What is an Energy Management System?
An Energy Management system (EMS) is designed to manage and reduce a business's energy consumption. An EMS not only displays and provides an overview of your energy consumption data, but also helps identify opportunities to save. This can be in the form of:
- Behaviour improvement to lower energy usage
- Identifying appliances which require maintenance
- Implementing energy-saving technologies
Most energy management systems require extensive staff training to successfully lower energy usage. However, at OAK, we focus on analysing and turning the data into actionable ways to reduce energy consumption and costs. This way, you can get all the benefits of an EMS without any technical training.
How does an Energy Management System work?
An EMS works by collecting live energy usage data from the source (energy meter or individual appliances) to analyse a business's energy consumption patterns, generally using AI or smart algorithms. The system then displays this data on a visual platform, turning complex data into simple, actionable insights.
EMS solutions like Oak are the foundation of reducing energy consumption. We make the once impossible job of live data collection part of your team's day-to-day, incentivising savings to lower energy usage and operating costs.
Types of Energy Management Systems
Rule Based energy management systems
These systems are reliant on previously programmed logic to make decisions on how to control energy consumption. Rule based EMS are used for straightforward businesses where a few rules are enough to govern how the energy management system should operate. This ensures operational stability as long as there are no new or unpredicted consumption patterns.
Forecast-based energy management system
A forecast-driven EMS is the next advancement, this offers solutions for more complex scenarios that traditional rule-based systems struggle to handle. Its core mission? Elevating profitability. Using more complex computations to take into account other factors such as the spot price of the market, charge status of a battery or current generation of a Solar PV system. Its forecasting strategies include more considerations and model types, which are transformed into suggestions for saving energy.
Cloud based EMS solutions
Cloud-based EMS software is the current cutting-edge technology of energy management systems. They revamp how energy management is done, as they are capable of adapting and optimising any business type regardless of industry while benefiting energy consultants and utility companies from its advanced often AI-driven analytics and forecasting.Cloud computing enables real-time access to consumption and recommendations from anywhere in the world, allowing a single person to be able to manage multiple sites regardless of geographical location. It includes flexible integration of IoT, advanced algorithms, real-time reporting and most importantly real-time actionable optimisations.
Real-time alerts notify you of any wastage:
This feature allows businesses to identify and address inefficiencies immediately, preventing unnecessary consumption and reducing costs. Each alert acts as an opportunity for savings, enabling you to make quick adjustments, such as turning off unnecessary lights or repairing malfunctioning equipment, leading to lower energy bills and improved operational efficiency. This immediate feedback loop not only helps in reducing overheads but also supports environmental sustainability goals by minimising unnecessary energy use.
Reduce Costs
A great energy management system will pay for itself within the first 18 months through the savings it helps you make while being affordable in the first place. We use a state-of-the-art AI & Machine Learning Algorithm alongside expert energy data analysts to identify energy waste within your site. Our members receive data analysis based on current and historical data to gain a competitive edge and improve efficiency. Here are some examples of how we've helped Oak members save costs with our EMS solution:
Identified a way to optimise HVAC system saving a large office building ˜£3,000 per month
- Spotted Misuse of CNCs in a UK Leading Manufacturer saving £300 per week
- Optimised Cooling consumption of Hospitality Venue saving 32% on cooling
- Identified a malfunctioning HVAC system saving 22% of its total consumption after maintenance
- Shared Office Space reduced floor consumption by 29% due to OAK recommendations
- Reducing Total site consumption by 16% for a large logistics provider
All in One Solution, solving compliance needs too.
Simplify complex data with a single solution which can solve your energy goals: saving energy cost, providing compliance reporting, control & visibility of real-time consumption, energy tariff optimisation, tailored reporting, data-backed Capex Recommendations, financing and much more.
Fulfil your compliance reporting from an energy perspective as we automatically provide you with the required information you need to report on. This also includes per-unit reporting, which is required for certifications such as ISO50001. We can provide you relevant information for the following compliance reporting:
Future-proof your energy and get ahead of the
curve all while saving costs.
- ESOS
- SECR
- ISO 50001
- And more...
Lower Carbon Emissions
Not only does saving energy save you £££s but it also saves CO2. With an EMS like OAK, you can quantify how much CO2 your optimisations are saving you down to the kilogram. This is possible as every kWh has an attributed CO2 emission which varies from supplier to supplier. For example, the HVAC system optimisation from above (with an assumed tariff of 0.35p) translates to ˜8,500 kWh, equivalent to approximately 2,125Kg of CO2 depending on the supplier.
This is the equivalent of the emissions per passenger of a flight from London to Boston (USA) and back!
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Emission Factors for Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Accessed March 10th, 2024.
Manage Your Energy Usage with Real-Time Data
With Real-time data it takes all the guess work out of the picture, as you can now make decisions based on live consumption. At OAK, we take care of all the data crunching for you so that you can focus on taking action to improve energy efficiency, save on energy costs and ensure optimal operation of your site with ease of mind.
Live Overview of your consumption
With OAK, you will know exactly how much energy is being consumed by each venue of your business down to the equipment within that venue. Providing you a digital twin of your business and leaving no stone unturned. We also provide live alerting based on our AI algorithm which identifies and notifies you of anomalies and what is the most likely cause with a proposed action.
Make informed decisions where to invest
Accurate Real-time data provides the foundation for data backed decisions, not only for improving efficiency but also for CAPEX upgrades. This includes everything from: Solar panels, voltage optimiser, LED, Battery storage, Heat pumps etc. We provide you with the data to make the right decision for your business along with financing options to make your ESG journey more budget friendly.
Energy Management System FAQs
What is the difference between EMS and Scada?
What is ISO 50001 energy management system?
OAK provides you provides the necessary information to comply with certifications like ESOS, SECR, ISO 50001, ISO 14001. This includes key information like Peak hours, Peak consumption, average consumption, consumption of your SEU (Significant Energy Users), Total CO2, CO2 per Unit… etc.
Guiding your journey to net zero as well as controlling the operational costs which are incurred. OAK is the practical way to do EMS (Energy Management System) as we analyse and dig deep into the data to find the most valuable action items for you to take forward.
What are the 3 parts of energy management?
- Gateway or Hub: which collects data from the machine or main meter
- Software: This is where the analysis happens, these are all the algorithms in the background which allow you to take informed decisions.
- Platform: a platform that enables users to visualise the data being collected as well as receive the information in a format so that they can best decide on how to take action, this includes historical data, KPIs, targets, recommendations etc.
Are energy management systems worth it?
What are the problems with energy management?
The usual problem with Energy management is to identify the actual action to take to optimise the consumption. Most EMS specialise in identify in anomalies but not in the precise action on what to do to reduce it.
Granularity
Many EMS systems are not able to identify the root cause as they are reliant on the smart meter data or just main meter consumption, this does not allow them to understand the consumption of equipments.
Limited resources to monitor alarms
Alarms are a huge benefit of EMS however there can be hundreds of alarms across your portfolio, this usually causes confusion and irritation as not ever alarm is accurate
