Can a Smart Meter Help Me Make Business Energy Savings?
Can a smart meter really save my business time, money and energy?
Though most of us have heard of smart meters, many people don’t fully understand the benefits of having one.
Here we look at how they can help businesses collect useful insights, save time, cut waste and make business energy savings.
What is a Smart Meter?
A smart meter is an intelligent digital device that is designed to replace the traditional gas and electric meters. The data collected is used by suppliers to ensure accurate billing, and can also be used to inform businesses of their consumption, which can be displayed in Kwh, in £s or Co2.
How do Smart Meters Work?
Unlike conventional meters, smart meters automatically notify your supplier of your energy usage. By doing this, they eliminate the need for you to submit a meter reading.
What are the Business Benefits of Smart Meters?
Some of the benefits of smart meters include:
• They give accurate readings, so there are no more estimated bills.
• They display near real-time information of your energy usage, so you can see exactly how much you spend each day, week, and month.
• By seeing your usage data broken down into half-hourly segments, you can get a much clearer picture of when and how you use energy. This could help you put efficiency measures in place, cutting carbon and potentially making business energy savings.
• They will support the introduction of ‘time-of-use tariffs’, which will allow businesses to change their usage behaviour to reduce their usage at peak times (for example, running machinery or charging electric vehicles and forklifts outside of peak times).
• The national grid also utilises smart meter data to try and balance supply and demand, both by increasing supply at peak times and incentivising customers to switch their demand to off peak times.
Adding Greater Value
In a 2020 statement, Robert Cheesewright, director at Smart Energy GB, said: “In uncertain times it can often be difficult to know how to take back a bit of control and which steps will benefit your business.
“One simple step you can take to get control over your business’ energy spend is contacting your energy supplier to see if you are eligible for a smart meter.”
For our smart meter customers, we can add significant additional value, via our energy monitoring tools. Using data from your half-hourly meter, we can help you gain an even deeper insight into your spending, and will work with you to identify key opportunities for reducing your usage.
This can be supplemented by additional software, such as sub-meters, as well as expert consultancy, allowing you to understand the performance of individual sites, divisions and even individual pieces of machinery.
Business Energy Savings
So smart meters can be a useful tool in helping businesses take control of their energy, monitor their carbon footprint, and make informed decisions about their daily usage.
When you use Tritility to switch your business energy, we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have around smart meters. Tritility can help businesses find suppliers that will endeavour to upgrade meters to Smart or help with installation of automatic meter reading equipment.
This, coupled with our Energy Management Software, ongoing advice and hardware solutions, will provide you with all the tools you need to stay in control of your energy. And as net zero targets loom and energy prices rise, there has never been a better time to do so.
For more information on our Business Energy Procurement services, take a look at our Business Energy Procurement guide.
If you’re looking to switch your energy, or are simply interested in how we might help your business to cut cost, get in touch.