THINK OF ENERGY AS A SERVICE – CPD ARTICLE
Back in the late 1980s Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Institute in the US, first used the term ‘Negawatt’ to describe the unit of power saved through energy conservation and better efficiency (i.e. saved MWs). His premise was that this one concept could drive the change required to reduce our dependence on consuming excessive amounts of energy within our society.
He argues that customers want energy services such as lighting, heating, hot water, cooling, entertainment, etc, rather than buying kWhs of energy. By concentrating on the overall service, the focus for energy then is shifted to delivering better overall value for the customer rather than just managing energy supply and consumption in isolation by itself. Focusing on continually better energy efficiency and performance is what generates the Negawatts that Amory Lovins visualised.
This CPD article aims to explain the concept of energy as a service as well as giving an overview of how approaches are applied in practice. Learning objectives include the following: • understand the drivers for energy as a service; • explain total service life cost and value; • identify ways to partner with specialist service providers; and • review key aspects to consider when setting up an energy services contract.
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