Energy Prices Rising – Now Is the Time to Invest in IoT

31 March 2022

Rising energy prices are having a crippling impact on energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing and process engineering. Now is the time to embrace IoT technologies and immediately benefit from reduced energy bills.

With wholesale energy prices at a record high - crippling both homeowners and businesses - everyone’s attention is on their energy bill now more than ever. Energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing and process engineering facilities are starting to feel the real pinch from rising energy prices and looking for instant ways to cut their energy use. We have witnessed this recently with reports that Tata Steel has altered its operational hours from day to night to avoid the stifling energy costs from daytime operations. While retail and hospitality have already taken a blow coming out of the pandemic, they are now facing a cost of operating crisis with energy prices.

Now is the time to look to technology and the role it can play not only in efficiencies in energy use and energy reduction but also the cost-benefit it can bring while reducing energy consumption.

Almost every industry would reap instant benefits from IoT technology that could bring them (upwards) of a 30% reduction in energy bills. IoT can help identify energy consumption throughout the day (metering) and with sub-metering to pinpoint critical activities at higher tariff times of day that could be changed and then instantly see the benefits in the reduction of energy bills. This is called demand-side response.

What can IoT technology do to help reduce energy bills?

• Identify out of hours consumption as an immediate win. Often, we see lighting and heating, air conditioning left on overnight when the store, office, manufacturing facilities are closed.
• Identify inefficiency in consumption from poorly performing assets such as manufacturing items and HVAC systems. Improved maintenance or tighter controls measures would deliver instant savings on hours consumption and costs
• Recommend shifting energy-intensive activities away from high tariff times of day – typically 12-2 pm in London and 4-7 pm UK wide on weekdays. 
   
• Alter shift patterns to turn items off for a short period of time. A slight reduction in kWh at these times provides greater value in £s and pence.
• Demand-side response can also bring helpful practices to businesses large and small. A slight shift in load at critical times of day can greatly impact your energy costs. Turning the HVAC off for a short amount of time whilst also making sure the internal conditions don’t impact on building occupiers is a quick and easy win. Not leaving manufacturing plant idle or changing when shift patterns take place to benefit from cheaper tariffs.

Our CODA IoT solution provides the insights businesses need to understand the energy consumption patterns, associated costs and look at the wider business and operations to identify ways to reduce consumption and costs. Before rising energy prices, companies would see a monetary return on investment from IoT solutions like ours in anything from 18-24months. With increased energy prices, the ROI is drastically shortened making investment in IoT a quick win for most.

With IoT technologies the savings are instant – once you identify inefficiencies in operation or the potential to change operational practices and shift load from expensive time of day tariffs, CODA helps you make those changes and instantly reap the rewards in reduced energy bills and a reduction in carbon emissions.

Ultimately IoT technology can help you better understand your energy consumption and costs and make informed decisions to make changes to your operations and reap the financial returns.

---

For further information please contact the team at email: info@codacloud.io