Any organization with complex operations knows that understanding data is essential to inform critical decisions that impact the bottom line. The emergence of new data from mobile, embedded devices and internet of things (IoT) is both accelerating and complicating insights. In their recent report, IDC predicts that the collective sum of the world’s data will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, up from 33 zettabytes in 2018.
In addition to a growing diversity of human and machine-generated data, the proliferation of business intelligence tools, blockchain and machine learning are enabling more ways to manage and interpret information. Yet, getting access to data remains a challenge for many businesses.
Harnessing data for better decision making is especially difficult related to energy management and sustainability, with reporting from utilities often paper-based or across multiple vendors. As a result, manual data collection and entry is the status quo, limiting organizations’ ability to understand their energy usage on a granular level. Automated solutions have emerged to address this challenge; however, many organizations have been slow to adapt their processes and systems to take advantage of more scalable data collection options.
Three Keys to Leveraging Energy Data
The benefits of automation are clear: a recent survey found that 51% of global executives make extensive use of automation technologies, attributing it to increased productivity, reduced human error and an enhanced competitive advantage.
Good data management implies both control and usability. While storage and visualization tools are available, fewer solutions exist for capture and analysis. For example, accounts payable automation solutions automate approval processes and payments, but they fall short at the beginning of the AP process, requiring manual entry of many invoices, especially commodities like energy, water and waste that represent a significant portion of operating costs.
But the problem in energy management goes deeper than having to cope with overwhelming volumes of data. Consider IoT-enabled systems. They routinely ingest some energy data directly from meters and other systems, but they cannot access billing or tariff data to provide a full picture of the cost of an enterprise’s energy usage. As a result, they cannot see high-energy usage at non-peak times -- when lower tariffs apply.
For organizations that need to understand these energy-usage trends, automation is incredibly helpful. With individual commercial utility bills for a single location -- sometimes reaching thousands of pages due to detailed tariffs, usage and cost information -- manual entry is not a viable approach. The challenge is compounded for organizations with a global footprint and multiple vendors. Without automated utility data capture, organizations can’t plan effectively for seasonal and peak energy demands or derive valuable insights to improve operations.
Cox Enterprises, a customer of ours, spends approximately $100 million annually on electricity and natural gas. Cox needed better visibility into its 30,000-plus utility accounts, as well as help managing the abundance of fragmented information. Cox’s challenges were further compounded by daily changes in utility tariffs that left it unable to make timely and accurate decisions.
Cox's team built their own sophisticated dashboard and outsourced automated data collection to reconcile, analyze and report on energy consumption and costs within days of bill receipt. Cox is now using its data to accelerate its corporate sustainability program, Cox Conserves. The program launched in 2007 and is already on track to meet its zero waste goal by 2024 and, by 2044, to be carbon and water neutral.
Other organizations, without the resources to build their own dashboard systems, often choose third parties to manage the end-to-end process of data collection, analysis and reporting. For example, LinkedIn has been quietly making waves with its ambitious sustainability goals. Together with its parent company Microsoft, LinkedIn has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, tracking progress through the CDP.
Across LinkedIn’s global offices, employee travel and data centers, the company struggled to accurately and comprehensively track energy and emissions data without some help. One such tool uses an interactive building dashboard integrating real-time data with narrative content to tell a story to engage employees and occupants. At one office where this was used to run an energy reduction competition, it led to the building achieving net-zero energy certification.
The Next Frontier
Automated data processes that enable organizations to collect, reconcile, analyze and report their energy data so that they can be smarter about energy rates, pricing and consumption are the future. By digitizing this process, an organization can better address and manage sustainability objectives, boost operational efficiency and drive cost savings.
Cox Enterprises and LinkedIn are among a number of progressive companies that realize the value of technology in achieving their energy conservation objectives. Smart organizations learn from the data they capture, and they do it immediately and continuously. They devote capital and operating expenses to monitoring and interpreting data because it helps them reduce their costs of doing business.
With or without third-party help, it’s crucial for businesses to understand and realize the value of the data that’s in front of them. Successful organizations should be spending more time analyzing and acting on data than collecting it. If that’s not the case, they need to rethink their processes.
Effective energy data management teams should plan for and consider the following:
• Data collection options
• Data delivery formats
• Responsibilities for data ownership
• Policies for data quality assurance
• Consistent and standardized reporting
Ultimately, automation helps companies understand the energy data that is right before their eyes, giving a measure of control and confidence they would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. For forward-thinking organizations, automation is poised to play an integral role in serving the bottom line while driving measurable climate action -- to ensure a sustainable future for companies and the global environment.
