If your company wants to maximise energy savings with as little investment as possible, you may find these tips from a Burger King franchise in Spain useful. The improvements put in place by Burger King with the guidance of DEXMA and Energy Cost Control achieved a 17% reduction in its electricity costs. The franchise carried out what may seem like trivial activities, but they turned out to be decisive in optimising their energy usage.
As simple as it sounds, just as they did with other aspects of the business, they started managing energy consumption daily. By being on top of energy management, they weren’t getting surprises at the end of the month. As the company was looking for tools to enhance its bottom line, they figured they weren’t managing efficiently their monthly electricity bills. They gave it a try to monitor their electricity consumption in real-time with the Spacewell Energy (Dexma) Platform.
“For the first time I am managing energy consumption daily, just like I manage other aspects of the business. There are no surprises at the end of the month. I am on top of it.”
– Ezequiel Bengoechea, Burger King Ávila
What came next was executing a series of changes in their energy management protocols. These new configurations wouldn’t have taken place if it wasn’t for the new visibility they had over their energy usage.
Up next you will discover some tips inspired by the measures the franchise took, and the results they got.
Tip #1: Achieve more Energy-Efficient operations by using the insights you get from tracking your Consumption
Energy management software gives users real-time visibility of their entire energy usage constellation. The Spacewell Energy (Dexma) Platform. allows you to visualise data down to the quarter-hour on your consumption. With this, you can have a clear view of what goes on throughout the day with devices in your building and understand how efficient your activities really are. Every effort counts, so every corrective measure you take will be reflected in a reduction of your contracted load. With this software, you can also monitor the capacitor bank’s operation to enhance and optimise its utilisation. Optimised capacitor banks, used to avoid inefficiencies in systems, can reduce or avoid reactive energy penalties.
Tip #2: Improve temperature set points to maximise Energy Savings
The amount of energy required by your climate control system to maintain comfortable temperatures may be exceeded by the amount consumed. In other words, you may be wasting energy and not knowing it. When monitoring your energy consumption and understanding how your systems are working, you can figure out the appropriate settings for them. Redefine the temperature setpoints so that none of that energy is wasted.
Tip #3: Get some feedback from Employees to reduce non-critical Consumption
Employees can give you valuable feedback to detect non-critical consumption on your premises. Analyse routine activities and get insights about employees’ energy usage. With this information, you can make on-and-off power management improvements for machinery and facilities during opening and closing times. This may result in lowering the maximum required load and avoiding penalties.
Tip #4: Improve your Energy Awareness
With detailed consumption information at hand, it is possible to establish appropriate energy usage levels. Having standards defined helps in noticing deviations from your desired levels. Communicating these alterations among managers and staff can lead to identifying anomalies and carrying out corrective measures.
The results the Burger King franchise got were outstanding. At the beginning of the project, they optimised their contracted load and reactive power. Additionally, they identified more areas of potential improvement. This realisation leads them to better plan on and off times for facilities and machinery. The franchise executed the new on-and-off times with the support of employees’ educational sessions. While this measure lowered consumption significantly, it incurred no investment to put it in place.
There are many things that can be done to become more energy efficient. The starting point of the cost-saving process is getting to know your own energy performance. Just as Burger King found corrective measures to maximise energy savings with little investment, your company can find its own. Get a grip on your energy consumption by monitoring it. You will discover so many actions to maximise energy savings that you will be surprised you never thought of them before.
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