Last December we launched our annual survey for the third consecutive year. Today we are excited to share our crowdsourced overview of the energy management industry in 2018 – finally we have the results!
More than 250 energy professionals from around the world have responded to our questions, so in this post we highlight 10 lessons learned from the report:
Who Participated in the Survey?
After asking a series of questions to more than 250 energy professionals, more than 40% said that their professional role directly involves energy management and 26% described themselves as engineers. The professional profile of the rest falls under the categories of marketing/sales/business development or environmental health and safety (EHS).
What does this tell us? Full-time energy managers are few and far between. Most combine the role with other duties, such as facility management, EHS or general maintenance.
1 → It is important to note that more than 70% of the companies surveyed were SMEs, which shows that the energy management sector is mostly composed of small businesses with less than 200 employees.
2 →In addition, more than 70% of the companies were Energy Services Companies (ESCOs), utilities or energy-related.
3 → Of those surveyed, 57% manage less than 50 locations and 15% more than 100.
Highlights from The State of Energy Management 2018
Now that we have an idea of the survey participants’ profiles, we can highlight their responses, including the following data insights. So, what did we ask? What did we find interesting to know?
The survey was focused on finding out:
- The challenges faced by professionals in the energy sector.
- The use of technology or not in energy management, such as an EMS.
- The average budget dedicated to energy management technology in companies
Challenges for Energy Management Professionals 2018
So let’s take it one step at a time, and start with the challenges that stand out the most among energy professionals in 2018:
4 → 35% of respondents said that their biggest challenge is to identify the right technologies for their needs. 28% encounter difficulties proving the ROI of their energy efficiency activities, and 21% struggle with generating and maintaining energy savings for their company.
5 → Another challenge for energy managers is the lack integration of the energy management software (EMS) they currently use with other tools – 36% reported having this problem. Furthermore, 20% reported issues with manual data entry.
At DEXMA we know how important is the compatibility of your EMS with other tools that already exist in the company. For this reason DEXMA Energy Intelligence Software supports as many meters, gateways and hardware sub-measurement devices as possible.
To learn more about DEXGate 2 compatibility, find the complete list of DEXGate 2 compatible devices here.
6 → 38% of respondents indicated that when managing multiple locations, quickly and cost-effectively identifying which buildings to focus on was their greatest challenge. Another major challenge of multi-location management is to get enough budget to install monitoring hardware in all locations, which was shared by 26% of participants.
Use of EMS Technology in Energy Management
7 → Surely if you are one of the efficient energy management professionals who use energy management software in their day-to-day, you probably think that the rest of your colleagues (and competitors) have one too. But the reality is, a big chunk of them don’t! We were surprised to learn that 27% of respondents still work with Excel, so clap yourself on the back, you have that competitive edge in your management services.
8 → Of those who already have energy management software such as DEXMA, 43% of those surveyed indicated that they were happy with their current EMS. The rest are open to new solutions, and are even willing to switch from an on-premise solution to software-as-a-service (SaaS). In one of our previous articles we already explained the advantages are, but you can refresh your memory here.
Average Energy Management Technology Spend
9 → Almost half of the respondents indicated that their current budget for investing in energy management technology has not changed compared to last year. Fortunately, 35% will increase their energy management software budget in 2018, giving them a competitive advantage.
On the flipside, some uncertainty: 20% of respondents still do not have a budget or think it will be lower than last year for energy management technology in 2018
10 →When we asked what percentage of a company’s average annual revenue would be spent on energy management technology and/or training for this year, 28% indicated that it would be more than 10% of the total annual budget, while 19% will dedicate between 5-10% of the annual average income.
Considering that we are in the age of digital transformation, and in particular seeing a boom in the digitalisation of the energy sector, the fact that only 10% of respondents intend to invest +20% of their income in technology and/or training is the reflection that a great competitive advantage is only enjoyed by a small slice of the market.
What about your business? Want to see the full results and compare notes?
To get the complete set of conclusions from our State of Energy Management survey, you can download the report here.
