Member Article

Holistic approach to energy efficiency key for SMEs

Adrian Pike, CEO of national energy efficiency solutions company Anesco, looks at measures for SMEs.

With spiralling energy and fuel costs it has never been more important for SME’s to address their energy efficiency and to capitalise on the vital savings that can be made for their bottom line.

But where should you start when it comes to improving energy efficiency?

At Anesco we strongly advocate the need for businesses to take a holistic approach to energy efficiency and to introduce a strategy which considers every aspect and function of a building’s performance.

Consider each measure available based on its individual merits, as there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’. It is down to your building, how you use it and operate within it and how you produce and manufacture as to what will provide you with the biggest savings.

It is also a rapidly expanding sector, with emerging technologies and innovations constantly on the horizon.

Measures that can be considered range from insulation to lighting, waste water heat recovery, voltage optimisation, and renewable technologies such as ground source heat pumps and rooftop solar PV schemes, along with looking at patterns of employee behaviour.

As with any investment you make for your business, you need to know what return you will receive and how quickly the payback period on your investment will be, so you can then make an informed decision.

There are also options for introducing such measures that require no upfront capital at all, such as the fully funded ESCO model we provide at Anesco, which recoups the investment made through the saving the measures generate.

For SMEs there are also a number of incentives available from the Government. For example, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme which financially rewards organisations that generate renewable heat.

One such area of renewable heat is bioenergy, made from the burning of material of recent biological origin - derived from plant or animal matter - commonly known as biomass.

This is a growth area for us and we are soon to launch a fully funded model for businesses, whereby firms can have a biomass boiler installed for free, while the funding is recouped for investors through the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) payments. Using this type of heating is not only better for the environment, but can bring substantial savings of 30% to 50% on heating bills for an organisation.

At Anesco we support the recently launched Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO), which has been set up by the Government to drive a step change in energy efficiency and what remains clear is that reducing expenditure, especially in the current climate, is more important than ever for SMEs.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adrian Pike .