Energy Management Platform: How to Make the Right Choice?

What is an Energy Management Platform?

Also known as Energy Management Software (EMS), the building energy management software is a SaaS platform – accessible on both computer and smartphone – that centralizes all the energy data of a building or a group of buildings.

Its function is to monitor, analyze, control, and optimize the energy consumption of buildings, with the goal of reducing them.

Key Benefits of an Energy Management Platform:

• Retrieve energy data from multiple suppliers and centralize it on a single monitoring platform.
• Identify actions that can lead to energy savings, with a quick return on investment (e.g., by optimizing subscribed power capacities).
• Analyze the temperature curves of buildings to monitor occupant comfort.
• Compare the energy consumption of your buildings with other buildings of the same activity type (e.g., comparing schools with other schools).
• Manage a single interface for all stakeholders, with differentiated access based on each role.
• Save time and optimize performance.

A Platform for What Purpose?

First, it is important to define your objectives:

Regulatory Objectives
Currently, regulations in Europe impose energy consumption reduction obligations.

An energy management platform can help you collect all the necessary data to identify energy savings opportunities and implement your energy performance actions.

Internal Objectives
Beyond compliance, one of the challenges for project owners is to achieve significant and sustainable energy consumption reduction results.

An energy management platform can help you to:

• Control your bills and reduce your energy costs.
• Identify the priority actions to be taken and explore funding options.
• Monitor the energy impact of renovation works.
• Manage and ensure the reliability of building energy management data (GTB).

External Objectives
With an energy management platform, you can balance user comfort while meeting your energy performance goals. At the same time, you will be able to add “green value” to your real estate assets and communicate about your initiatives.

Criteria to Evaluate Before Choosing an Energy Management Platform:

• For Whom?
  Energy managers, maintenance teams, energy buyers… it is important to identify a platform that can meet the needs of various users.
• Data Processing:
  How are the data validated, controlled, and presented? Evaluate the platform’s capabilities to ensure data accuracy and reliability.
• Features:
  Assess in advance the features that your users will need and how these features evolve over time to accommodate future requirements.
• Security Level:
  Find out about the location of servers, the possibility of implementing Single Sign-On (SSO), and how your data is processed and protected.

So, How to Make the Right Choice?

There are many energy management software solutions on the market, and it can be particularly difficult to navigate through them.

Here are some tips to guide you:

• Choose a service provider before choosing software: Rely on a provider with technical teams (energy efficiency engineers, data scientists) specializing in building energy efficiency, capable of offering dedicated support.
• Prioritize a provider that is the software developer, with an in-house development team.
• Choose the expert provider who will help you better meet the regulatory obligations set.

Finally, keep in mind that beyond the software features, one of the key success factors lies in the provider’s ability to support you in the utilization of your data and the achievement of your energy performance goals.