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As one of the leading utility consultancies in the UK, Business Cost Consultants is regularly quoted in news and trade press. Below you will find recent press coverage on Business Cost Consultants. Please email us if you would like to find out more about the content of these stories or if you would like to discuss how Business Cost Consultants could help your organisation in similar ways.
Taking the heat off businesses
Monday, August 21, 2006
Leisure Report
Donald Maclean of Audits Unlimited says an innovative solution can help leisure and sports firms to reduce energy consumption and costs.
Most organisations will be familiar with The Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax introduced in April 2001 on energy use in industry, commerce, agriculture and the public sector. Many organisations in industry exemption schemes found it quite easy to comply with the CCL targets in the first few years, because the targets and benchmarks were not too challenging. However more recently, more challenging targets have been set. The new, more demanding targets, and the large rises in energy costs have created a growing need for close targeting and monitoring of energy consumption, which is something that many organisations do not have the time, the technology, or the resources to do.
An increasingly popular solution is to commission an independent utilities consultant to track and manage your energy consumption using specially designed hardware (which fits on to electricity, gas and water meters) and software to record energy consumption, month by month, for their clients. The results highlight anomalies such as higher or lower than expected consumption, and the reasons for these anomalies can then be thoroughly investigated.
The latest hardware and software system on the market is The Energy Performance Management (EPM) Service. Developed by EMAS (Energy Management Advisory Services), it is the only energy management solution to offer a fully integrated system across gas, electricity and water. This leading-edge technology helps organisations to reduce their energy and water consumption and their carbon emissions.
The EPM Service combines easy to use, 'plug in and go' technology with an evaluation service to monitor and reduce utility consumption, in turn delivering major cost savings to businesses.
In one trial project involving one of the UK's top four High Street retail banks, the EPM service delivered savings of 64% on gas and 47% on electricity bills across individual branches.
The EPM Service was developed following a six year, 6 million euro research programme to create the sophisticated technology at the heart of the system. It makes use of simple-to-install monitoring and transmission equipment to pick up consumption data from electricity, gas and water meters and send the data to a server. There the sophisticated software can be tailored to suit the needs of each organisation and to provide virtually real-time remote analysis of gas, water, and electricity usage. The system is unique in operating non-invasively across all three utilities. It can also accurately measure the consumption of other fluids such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) diesel and gas oil.
As part of the service, the experts can use the software to identify inefficiencies in the use of gas, electricity and water, thereby achieving significant cost reductions and a rapid return on investment. The system can give users early warning of potential problems such as gas or water leaks by flagging up "abnormal" consumption and also offer the facility to check usage in different zones of a building even when the utility is coming from a single source. In addition, it allows businesses to accurately forecast future energy consumption.The software can also be used to compare the organisation's energy consumption figures with their own targets, or those set for them under the CCL exemption schemes. It can be used to compare the energy performancees of similar buildings in a chain.
Apart form the reductions in energy and water costs, the main advantage to organisations is a facility to allow managers to budget accurately. It eliminates the need for estimated utility bills and can provide consumption and cost data on a daily basis, if required.
These smart metering devices are the future for accurately controlling and reducing utility costs.
Case Study - Celtic Football Club
Only recently introduced into Scotland through an exclusive distribution partnership with Audits Unlimited, the EPM technology is already being put to use at Celtic Football Club. The club has signed a three year agreement with Audits Unlimited to provide a complete utility management service covering electricity, gas, water and telecoms. Being completely independent, Audits Unlimited is able to negotiate the best prices from utility suppliers. By using their expertise and market intelligence, the company will advise the club on the best time to purchase energy contracts in very volatile markets. The company will constantly monitor the club's bills and consumption data to make sure that utilities are being employed in the most efficient way. This will involve using sophisticated technology such as smart data loggers which will continuously monitor and track gas, electricity and water consumption and flag up exceptions for further investigation.
The new, patented technology will allow Audits Unlimited to monitor utility consumption on a daily basis and reveal unusual patterns of energy and water consumption. Consumption data is transmitted to a central computer, where it can be closely monitored. This makes it relatively easy for experts to spot increased use of energy, gas or water leaks.
Facilities Manager at Celtic Football Club, David McCallum, is keen to make sure that the club's utilities are being used in the most efficient and effective manner: "We are committed to meeting our environmental obligations and also increasing shareholder value by making cost savings wherever we can. Working with a utility management company like Audits Unlimited can help us achieve both these goals. In addition, they have already helped us to significantly reduce our water consumption. Even in rising markets, they have helped us reduce our energy costs. All of this ensures we get better value for money and reduce costs to the benefit of our fans and shareholders."
Donald Maclean, Managing Partner at Audits Unlimited, commented:
"We have worked with a number of large stadia and have managed to save them considerable amounts on their utility bills. Not only are Celtic and Rangers taking a very prudent approach to costs, but they are also doing their bit for the environment. It is great to be able to help clients achieve both."
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A firm grasp on energy
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Environment Business
Donald Maclean discusses the innovative new hardware and software that businesses can use to monitor their energy use and reduce energy consumption and costs.
Most businesses will be familiar with The Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax introduced in April 2001 on energy use in industry, commerce, agriculture and the public sector.
Many organisations in industry exemption schemes found it quite easy to comply with the CCL targets in the first few years, because the targets and benchmarks were not too challenging. However more recently, more challenging targets have been set. The new, more demanding targets have created a growing need for close targeting and monitoring of energy consumption, which is something that many organisations do not have the time, the technology, or the resources to do.
An increasingly popular solution is for a firm to commission independent utilities consultants to track its energy consumption using specially designed software to record energy consumption, month by month, for their clients. The results highlight anomalies such as higher or lower than expected consumption, and the reasons for these anomalies can then be thoroughly investigated.
The latest hardware and software on the market is the Energy Performance Management (EPM) service. Developed by EMAS (Energy Management Advisory Services), it is the only energy management solution to offer a fully integrated system across gas, electricity and water. This leading-edge technology helps organisations to reduce their energy and water consumption and their carbon emissions.
The EPM service combines easy to use, 'plug in and go' technology with an evaluation service to monitor and reduce utility consumption, in turn delivering major cost savings to businesses.
In one trial project involving one of the UK's top four High Street retail banks, the EPM service delivered savings of 64% on gas and 47% on electricity bills across individual branches.*
EPM was developed following a six year, £4.2M research programme to create the sophisticated technology at the heart of the system. It makes use of simple-to-install monitoring and transmission equipment to send consumption data to a server. There the sophisticated software can be tailored to suit the needs of each organisation and to provide virtually real-time remote analysis of gas, water, and electricity usage. The system is unique in operating non-invasively across all three utilities. It can also accurately measure the consumption of other fluids such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) diesel and gas oil.
As part of the service, the experts can use the software to identify inefficiencies in the use of gas, electricity and water, thereby achieving significant cost reductions and a rapid return on investment. The system can give users early warning of potential problems such as gas or water leaks by flagging up "abnormal" consumption and also offer the facility to check usage in different zones of a building even when the utility is coming from a single source. In addition, it allows businesses to accurately forecast future energy consumption.
Only recently introduced into Scotland through an exclusive distribution partnership with Audits Unlimited, the technology is already being put to use at Celtic Football Club, who have just signed a 3 year agreement with Audits Unlimited to provide a complete utility management service covering electricity, gas and water. The software will continuously monitor and track the consumption of all three utilties and flag up exceptions for further investigation.
The new, patented technology will allow the consultants to monitor Celtic's utility consumption on a daily basis and reveal unusual patterns of energy and water consumption. This makes it relatively easy for experts to spot increased use of energy, gas or water leaks. Facilities Manager at Celtic Football Club, David McCallum, is keen to make sure that the club's utilities are being used in the most efficient and effective manner:
"We spend a significant amount of money each year on utility costs. We believe that this agreement will not only save us money but also support our desire to be environmentally prudent by reducing CO2 emissions. This ensures we get better value for money and reduce costs, to the benefit of our fans and our shareholders."
The software can also be used to record the consumption of energy and compare the figures with the organisation's own targets, or those set for them under the CCL exemption schemes. This prevents firms from falling behind on their commitments to save energy. To do so could result in ejection from industry schemes and the loss of their 80% exemptions. With the current high energy price levels, this loss would be much more painful than in 2001, when energy prices were relatively low.
* Results taken from a trial project involving one of the UK's top four High Street retail banks which secured savings of 64% on gas and 47% on electricity bills at individual branches.
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