With the public following social distancing guidelines, many offices, shops and restaurants will still be closed for the next few months.
Excess Energy
The National Grid has stated a 10% drop in energy consumption since lockdown has been enforced, which they predominately attributed to vacant commercial buildings. However, just because a building is almost empty of people doesn’t mean energy usage drops to zero. Many assets still need to continue operating to stay in good repair such as HVAC systems. Alongside this, many buildings have emergency lighting and assets on standby power. Research conducted across 300 office buildings by Carbon Intelligence, showed that energy use has only dropped by 16% compared to pre-lockdown.
It’s not only unnecessary energy bills these buildings are experiencing, is also the carbon impact of all the wasted energy which is significant. A building still uses around 80% of its energy whilst being vacant and will still be responsible for an additional 3,000kg of CO2 emissions each week, compared to an office operating at a 50% reduced energy rate.
This situation poses an unprecedented challenge for facility and energy managers to ensure energy consumption is being monitored and regulated accordingly. During this time, companies want to avoid using excess energy and bring costs down to a minimum. At the same time, they cannot completely shut everything down as some assets are vital to the buildings function and it needs to remain in good health for when the building is occupied again.
Providing Ultimate Visibility
Using an advanced energy monitoring solution such as ours, managers will be able to gain integral insight into their building’s operations. The Hark Platform conducts asset performance monitoring and energy management in real-time. Meaning managers can determine which assets are consuming the highest amount of energy to make informed decisions on which to power down to converse energy.
Our platform utilises AI to consistently monitor the energy data metrics to detect any anomalies. Any spike in electricity will be detected and a notification will be instantly sent to the manager so they can react immediately.
The platform provides managers with full asset control through our sensor-based technology and AI capabilities. If an asset has been unintentionally left on, a facility manager has the ability to automatically power down the asset from a completely remote location, helping to drive down energy consumption.
During these uncertain times, managers can take ultimate control over their building’s energy usage and ensure it is ready for future occupancy.