works as an extension of your business, bringing with us industry leading expertise, knowledge and experience. We understand that the energy crisis and increasing costs can be concerning for any business and can offer realistic and achievable solutions to the problems created by this.
We have a wealth of experience in helping hundreds of clients with businesses of different sizes to hit energy performance targets, even in such difficult times. We can help you to better understand your consumption, lower your overall energy costs and find new ways to ease the burden created by rising prices, all while improving your environmental credentials.
This is an unsettling period for those handling the energy needs of a company. For support during these challenging times, get in touch with Energy Impact to book your energy consultation and discover more about how you can manage your needs with rising costs in order to avoid being burnt by the ongoing energy crisis.
