Image © Shutterstock
No two pathways to Net Zero are the same, says Rob van Leeuwen, and there is an abundance of technologies that can be used at every stage.
There are a set of universally agreed upon stages required to reach Net Zero, which can be applied to any organisation, no matter how large or small. Whenever working with clients, we always advocate building an approach based on these four stages:
- Understand your starting point – knowing your baseline energy consumption and therefore your scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, means you know how far you need to go.
- Design your Net Zero pathway – this gives you a clear plan and staged goals. It sets out the solutions and technologies required, the investment needed, and what it will take to achieve the desired progress.
- Executing your pathway – implementing the right solutions at the right time will advance your Net Zero pathway and ensure business continuity is not interrupted.
- Monitoring and adapting – measurement is vital to prove the plan is delivering the desired progress. Plus, by measuring progress, if the pathway needs to be adapted to meet evolving organisational needs, to navigate unexpected challenges, or reflect changes in legislation or new carbon reduction technologies, you will be using the latest information to make decisions.
Set out like that it seems simple, but there are layers of complexity at every stage, conflated further by the vast differences between organisations themselves, or even between the individual sites across an organisation’s portfolio.
No carbon copies
No two Net Zero pathways are the same. That’s why it’s vital to avoid a carbon copy approach; trying to replicate the pathway of a similar business is a big misstep in the direction of progressing Net Zero. Similarly, what’s working at one site may not be the right solution at another, even if their energy consumption profile is similar.
Even down to the circuit or appliance level, two appliances may seem to be functioning the same but could in fact have vastly different consumption patterns and energy usage.
We saw an example in a meat and dairy wholesaler, which relied on several large refrigeration units to store product. Each unit was the same make and model, installed at the same time, and serviced systematically. By monitoring energy consumption at appliance level, we were able to see that one unit had a far higher consumption rate. A maintenance check uncovered a fault, which was causing the unit to operate inefficiently. Once the fault was rectified, the unit’s consumption came back in line with the others and prevented the wholesaler from wasting energy and, more importantly, money.
Turning insight into intelligence
While domestic smart meters have suffered from something of a PR problem in recent years, the commercial equivalent – or more specifically the provision of real-time energy consumption data at circuit level – faces a different challenge. Of all the technologies and innovations associated with Net Zero, it is by far the least visible and least sexy.
However, overcoming this perception problem is vital. It is this technology, the data it provides, and the actionable insights that can be developed, which will underpin any Net Zero pathway, and prove itself time and again when unpicking some of the complexity of how to make organisations more energy efficient.
As a simple example, a significant power outage or even a routine maintenance cycle can be enough to reset an optimised Building Management System (BMS), causing operating times to change and the HVAC system to operate at the wrong times, potentially wasting energy. Unless this is manually investigated, it can easily go unnoticed, causing the system to run while no one is in the building. However, having real-time visibility of energy consumption across every aspect of an organisation will flag the discrepancy immediately and enable it to be rectified.
In contrast, an organisation that has had solar panels installed on its roof would, by pure visibility, be signalling it is deploying a more advanced energy strategy; on-site generation reducing grid reliance and carbon impact. Yet time and again we have seen solar set-ups which are not monitored effectively.
The worst-case scenario here is that a solar array is generating sufficient energy, which, due to any number of practical or operational issues (even down to legacy wiring in older buildings) is not being consumed on-site, and instead more energy from the grid is being unnecessarily purchased, costing the organisation money it doesn’t need to spend.
When looking at the up-front investment in solar, not optimising the system and paying for ‘extra’ energy from the grid can extend the pay-back period significantly. This is before you consider that there could be the opportunity to sell back excess energy generated to the grid – something that is only possible if you understand your energy consumption at a granular level.
Accelerating the Net Zero transition with insight and intelligence
There is an abundance of technologies that can be used across portfolios to improve energy efficiency and generate energy on-site. And as we know, there’s no carbon copy approach to the right combination of strategies and technologies required to advance an organisation’s Net Zero pathway.
But what is universal is that the truly revolutionary technology – from an energy management perspective – is that which provides the insight, and intelligence. It is this intelligence that will underpin and optimise every other aspect of the Net Zero pathway.
What’s more, consumption data from circuit and appliance level monitoring, will also be vital for every organisation looking to benefit commercially, as the grid shifts to a flexible consumption model to reflect the reality of a renewable energy future.
To find out more, visit www.equityenergies.com
