Making the transition from reporting to results
Energy management can play a big part in helping companies to monitor their energy use, but accurate data analysis is only the first step in reducing energy use and achieving sustainability goals, says Kyle Rossi from MRI Software.
Energy reporting is an increasingly high priority for facilities managers. With the advent of net zero targets and detailed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting as standard, teams are expected to devote ever more resource to understanding and mapping their energy and water usage.
The long-term push for net zero sits alongside a more urgent need for energy savings. Energy prices have stabilised since their spike at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, but remain double what they were in May 2020, and instability in the Middle East means that the situation remains volatile.
For many businesses that have struggled with increased energy rates, there remains a strong imperative to reduce energy usage to cut costs and safeguard against future fluctuations, and this has led to a flurry of investment into energy management technologies, from submetering and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to energy management software solutions.
However, without a robust strategy for identifying opportunities and taking action, these firms will struggle to demonstrate tangible progress against their ESG goals, and this results in increasing pressure on FM teams to demonstrate a return on their investment in energy management.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) mandates extensive sustainability reporting for companies, aiming to enhance and standardise the disclosure of ESG information. While this will prompt many FM teams to expand, standardise and improve their energy data collection and reporting, it doesn’t guarantee that this information will be used to its best effect.
To achieve cost savings via reductions in energy usage, and put the wheels in motion for longer-term progress towards net zero, businesses need to make the leap from simply reporting on usage to actively drawing insights from data and making changes.
Coats case study
As a global leader in manufacturing threads and structural components for apparel and footwear, Coats has an extensive industrial portfolio with over 50 sites worldwide. The company aimed to realise ambitious performance targets by 2026 in terms of energy intensity and water recycling.
In 2022, Coats achieved remarkable savings of $630,000 USD and a global reduction of 22 million kilowatts across 12 sites through the implementation of MRI Energy, revolutionising their energy and water management by focussing on making data accessible and actionable at all levels of the business.
For Coats’ senior engineering manager, Ray Smith, data accessibility is a critical success factor. “It’s really important that people understand the value of having dynamic data,” he explains. “As a manufacturing organisation, you quickly find yourself behind the curve if you’re not accessing dynamic data at every level, and as an energy-intensive business it’s critically important to react quickly to change.”
Through MRI Energy, Coats has achieved an unprecedented level of integration, with data from various meters and sensors streamed into the system in real-time.
Like many organisations, the Coats facility collects a wide range of data from sub-metering and Internet of Things (IoT sensors). By consolidating a diverse range of data points, from energy usage trends to temperature, humidity and equipment performance, MRI Energy can analyse historical trends and spot the early signs of increases in energy usage, flagging potential issues so that teams can take prompt action.
Creating actionable dashboards
Translating data into terms which make it relevant to the teams responsible for optimising usage is vital. This often means combining energy usage data with other business-level metrics to generate KPI’s based on costs per unit of production, making it easier for teams to understand and engage with usage data.
To make data actionable, it’s also critical that it’s made available to the people who need it in the right format and at the right time. For many, this means moving from historical reporting delivered via email to dynamic dashboards offering real-time tracking.
At Coats, configurable dashboards were tailored to suit departmental needs and used at all levels of the business, from director to departmental level, offering real-time data that enables quick responses to changes in performance or opportunities for improvement.
“Some of our systems are very manual and people need to make decisions based on an LED readout,” explains Ray. “We want to integrate these into MRI Energy so that they receive an automated alarm rather than needing to check a screen regularly, which will allow us to react more quickly.”
Course for success
Ensuring that the resource invested into reporting results in a measurable impact is no simple task. For businesses seeking similar outcomes, Coats’ approach to driving energy usage reductions and cost savings via real-time data is a prime example of how to bridge the gap between collecting data and truly leveraging it.
The challenge for facilities managers is adapting this approach to their own business, collecting the right data, analysing the right KPI’s, and communicating the right information to allow for timely decision making and rapid action.
While sifting through millions of data points from thousands of sensors is an insurmountable task when attempted using spreadsheets, specialised energy management technology can help lighten the load on facilities managers, bringing cutting edge AI-powered analysis tools to bear on large data sets to understand historical usage trends and identify the key factors likely to impact future results.
With the right strategic approach, energy management tools like MRI Energy can make these insights accessible to the right people at the right times, with dynamic dashboards and real-time alerts empowering them to make the changes required to deliver tangible results.
