The progression of energy management tools is gathering pace as many large businesses are discarding the spread sheet and note book approach to collecting and analysing data and are spending serious money on software solutions to this data management problem.

I took a trip to London’s Walkie Talkie building on Fenchurch Street to find out what was on offer.

I attended a presentation by Accuvio who have just launched an iPad version of their data capture and management software, Accuvio Energy Auditor. In contrast to the lack of interest shown by some large companies they have a wide range of clients who have accepted their responsibilities under the Energy Efficiency Directive Article 8 and have started seriously managing their energy usage.

Accuvio gave us a short demonstration of their software before hand which showed how energy data from many geographical locations can be pulled together in one database and used to produce useful reports. This can then be used to take actions to improve energy usage and monitor the effects. This can be viewed at – http://bit.ly/macoun-accuvio

In addition to Accuvio there was a number of presentations by industry experts from SustainIT, Anthesis, Emerson Climate Technologies and Minimise Group all pulled together  by Accuvio’s CEO Adrian Flemming.

These presentations showed how many companies are approaching the directive across Europe, which in many cases is very diverse, but never the less, complying with the sentiment of the initiative.

The Accuvio software solution is a tool for logging, collating, presenting and analysing your energy data which can be inputted either manually or automatically. Jason Plant of Minimise Group explained how the use of “The Internet of Things” (that Ping) technology such as wireless electricity meters can be used to capture real-time date.

With that information the business can start to really manage their energy use. Initially a set of base lines would be set to allow the business to compare their performance against absolute amounts of KWhs used. Then the business would move to rations which would allow actions to be taken which would have real bottom line effect.

Careful consideration is needed when selecting energy KPIs as absolute figures such as KWh used can be effected by adding or subtracting whole elements of the business. A better approach is to design specific KPIs that allow ratios of energy used against volume produced to be monitored and then this gives a true indication of any savings.

We are about to embark on a energy project for a high energy factory in Northumberland and will keep a running diary of our findings, watch this space!