Wednesday 27 May 2020

‘Some closed businesses are still consuming up to 40% of their usual trading energy’

Some businesses that have been forced to close down all of their operations due to the coronavirus are still consuming up to 40% of their usual trading energy.

That's according to David Higgins, Managing Director of Ignite Energy, who spoke to future Net Zero's Jonny Bairstow about the impacts of coronavirus on businesses and their energy use.

He noted that the majority of his clients had seen "really substantial changes" since the UK-wide lockdown was initiated and said most of them had closed down all or the majority of their stores and equipment.

Ignite Energy is currently helping businesses to do this in the most cost and emissions-intensive way, whether this is through working to renegotiate energy contracts or by helping reduce on-the-ground electricity usage.

He told future Net Zero that most clients were surprised that they were still paying so much for energy considering that they were closed and said his business has saved some of its customers as much as several thousand pounds a week by sending engineers to sites to help find where unnecessary energy use is still happening and reduce this wastage.

Mr Higgins added that half-hourly data was a vital tool in monitoring usage and highlighting where opportunities to reduce consumption could lie.