Energy management system should be all-encompassing tools for businesses and homeowners to streamline their energy management tasks. They should help business owners analyze their energy usage, facilitate the implementation of measures that help reduce energy consumption, identify energy wastage and save money while keeping everything environmentally friendly. However, these systems are responsible for more than making the life of the energy manager easier.
Some complex factors come into play beyond energy data evaluation. You should be assured that your system can reflect your energy goals and be responsive to your situations and deliver data-driven and useful recommendations.
Now that you know more about a management system, it is important to know some of the top features to look for when choosing the right system. The use of energy in one organization is different from another due to a wide range of reasons. It is, therefore, important to ask the right questions before choosing a service provider for management systems.
Define energy goals
It is important to collaborate with other stakeholders because defining energy goals should be a collaboration between the system and your energy management team. Whilst your organization creates the objectives, the system should be customizable and responsible to fully meet your needs.
Achieving management buy-in
Achieving buy-in is one of the most difficult aspects of energy management. Energy monitoring systems should have intuitive and sleek dashboards that display savings to management and encourage employee engagement. They should also provide a site for comparisons.
Setting timelines and objectives
Being able to set energy objectives by using real-time and historical data is an important feature of a management system. EMS should be able to evaluate the trends and provide insights that are data-driven to project timelines for your energy goals.
Collection of data
Energy data in a variety of locations can make aggregating the data a daunting task. An EMS should be flexible enough in data collection. Whether it is located in legacy metering systems, spreadsheets or building automation systems, a management system should integrate and pull the data for you.
Verifying and measuring energy consumption
An EMS should instinctively and intuitively measure your energy usage with the accompanying verification methods. The process must fine-tune your focus and inform you about the progress of your saving goals.
Setting your energy KPIs
Whilst energy KPIs are unique to each business, an EMS should provide the necessary analysis of data to identify the measures that you need to report on.
Efficient reporting
When it comes to evaluating your key performance indicators, you will need critical information such as emissions, consumption, verification of savings, financial data and more. EMS should therefore be equipped with the necessary tools to create custom reports to help you and your team save time and money.
The identification of energy-saving opportunities
Energy management systems should be capable of visualizing the consumption of energy to present inefficiencies. Reports and graphing technologies can determine where inefficiencies are and where actions should be taken.
