January 11th 2023

Reducing Business Energy Bills: The IES Approach

Reducing Business Energy Bills: The IES Approach

With the recent announcement by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on the reduced support for businesses with their energy bills from April this year, many UK businesses will be grappling to understand what this means for their business and what they can do to keep business energy bills down in order to stay afloat after March.

Most firms were aware that government help for businesses with energy bills was a short-term solution. The long-term solution to keep business energy costs down is for companies to take energy consumption into their own hands and explore all opportunities to decrease demand and move away from using price-volatile and carbon-intensive fossil fuels. However, this may not be possible as an immediate action and in the interim, looking at operational inefficiencies and retrofitting opportunities is a more feasible option.

Our expansive consulting expertise in measuring building performance spans nearly 3 decades. We know the key data measurements needed to analyse whether the performance of buildings and their service systems meet Energy Efficiency and Net-Zero building standards. Working in collaboration with internal and external estates/facilities teams, we put the power in their hands, and deliver a single pane view across all building data, with the add-on ability to simulate the impact of ‘what if’ changes and improvement scenarios, and track the progress of chosen strategies once implemented.

With conserving energy the only way to truly tackle the issue, our approach helps businesses improve the energy efficiency of their buildings and save at least 20% on their energy bills.

The IES  Approach

Stage 1: Data Gathering
Review of existing energy data infrastructure to include:

– Energy use/generation – utility meters / sub meters – gas / electric / biomass / solar PV

– System performance – ventilation, heating, cooling, lighting – BMS / control settings

– Building conditions – temperature, air quality, light – BMS/ IoT sensors / thermostats

– Building use – occupancy profiles / equipment use

– Weather Conditions – IES provided current & future weather files


This required data collection has three main types: historical data from the building, streaming data from sensors and user-related data. Historical data will be gathered from meters and utility bills; availability of existing live data streams and historical logged data will then be determined; and user-related data will be gathered thorough specific surveys and feedback services.

Stage 2: Energy Infrastructure Investment
Following this in-depth dive into your existing energy and comfort data infrastructure, we’ll advise on where enhancements can be made to data gathering, alongside associated benefits and expected ROI. The report will describe the data specifications of the measurements deemed necessary, including guidelines for the selection of sensors and data loggers.

Stage 3: Energy Baseline & Detailed Breakdown
This important step delivers a clear picture of where and how energy is being used across your site or portfolio, which can be used to give valuable improvement insights and guide which areas to focus on. It also provides an important baseline from which to test and monitor against going forward.

Stage 4: Low-Cost Energy Improvements
The next step is to use this clarity to investigate across data sets and identify quick wins and problem areas that can be addressed by simple, low-cost control and operational changes which eliminate energy waste. Enhanced energy metering and monitoring enables us to accurately calculate the payback period of agreed energy efficiency measures. Included in the report will be recommendations on a series of energy savings measures, alongside associated expected energy / carbon savings and comfort improvements. These will be aligned with any pre-existing initiatives or restrictions and presented in a way that allows you to understand impacts individually or in combination. Allowing you to make an investment plan and build a detailed list of agreed actions for the building/ facilities team to implement.

Stage 5: Remote Energy Monitoring
The above stage can be revisited throughout the life of your building(s) to prevent operational drift and continually improve performance. Or you have the option to set up a bespoke operational command centre for your building or buildings to preserve year-on-year the energy savings discovered and prevent ‘operational drift’ (when efficiencies are lost over time because building occupants and managers change settings, equipment and use patterns).

Stage 6: Post Installation Check Up
Option to undertake a Measurement and Verification(M&V) process to ensure that the expected energy savings are on track during implementation and reach their full savings potential once implemented.

Stage 7: Road to Net-Zero
Option to create a more sophisticated Digital Twin to take you to the next stage – one that allows you to test scenarios on how to get to net-zero & become energy self-sufficient. We will use the detailed virtual replica of your building(s) to identify the key measures needed over time, with accurate forecasting of potential savings and impacts that can be tracked in real-time through the live Digital Twin created.

To find out more on how you can take control of your building’s energy use and set your business on track to meet its decarbonisation and comfort goals, download our free Guide to Reducing Business Energy Costs.

Find out more:
Visit https://www.iesve.com/energy-crisis
Contact us here