The good news is that substantial savings are available to companies who make the right decisions today. Costs can be saved through improved asset stewardship, value engineering in capital projects, extending the life of assets and by considering a site holistically as a local energy system.

The even better news is that many of these savings can be achieved quickly, improving in-year budget performance and can be sustained across multiple years with a payback of less than one year. In themselves these savings can be significant but in aggregation they can make the difference between targets being achieved or missed. It is therefore important to ensure your company captures opportunities that arise in the economic rebound.

Additional benefits can be achieved by considering a site holistically as a microgrid, doing so can vastly improve the business case for new energy technologies (for example solar, storage, flexibility and control). Optimising a site holistically can provide additional benefits by reducing energy use and generating revenues through network support. Each site is different, however, so a collective assessment of the wider toolbox of behind-the-meter technologies will help identify which of those technologies will be beneficial to each particular site.

To achieve these benefits, organisations must:

Step 1:

• Review your energy infrastructure strategy, review their principles of asset stewardship and adopt a whole system infrastructure costing approach.

Step 2:

• Review capital project portfolios to assess opportunities for greater integration of infrastructure, review opportunities to secure innovation funding to support new projects and reassess the business case for key projects.

Step 3:

• Assess the toolbox of technologies within your local energy system to optimise the use of your existing assets.

COVID-19 has had a huge and immediate impact on the physical and economic health of employees and businesses alike. This cannot be understated. How organisations and individuals re-engage with the infrastructure which underpins their businesses will in part determine how long COVID-19 continues to impact their business.

Rahul N. Desai, Senior Consultant