ADVERT – ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Members of the Aluminium Federation are from a diverse range of industry sectors, covering large scale aluminium production through to precision engineering. So, whether your business is melting, rolling, pressing or machining, it is likely that considerable energy will be consumed to achieve the end results. For high energy-using businesses looking to keep a check on their power costs, there appears to be no hiding place at present or for the foreseeable future. A bullish energy price market combined with ever-increasing ‘non-energy costs’, brought about by green levies, government social policy and ‘use of system’ charges, means businesses are being hit from all sides. As non-energy costs continue to increase to well over 50% of your electricity bill, with forecasts suggesting this share will rise to as much as 67% by 2023, greater emphasis is being placed on becoming more energy efficient. Simply put, unless you become more energy efficient your energy spend will increase year-on-year even if your consumption remains the same. As any self-respecting energy management consultant will tell you, ‘the cheapest unit of energy is the one you never use’. Mitigating against these huge energy costs and navigating a way through the various compensation schemes – designed to encourage companies to help government meet Climate Change Agreement targets – can be
extremely challenging, especially for organisations without the time or necessary in-house expertise. For many years energy intensive businesses relied on buying their energy at the right time, with the right supplier, to control their energy costs. With no real incentive to understand which of their processes was consuming their energy, when it was being used during the day or, more importantly, what could be done to be more energy efficient, it was the shrewd businesses that invested in energy management. Reducing energy consumption does not always have to be about expensive capital expenditure, as results from phase 1 of the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) identified that changing behaviour often produces the quickest and most cost-effective return on investment. A fully qualified energy surveyor can work with you to evaluate your energy demand profile, identify opportunities to reduce consumption and project manage them, meaning your business can focus on what it does best and stay compliant with government legislation. ALFED members should demand independent, unbiased expert advice, pro-active energy procurement, backed up with invoice validation and cloud-based energy data management, to help take control of your energy costs and become more energy efficient.
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