What can an energy consultant do for your organization? And how can you make sure you pick the right consultant to work with? This blog will explain all you need to know about energy consultancy.
What Is an Energy Consultant?
An energy consultant helps clients secure beneficial energy contracts. They use their vast knowledge of the energy industry, market trends, the demands on the power grid, the specific regional Independent System Operation (ISO) or Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), utility contracts, and renewable energy projects to negotiate better agreements for their clients.
Consultants often start a new partnership with energy benchmarking. This compares the results of an energy audit of one business or building to similar examples to determine how efficient it is in terms of energy use.
Energy consultants also gather energy market intelligence and make these insights and knowledge available to their clients. This delivers in-depth knowledge of the local energy market, allowing organizations to make informed decisions about their energy supply.
Why Work With an Energy Consultant?
An energy consultant can help organizations achieve various energy-related goals. These include:
Becoming More Energy Efficient
Energy efficiency is a common goal for organizations, and it’s not hard to see why. By being more efficient with your energy use, you can reduce energy costs and make progress toward sustainability goals. This helps with budgeting and can make your business more attractive to stakeholders and potential investors, because your company is lean, green, or both.
But when we talk about efficiency, we don’t just mean installing equipment with a proven track record of less energy consumption. Efficiency can come from an advantage in executing timely supply contracts capturing market opportunities. Utilities can rank among the highest sales in selling, general, and administrative (SGNA) costs for U.S. businesses. For example, the average utility cost per square foot for commercial property is about $2.10 per square foot.
Energy spend is a significant expenditure for many businesses, and it has the potential to become even more significant in our current climate. The possibility exists for significant increases in the overall cost of electricity as a result of demand growth driven by high-power computing — data centers, AI, and bitcoin mining. These entities can have some of the largest power demand, even in comparison to the largest manufacturing facilities.
A best-in-class consultant with knowledge of the market and its components in your area can bring considerable value by negotiating the best short- or long-term contracts, giving your company flexibility to take advantage of market opportunities or price stability as needed.
Meeting Sustainability Goals
Energy efficiency is one component of progressing toward sustainability goals, but renewable energy is also key. If your organization is looking to kick-start its energy transition, energy consulting can help you get there while maximizing transparency and minimizing costs.
The energy sector is not one-size-fits-all, and different regions have different renewable energy sources. Solar energy might be a better choice in one area while wind power dominates another. And different jurisdictions offer different incentives for wind, geothermal, and solar power — and different subsidies for installing renewable energy technology. Energy consulting services can help educate you on renewable options and how best to capitalize on them.
Diversifying Energy Portfolios
For businesses with multiple locations, it may be beneficial to have more than one energy supplier across markets. Our experience has shown that many times a supplier’s relative competitiveness may vary from one market to the next. Diversifying your energy portfolio can protect you from spikes in prices.
In addition, many times market conditions dictate pricing mechanisms and contract term length from one market to the next. In one location, a fixed-rate contract might be best as it allows for reliable budgeting, but in another locale, a mixed-rate agreement can allow your organization to benefit from market fluctuations. By having a diverse energy supply portfolio, you can protect your business against unpredictable price spikes that could be caused by a geopolitical event, and at the same time seize an opportunity to take advantage of price drops.
Becoming More Flexible
Energy markets are constantly changing, whether it’s supply and demand driving pricing, legislative changes, renewable requirements, or weather and geo-political events. It’s important for your business to be protected, but at the same time flexible enough to maximize opportunity and minimize risk.
Working with a knowledgeable energy consultant improves the likelihood of having supply agreements in place that provide for those protections. Best-in-class energy consultants have the technical expertise and real-world knowledge to formulate recommendations on whether to consider longer-term or shorter-term commitments.
Accessing New Revenue Streams
Energy consultants help businesses drive toward energy savings, sustainability, and flexibility. In some cases, consultants can help businesses find new energy-related revenue streams. An example of this, under the demand-side energy management umbrella, is a program commonly known as demand response. Demand response has many programs available, and many U.S. power grids and some utility distribution companies offer payments to businesses in return for their commitment to voluntarily curtail energy use during peak demand periods on the grid.
How To Choose the Right Energy Consultant?
Not all energy consultants are equal. The benefits listed above are only achievable when you partner with a professional, knowledgeable, and experienced consultant. But what can you do to ensure a fruitful partnership with an energy consultant?
Here are some tips:
- Define your energy goals: Prior to speaking with a potential consultant, it’s wise to have goals specified. These could be price-certainty, assuming more risk and greater potential rewards, lower pricing, and whatever else is important to your business. Whether you just want the most efficient energy contract available or to further sustainability goals, it’s good to establish this first and then find a consultant who can help with those specific objectives.
- Evaluate experience and capabilities: Does the consultant you’re speaking with have experienced staff and decades of working in the industry? Ask the consultant for both business and supplier references.
- Ask your consultant what services beyond energy supply they provide: Are they active in all markets? Are they active in providing services in both electricity and natural gas?
What Sets EnerConnex Apart
EnerConnex has helped many businesses build successful energy strategies. For example, we helped Bucks County Technology Park unlock cost savings and additional revenue with a demand response program. And we’ve worked closely with a successful New Jersey-based insurance company to help them negotiate the best supply contracts while simplifying the process for them. We take pride in providing our clients with all the tools and information they need to make the best decision every time.
Ready To Rethink Your Energy Strategy?
If the time’s right for your business to unlock energy savings, work towards sustainability goals, diversify energy portfolios, access new revenue streams, or all the above, we’d love to talk to you.
Explore our services and discover how we can help your organization.
