Energy spotlight

Against a background of volatile energy prices, changing energy policy and diminishing government incentives for renewables, what should you be focusing on now? Jon Swain, Head of Sales at FEC Energy highlights three key areas.

1. Maximise your gains from energy efficiency

Ensuring you fully understand your usage patterns goes beyond compliance – there’s potentially huge savings to be had by auditing and regularly monitoring energy hungry items like compressors, fans and refrigeration equipment while remembering other less intensive uses too. An increasing range of innovative energy efficient technologies offers the potential to make each pound spent on energy go further and do more and several simple changes can add up to a big difference.

2. Stay on top of your energy contracts

Remember the basic good practice of reviewing your energy contracts regularly. Make sure you are buying in electricity in the best and most flexible way for your needs.

3. Target new investment in technologies that are a good match for your energy demand

Schemes such as ROCs and the FiT were all designed to incentivise the take up of renewable energy. Going forward, government policy is likely to be more ‘stick’ than ‘carrot’, with schemes like the new SECR (Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting) focused on environmental impact and energy efficiency.

“This is, however, far from bad news” says Jon. “It actually gives the opportunity to invest in generation equipment such as solar PV without the need to rely on financial incentives to make a return. But ensure your investment is driven by your energy consumption and usage profile as well as any desire to offset risk from import price fluctuations.”

For expert energy advice and support call the FEC Energy team on 0845 6970 419 and find out if you could improve how you buy, generate, manage and save energy.