Energy Management in Companies [Infographic 2023]

Over 250 professionals from different types of companies were interviewed for the Energy Management survey. A majority of respondents said they work in companies directly related to energy, including ESCOs, Utilities, and OEM companies as we have seen in the previous weeks’ articles.

However, we also had a quarter of responses from non-energy companies operating in the following sectors: service, real estate, industry, finance, tourism, education, logistics and others.

Of these companies, 28% said they had an Energy Manager role in their company. For the rest, profiles as diverse as facility managers, sustainability managers or simply project managers answered our questions. Even if these roles are not solely dedicated to energy, it is increasingly common for these profiles to devote a majority of their time to energy management.

If you are one of those companies struggling with energy management or looking for cues to improve your energy efficiency, the following infographic will give you an insight into the results of our survey. You can also find all the details in the full report of 13 pages, which we encourage you to download HERE.

State of the Energy Management for Companies

After the release of the survey report, we published two articles covering Energy Service Companies’ challenges and opportunities, and a 2023 Energy Utilities overview. Today’s focus is on energy management for end-chain companies such as schools, hospitals, or service sector companies. 

What were the survey respondents’ thoughts on 2022 and their main challenges?

Corporate Energy Costs

The year 2022 was rich in “energy” lessons, especially for companies not belonging to the energy sector. Not only did professionals experience an unprecedented surge in energy prices, but European directives and Government’s 2022 energy efficiency plans have made businesses more conscious than ever of the need to save energy. 

The energy crisis remains a prominent issue in the UK and cannot be ignored as it affects not only households but also businesses, particularly the 5.47 million SMEs making up over 99% of the country’s business sector. Consequently, 45% of British companies fear closure due to rising gas and electricity prices. Still according to the same source, the most frequent response to rising energy bills for 43% of them, besides passing the costs to customers, was cutting training and development budgets.

Our survey unsurprisingly goes in this sense as the price increase was said to have a significant impact on companies’ annual energy costs. Indeed, almost ¼ of end-customers (23%) have seen their costs increase by more than 20% in 2022 and more than 42% estimate that their energy bill has exceeded €1 million (or 3.5x more than in 2021 as they were only 12%!).

What did these companies primarily spend on? Over 60% of participants reported HVAC systems as the biggest energy consumers in their buildings, followed by industrial and office equipment.

Energy Management and Energy Efficiency in Companies

When we asked the survey respondents if they had already implemented an energy efficiency plan, we were pleasantly surprised to find that 65% said yes. Last year, almost ¾ of the participants answered NO or that the plan was not really defined. We can therefore see that the current context is pushing companies to think about their energy consumption and that they are increasingly able to turn to energy savings, compared to just one year ago.  

The second good news is that more than half (53%) responded that they were satisfied with their energy efficiency strategy. Again, we see a marked improvement since in 2021 only 29% found their energy plan effective. Regardless of the underlying reason, we would like to congratulate companies for their energy-saving efforts this year! 

However, even though energy efficiency is becoming more important in corporate strategies, it should be pointed out that still a small half were not yet ready to embark on an energy-saving plan in 2022. This last point reminds us that energy management is not always an easy task, especially when consumption reduction targets are difficult to achieve. We, therefore, wanted to know  

Finally, if you are wondering what were the main energy management challenges for companies in 2022, here are the top 3 answers we got:

• Successfully reducing energy costs in the current context of soaring energy prices (23%)
• Detecting and Verifying Energy Savings (14%)
• Initiating Energy Efficiency Projects (14%)

In this infographic, discover the summary of the results we have just listed:

Energy efficiency is becoming a crucial aspect in organisations of all sizes. Surveys show that professionals are increasingly concerned about the energy consumption of their buildings and are aiming to reduce it. This behavioural shift has a direct impact on greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. Thus, it is essential that professionals reinforce their efforts to be soberer and energy efficient to not only limit the impact on their bills but also on the environment. 

We hope that this infographic has helped you to gain some insight into the current energy situation of companies. You are welcome to download the full report of the 2022 edition of the Energy Management Survey. If you have any questions about the survey or energy efficiency, please get in touch with one of our experts by clicking here.