Winter is coming – plan ahead to avoid higher costs with effective energy management

As winter looms and with Triad season on the horizon, major business energy users should act now to manage their consumption and take control of costs through a robust energy management strategy, says energy supplier npower.

For many businesses, a key factor influencing winter energy costs is energy use during Triad periods. These are the three highest half-hour periods of peak energy demand, used by National Grid to recoup costs for operating and maintaining the transmission network (TNUoS), passed on to organisations. Triads fall between November and February, usually between 16:00 – 18:00 during cold weather, when industrial demand coincides with the domestic tea-time period.

With advance warning it is possible to reduce this charge – which can often run to tens of thousands of pounds – by reducing energy consumption when a Triad period may occur. npower offers business customers a free Triad warning service, issuing a carefully chosen prediction of when a Triad period is likely to occur a day in advance so they can make an informed choice on how to manage their energy consumption.

Wayne Mitchell, npower’s Industrial & Commercial sales and marketing director, explains: “Recent harsh winters, combined with uncertainty around future energy policy, means it is becoming less easy for businesses to predict energy costs. To control these costs as much as possible, it’s vital organisations focus on the one thing they can influence – their own energy usage. Triad management can be an important part of a successful winter energy management strategy.

“Triad management isn’t the only tool in a business’ arsenal. Trying to become as energy efficient as possible is fundamental to managing energy properly. Measures such as monitoring energy usage and setting building controls such as heating and lighting correctly to avoid wasting energy are becoming more essential each year. However, we know many companies struggle to manage this themselves, so we offer a range of energy management solutions.”

One of npower’s tools for helping businesses better manage their energy use is encompass. Encompass offers a comprehensive solution for keeping track of and targeting energy use that can help businesses maximise their energy management, and gives the opportunity to measure, monitor and minimise every aspect of energy and carbon use quickly and easily.

Available in a range of packages to suit varying business needs, the new addition to the encompass range, ‘encompass Bureau’, makes energy monitoring accessible for the first time to companies who don’t have the resource in-house to manage energy use effectively. It gives access to an expert team of energy analysts and allows organisations to continue to focus on running their core operations while the team helps identify where energy savings can be achieved.