E.ON launches new services to improve energy efficiency in UK businesses

Peta Hodge

10th March 2010

Within a week, energy company E.ON has launched two new services aimed at improving the energy efficiency of UK businesses – one mainly for SMEs, one for high energy users.

This week’s offering, the Business EnergyManager, is a new tool to help SMEs understand when and where electricity is used within their organisations and whether the amount of electricity they are using is appropriate to their tariff and meter type. If it’s not, the service will help businesses find more appropriate solutions.

Although the free energy monitor and downloadable software of the Business EnergyManager are theoretically available to business customers of all sizes (up to a maximum of 20 sites), a spokesperson for E.ON said it is particularly likely to appeal to smaller organisations looking to make savings.

SMEs with one or two site are more likely to be looking at their own data, she suggested; larger organisation more likely to be employing third party consultants.

Iain Walker, head of SME sales at E.ON, said: "The recession has highlighted the importance of reducing overheads for organisations of all sizes, and this is why Business EnergyManager is a real breakthrough for our customers.

"By giving our customers the tools they need to understand their energy usage, we believe they can also cut their bills at a time when every penny counts.”

This week’s launch of the Business EnergyManager follows last week’s launch of the Energy Performance Guarantee (EPG).

Energy Performance Guarantee offered on 'no gain, no fee’ basis

This service is a collaboration between E.ON’s Sustainable Energy business and Self Energy UK, aimed at helping high energy-using organisations install energy efficiency measures on a ‘no gain, no fee’ basis.

The EPG works in a similar way to the Government’s green finance scheme for homeowners, also launched last week, in that the energy efficiency measures are paid through savings on an organisation’s energy bill.

As Michael Woodhead, managing director of E.ON’s Sustainable Energy business explained, the EPG will allow organisations to deploy decentralised energy systems such as solar photovoltaics or wind turbines without the need for up-front investment.

“Under the Energy Performance Guarantee we’ll fund and fit efficiency measures, with none of the financial burden going to our customers. The upfront costs are ours and customers only pay from energy savings that they make over a fixed contract period – it’s a win-win situation for them,” he said.

If savings aren’t made on an organisation’s energy bills, E.ON and Self Energy will pick up the tab.

The service has been launched within a month of the start of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme under which energy intensive businesses and public sector organisations will be responsible for recording and monitoring their CO2 emissions, and purchasing carbon allowances equivalent to their emissions each year.

Energy Performance Guarantee will help businesses meet CRC obligations

E.ON and Self Energy say the EPG will help organisations meet their CRC obligations. It will not only give them greater control over energy costs and emissions, but will also release finance that can be used elsewhere in the organisation, the companies claim.

Although the EPG is not limited to organisations covered by the CRC, the E.ON spokesperson said that organisations will have to be high energy users “for the financials to stack up” – in other words, they have to have the capacity to make sufficient savings to pay back the investment.