In October, our Product Director, Adam Wright took to the stage at several industry events and webinars, focusing on where building-owners, operators and energy managers still lose the battle against wasted energy.
The ‘invisible gaps’ in building systems, behaviour and data.
The key message: you can’t optimise what you don’t see, you can’t change what you don’t measure, and you won’t sustain what you don’t engage people in.
From Cost Chaos to Control
Organisations face challenges such as legacy systems, fragmented data, rising energy prices and a lack of clarity on where waste is hiding.
Many businesses treat energy as a fixed overhead rather than a strategic asset.
Outdated infrastructure and escalating costs are driving up both financial and carbon risk.
The first step is transforming from chaos to control:
· Gathering reliable data
· Visualising consumption in its true form
· Setting a roadmap for intervention
It’s important to move beyond aggregate meter data to a more granular visibility. If your data resolution is too coarse you’ll miss the low-hanging fruit’ hiding in plain sight.
Begin with what you can measure today; install basic monitoring, benchmark usage, identify obvious waste and make measurement the basis of your next steps.
Plug Loads: The Silent Drain in Smart Buildings
A key area was the often-ignored category of ‘plug loads’. The myriad of sockets, chargers, devices and equipment that aren’t always tied to the building management system (BMS) or overhead energy strategies.
Plug-in loads represent a large and often unmanaged share of consumption, even in well-controlled buildings with advanced HVAC and lighting control.
Operating outside the main BMS, they’re often missing from dashboards and consequently overlooked in performance monitoring.
To effectively unlock energy efficiency and deliver on net zero ambitions, you must bring appliance-level or socket-level intelligence into your strategy.
Plug-level monitoring and control is increasingly essential for:
· ESG credibility
· Cost-control
· Operational resilience
When designing or retrofitting a building, consider: Which loads are invisible to our current system? How can we instrument, monitor, and control or schedule them?
Even modest interventions can yield significant returns.
Making Data Work: Behaviour, Engagement & Verification
A recurring theme in making data work was the human dimension. Data only has value when it’s acted upon, and behaviour change is essential for sustained performance.
To move from raw data to meaningful savings, organisations must integrate measurement with tangible behavioural change programmes. Verification matters.
Including:
· Demonstrating savings
· Tracking performance
· Continuing stakeholders’ engagement
Empowering teams with visibility transforms them from passive consumers into active participants in energy management.
Strategy & Business Case: Making the Financial Case Work
It is important to align energy efficiency with business goals, cost-savings, operational resilience and regulatory compliance.
Energy efficiency is increasingly intertwined with financial risk including, exposure to volatile energy prices, regulatory change and investor scrutiny.
The ‘value at stake’ concept:
Every unit of energy consumed should be driving value; if it’s not, then it’s a cost leaking into the P&L.
What if you don’t act?
What savings are possible if you do?
What is the ROI?
What is the carbon impact?
Building owners and operators who treat energy as a strategic asset will achieve stronger asset value, better tenant retention and future-proofed operations.
The Road to Net-Zero: Practical Steps for Today
While net-zero is the horizon, the immediate steps matter.
Focused interventions:
· Baseline & Visibility. Understand where you currently are: load profiles, broken control loops, invisible plug loads.
· Prioritise Interventions. Use data to identify where the greatest gaps or wastes are. Consider plug loads, control drift, tenant behaviour.
· Pilot & Scale. Start with manageable pilots - one floor, one building. Validate savings and learn lessons.
· Embed Governance & Culture. Ensure measurement and review. Accountability.
· Continuous Improvement. Use data to monitor, verify, adapt and scale.
Do not treat projects as one-off; make energy management a continuous cycle.