Keen to save money on their business energy bills, businesses across the UK are being encouraged, and even sometimes coerced, into installing smart meters, with the idea they will save money, while gaining more control over their energy usage. But does having a smart meter lower your energy bills or does it simply provide another piece of technology that has marginal impact?
To state simply: having a smart meter will not save you money. However, when used effectively alongside the right tariff strategy, having a smart meter provides you with robust data and accuracy, which is necessary to allow you to make cost savings over a sustainably long term.
Let’s debunk the myths, realities, and opportunities about business smart meters, the business smart meter benefits, and how E for Energy are helping businesses turn smart meters into a genuine cost saving tool.
A smart meter is a digital device that measures your energy usage in real time and sends this information directly to your energy supplier. Smart meters give a very accurate representation of how much energy your business is consuming, and when it is being used, unlike traditional meters which generally require manual readings or billed estimates.
For businesses, this information is priceless. Many suppliers offer free online dashboards or energy monitoring tools that offer a view of your business’ usage patterns at intervals of half an hour. This greatly aids identifying wastage, tracking seasonal demand, and identifying opportunities for shifting usage.
Smart meters are part of the UK Government’s wider initiative to create a more efficient and transparent energy market. But while installation is heavily publicised, businesses need to understand that the device has limited value itself; the real value lies within how the data is applied for smart meter business savings.
One of the most prevalent myths is that once you install a smart meter, your bills will automatically decrease in the immediate term.
You can think of it like a fitness tracker. You do not become healthy because you are wearing a fitness tracker, it just gives you data to make changes. By providing clear visibility of when, how, and where you use energy, smart meters can enable businesses to do things differently.
While smart meters don’t lead to immediate cost savings, they can be an important part of an energy-saving approach. Here’s how:
A lot of companies are overpaying on their energy bills each month because costs are calculated based on estimates. Smart meters eliminate the courtesy of estimated bills and help businesses save energy costs each month, because smart meters will automatically send the meter readings to the company, they will only pay for what they use, which eliminates overcharging on energy bills. Based on this, billing can be more accurate and cash flow predictions can be determined.
With half-hourly data you will be able to see if there are times when equipment is being left running for too long overnight, capitalizing on heating or cooling systems, and just other consumption spikes that will ultimately drive extra costs. When action is taken in response to these views, there could be a significant reduction in unnecessary consumption.
Energy costs are all about time. When creating energy costs during peak times, peak charges will accompany businesses based on settlement that they selected. In that case, smart meter data supports businesses with identifying peak patterns and if it is possible to shift their energy demand – for example, instead of running heavy equipment at peak settlement times, perhaps those facilities can be run at other times of the day where costs are lower.
Businesses face growing concerns regarding their carbon footprint. Smart meters enable sustainability reporting and compliance through regulated schemes like SECR by providing verifiable data of actual consumption.
Having a reliable source of data also supports your business managing and forecasting CCL or Climate Change Levy charges—an often-neglected tax, that directly affects energy bills and can be managed to lower taxable consumption base.
Before a business decides to implement a smart meter, it needs to be clear what it cannot do:
That’s why it is a mistake to expect a smart meter to help save money. Businesses would be better off with expert support to make first use of the data to make actual savings and unlock real commercial smart meter savings.
The real benefit lies in utilising the smart meter as a tool in an overall energy strategy. This is where E for Energy comes in.
Smart meters provide businesses with lots of raw data—dealing with that data in a sophisticated, accurate way requires expertise. E for Energy assists consumers in analysing patterns to understand inefficiencies and opportunities to reduce costs, helping achieve a positive business energy smart meter ROI.
It does not matter how much data you have, if you are on an expensive tariff, you will pay a high price. At E for Energy, we are experts at matching businesses with the lowest cost per unit provider; monitoring consumption is one thing, but we can ensure you pay less in the first instance.
Smart meter data can show whether your tariff structure is the right one for your actual usage profile. For example, if most of your consumption takes place in off-peak hours, a different tariff could save you significantly.
The combination of smart meter performance with genuine energy-saving initiatives (such as replacing HVAC or considering how operations could change or be automated) can have a wiped utility bill turned into a true saving each year.
To summarise, smart meters provide the basis but it is what E For Energy does with it to shape an energy strategy on top that will ensure genuine, measurable savings.
Take the example of a medium sized manufacturer. They were receiving estimated bills and overpaying as a result. After installing a smart meter, they became informed users of data and recognised that 20% of their energy use occurred overnight when equipment is idle, but still powered.
By addressing this wastage, the business reduced annual consumption by 8%. The breakthrough began when E for Energy provided a review of the tariff and seen that they were on a supplier with a much lower unit rate for off-peak consumption. Combined, the business saved over £25,000 annually – all of which demonstrated that savings weren’t driven by the smart meter, but the strategy that surrounded it.
Smart meters are not a magic bullet for reducing energy bills for your business. They are not a cost-cutting device, but they do provide the transparency and accuracy that businesses require to manage their energy bill and consumption in a better way.
The real savings from smart meters come from combining your smart meter data with expert analysis and tariff management. This is the forte of E for Energy; taking a raw data set of consumption data and developing actionable steps to reduce bills, improve efficiencies, and provide overall sustainability gains.
So, if you are thinking of installing a Smart meter UK or have one, and are not seeing savings, your next step is clear. Work with E for Energy to unlock the real savings potential behind the numbers.