As high energy businesses in the UK face cost pressure to their operations from rising electricity prices, there is a clear market need for services that enable high energy users to make real, cost-effective energy savings.
While installing renewable energy technology on-site has become an established means of creating additional revenue streams and offsetting high energy costs, in light of changing market conditions and the steady removal of clean energy support mechanisms across Europe, utility, agricultural and industrial users will increasingly need to reconsider how they consume electricity.
The new Dulas-Innovatec service will encourage businesses to fully understand their existing energy use profile and reduce demand, before then looking at the best energy technology for on-site generation.
The joint venture, known as the Intelligent Energy Management Service, launched today, will enable business in energy intensive industries to employ cost-saving energy efficiency methods to create a new demand side profile. Only when this profile is fully understood will renewable energy options be considered and deployed.
By introducing this integrated approach, the service will, for the first time, provide businesses with an intelligent and adaptive system that enables them to predict long-term power use, and subsequently de-risk a large percentage of future energy costs.
Furthermore, looking at energy usage across the board, ranging from billing, efficiency, and potential demand side responses to onsite generation opportunities, will allow firms to create compound efficiencies, rather than embark solely on off-grid generation schemes that may not provide the cost savings hoped for – particularly as clean energy subsidies decline across Europe.
The partnership with Innovatec has given Dulas the opportunity to work with a recognised market leader in the space, drawing on the Italian firm’s experience in its own domestic post-subsidy renewable energy market.
“Traditional approaches to finding efficiencies for high energy users still have room for optimisation,’ said Alistair Marsden, Sales Director, Dulas.
“High energy users really need to start at the beginning by understanding and controlling energy usage, before installing a large scale rooftop solar project or wind turbine. If on-site clean energy supplies are deployed, and then overall power consumption is reduced, ultimately the renewable energy investment loses its value.
“Once on-site power consumption is fully understood, then it’s appropriate to start looking at adjustments and incremental improvements in energy efficiency. On-site generation is really the final piece of the puzzle, once that initial analysis has been undertaken.
“As much of Europe moves into a post-subsidy landscape, we have to look at new ways of delivering renewable energy projects that provide value for their end users.”
Pietro Colucci, Innovatec Chairman, commented: “Having started work in the Italian renewable energy market, which has seen the decline of clean energy subsidies, we have a long history in looking for new ways to assist clients in becoming more energy efficient, having worked on over 3000 projects.
“Observing a similar scenario emerging in the UK, we wanted to find the best partner we could to co-deliver energy efficiency and on site generation. Looking at Dulas’ 30 year heritage in the space, it was clear the business would be ideally placed to collaborate with us on delivering a more holistic approach to helping high energy users reduce their costs.”