Scottish businesses occupying office or retail premises are being invited to take part in a Government-backed energy consumption experiment.
The SME Energy Challenge is a free scheme funded through Innovate UK, a collaborative project collecting and sifting usage data from participating Scottish Power business customers. The power supplier is also partnering the research project.
To run until October next year, the study is targeting small to medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the country’s central belt that, researches feel, offer a cross section of Scottish business energy usage.
To be managed by smart energy company, NetThings, premises taking part in the research scheme will have data collection meters installed on their premises, with five further visits during the life of the project. Once analysed energy pattern information will be used to develop new technology to help the businesses reduce energy usage and carbon emissions.
Experts from Edinburgh’s Napier University, who will analyse the data, say firms taking part in the SME Energy Challenge “will face minimal commitments and zero costs” while being given a greater insight into their energy management.
“Smart energy monitoring devices are now widely adopted to help reduce domestic energy consumption, but it is something that has not been readily adopted in the SME marketplace,” explained Jon Stinson, a research assistant at Napier University’s Scottish Energy Centre.
“Many SMEs are facing 55 per cent increases in their energy costs, which is a considerable obstacle to the success of their business.”
Funding for the experiment has come from Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and will allow the university’s scientists and engineers “to design smarter, easier to install, energy management technology in order to identify poor energy performance and manage wasteful patterns of energy use for SMEs,” he added.
Edinburgh-based NetThings is a team of software developers, engineers and technologists creating what it claims is the “next big thing” in real-time energy monitoring and control. Its chief executive is George McGhee. “Many business owners are simply unaware of how much energy they are using, or when they are using it, and we know much of this will be expensive waste,” he said.
“We are confident that energy insight and the lessons from this project will help small and medium size businesses save significantly on their operating costs.”
Full details of the SME Energy Challenge are available here.
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