12 min. read
You’re running a business, whether large or small, you may feel you don’t have time or knowledge to adequately address your energy needs as so many other things demand your attention.
Each time your monthly energy bill arrives, however, you may realize that you need to pay more attention. This is not always an easy task for a business. Hiring a full-time energy manager can be expensive and often requires a ramp-up period, during which your energy costs could continue to expand.
There is a solution — hiring an energy consultant. An energy consultant can provide you with the expertise you need to be more energy-conscious, lower your overall energy costs, and drive these savings to your company’s bottom line.
When you work with an energy consultant you don’t have to worry about the cost of an in-house position. A business energy consultant allows you to focus your attention on other important business issues. A good energy consultant will help you seek ways to reduce your energy costs and show you how to do it.
What Is an Energy Consultant?
As a business owner or executive, you are probably familiar with the idea of using a consultant. Businesses use them all the time to help them achieve better performance in areas where they may be lacking. Consultants can help improve productivity, complement existing staff or enhance the layout of an office. A commercial energy consultant performs similar tasks, only their goal is to help you reduce your energy usage, saving your organization money and helping your business be more environmentally conscious.
An energy conservation consultant is an experienced and highly-trained individual who specializes in identifying issues that increase your energy efficiency. Energy consulting will help your business create a plan to move your operation toward optimal energy performance. As you move towards this goal, you will see that it has an impact on the bottom line.
Why Hire an Energy Consultant?
Do you need to hire an energy consultant? The answer to this question depends on several factors. If you run a small business and have straightforward utility bills, or if you lease or rent a relatively small space, an energy consultant may not be necessary.
If, however, you operate a larger business with relatively complex energy usage, an energy consultant may be valuable. Even small companies with more complicated energy needs may benefit from hiring a business energy consultant. Energy consultants are ideal for businesses that have multi-use structures that contain office spaces and manufacturing facilities, have multiple locations, or have complex energy profiles.
Some of the best reasons to hire an energy consultant include:
1. Expertise
Energy is a complicated field, and the technology that drives the energy industry can be difficult for a business owner to understand. An energy efficiency consultant will provide your business with industry-specific knowledge. They can look at your business’ energy usage and identify ways you can reduce it that you may not have noticed.
Business energy consultants bring to your business knowledge and assets devoted to solving energy problems and improving your business.
2. Staff Augmentation
Good business owners are aware that utility costs are a serious concern. Many companies, however, don’t have anyone on staff who has the in-depth knowledge and understanding needed to help the company find ways to reduce its energy costs.
An energy consultant is an outside expert who will take an in-depth look at how your business uses energy and offer solutions to lower your costs. An energy savings consultant can devote significant amounts of time to these tasks. Even if you have someone on staff who has some expertise in energy usage, they may not be able to give you the day-by-day commitment that’s needed to solve your energy problems in a suitable timeframe.
3. A Fresh Perspective
Another one of the benefits of hiring an energy consultant is that they bring a fresh, informed perspective to meeting your energy goals. A good energy consultant has had the opportunity to work with businesses in many different industries. They also have experience in dealing with many facets of the energy industry itself. Because of this experience, they’ll know how to approach the energy needs of your business, regardless of the industry in which you operate.
An energy consultant approaches each new project with a fresh perspective. The knowledge and the experience that they have gained allows them to apply their skills to each project in a unique way. A good energy consultant will provide you with an objective view of your energy situation.
4. Additional Resources
Since energy consultants have a deep knowledge of many aspects of the energy industry and how these aspects may apply to your business, they can find and utilize additional resources that you may not have been aware of to help solve your energy problems.
Working with these additional resources, an energy savings consultant can help your company create unique solutions for your energy needs.
5. Utility Bill Auditing
Everybody makes mistakes. Unfortunately, when the utility company makes a mistake, it can cost a business a lot of money. Many businesses, however, don’t catch these mistakes and end up overpaying for energy because of them.
Energy consultants are like detectives. They love to find mistakes. They can audit your utility bill to assure that you are being charged a fair rate and that you are not being charged an incorrect amount or being charged for services that you did not order.
6. Knowledge of Energy Technologies
There are constant commercials and public service announcements on television and on the Internet that encourage you to be more energy efficient. Finding the right technology for your business to enable you to do this can be time-consuming and confusing.
Energy conservation consultants are aware of how energy technology is continually changing. An energy consultant can work with you to find the technologies that work best for your business. They can then help you through buying and installing these energy-saving technologies. A renewable business energy consultant can also help you find new, eco-friendly solutions for generating or purchasing your electricity. With the right technology, it is possible to save thousands of dollars on your yearly energy bills and improve your company’s environmental performance.
7. Access to Demand Response Programs
Power consultants can help your business join a demand response program. These are programs for which a company is compensated for following strict energy guidelines when the demand for power is highest, and the power grid is under stress. Utilities compensate participating businesses and companies for following the energy-saving guidelines, and those companies can pass those savings on to their customers.
8. Governmental Aggregation Opportunities
When businesses join together and create one utility account — usually organized by a municipality — they can purchase power at a reduced rate. Creating these groups means that participants can reduce their costs without modifying their energy usage.
An energy consultant can work with you and other businesses and your local government to create these aggregate groups. The best thing about the creation of these groups is that they help each company save money without paying any upfront cost. By agreeing to work together, all of the businesses that participate benefit.
9. Valuable Results
When a business or company hires a consultant of any kind, they do so with the expectation that they will achieve the results they desire. An energy savings consultant should work hard to create those results for your business. How do they do this? Business power consultants find ways to help businesses, including solving problems unique to that business, implementing new systems and technology to lower costs, ensuring that companies aren’t overpaying on their utility bills and helping companies better understand their energy usage.
They want to help businesses perform better and reduce their energy costs, which not only saves you money but also helps protect the environment. Showing your customers that you care about environmental issues can also help improve your company’s reputation as well.
What to Look for in an Energy Consultant
So, you’ve decided to hire an energy consultant to help your organization reduce its energy costs. What should you look for in an energy consultant?
- Required Licenses and Certifications
- A History of Success
- A Well-Rounded Skill Set and Team
- Upfront Information About Services
- Personalized Service
1. Required Licenses and Certifications
How can you tell that an energy consultant is reliable and experienced before you work with them? One thing to check for is the consultant’s licenses, certifications, and accreditations. A good energy consultant will be able to easily demonstrate that they have the necessary credentials required by your state. You can find energy consultants that meet these requirements by visiting the website of your state’s utilities commission. The utilities commission will often have a page that will list energy savings consultants that meet these requirements and certifications. The consultant or the company they work for may also have additional accreditations or memberships that add to their credibility, even if they’re not required by law.
2. A History of Success
Any energy efficiency consultant can promise you that they can give you the results that you want and help you lower your energy costs. But can they really deliver? To be confident in their abilities, however, you need some evidence to back up their claims. A good commercial energy consultant will be able to easily show you past success stories of energy consulting or provide you with reliable references that can speak to the credibility and success of the energy consultant you are seeking to hire.
3. A Well-Rounded Skill Set and Team
A good consultant is an expert in energy and has had the opportunity to develop their skills in several different areas. This is what makes them such a valuable resource. They can tap into knowledge and skills from a variety of different areas to solve your energy challenges.
Many of the best commercial energy consultants also work with firms that include other experts with a wide range of relevant knowledge and skills. If a consultant works with a well-rounded team, they have access to a variety of perspectives and expertise that can help them in coming up with unique solutions for your business. Choosing a consultant with a diverse team backing them up means your business can count on superb project management, the generation of useful ideas, and the implementation of those ideas to help your business.
4. Upfront Information About Services
A good energy consultant will give you clear information upfront about the costs of their services. They should also be responsive and willing to answer any questions you may have. These qualities are crucial to helping you decide which services you want to use and who you’d like to work with. This information also enables you to ensure you get a fair price and choose options that are within your budget.
5. Personalized Service
You should always feel that your company is a priority to your energy conservation consultant. A good energy consultant understands that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to a company’s energy problems. They will tailor their approach to your unique needs and the energy challenges your company faces and provide excellent customer service throughout the entire process.
Learn About Our Energy Solutions
Let SitelogIQ Provide You with Your Energy Consulting Needs
If you’re looking for a reliable and dependable partner to assist you with your energy needs, we can help. Our motto is efficiency powered by intelligence.
We are dedicated to delivering complete facility solutions that support the energy-saving, future-proofing, sustainability, and operating efficiency goals of our clients. Our energy-saving solutions help reduce your costs, provide your business with an indoor environment that is healthy and comfortable and promote productivity and increased output. To learn more about our commercial energy consulting services and see examples of energy projects we’ve worked on, click here.
If you would like to talk to us about your energy needs, you can reach us at 888.819.0041 or visit our contact page. Leave us some information about how to get in touch with you and which of our services you may be interested in, and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.