Buying well is half the job. The other half is making sure you are billed correctly and using less. Energy management from JSR Energy Consultancy covers both, combining invoice validation with consumption analysis so that every pound on your energy bill is accounted for and justified.
Billing errors in the commercial energy market are more common than most businesses expect. Incorrect meter readings, wrong contract rates applied, capacity charges billed against the wrong level and levies applied to exempt supplies all appear regularly. Recovering those errors puts real money back into the business.
Invoice validation
We check invoices line by line against the contract that was agreed: unit rate, standing charge, meter reading basis, VAT treatment, Climate Change Levy status and any pass through elements. Where a discrepancy is found we raise and manage the query with the supplier through to credit.
Businesses eligible for reduced rate VAT and CCL exemption, including charities and low usage sites, are frequently billed at the full rate simply because the declaration was never filed. We check eligibility as standard and handle the paperwork.
Understanding your consumption
For half hourly sites we analyse the interval data to establish your baseload, the consumption that continues when the site is closed. A high overnight baseload almost always indicates equipment left running unnecessarily, and it is usually the fastest saving available to a business because it requires no capital spend.
We also examine peak demand, load factor and seasonal variation. Understanding when you use energy is what makes it possible to shift, reduce or reprofile it, and it is what allows suppliers to price you more accurately at the next tender.
Practical reduction measures
Our recommendations are deliberately practical and are ranked by payback. Typical measures include scheduling controls on heating and ventilation, LED replacement in high hours areas, voltage optimisation on suitable sites, refrigeration maintenance in hospitality and retail, and reviewing available capacity levels where a site is paying for far more than it draws.
Where capital projects are appropriate we set out the expected consumption reduction, the payback period and the effect on your contracted volume, so the decision can be made on numbers rather than sales claims.
Ongoing monitoring
Consumption drifts. Equipment gets replaced, occupancy changes, controls get overridden. Ongoing monitoring catches those changes early rather than at the end of a financial year. Clients receive periodic reporting showing consumption against the previous period and flagging any site behaving unusually.
Compliance support
Larger organisations may fall within ESOS or streamlined energy and carbon reporting obligations. We help clients understand whether they qualify, assemble the underlying consumption data and work alongside assessors so that compliance is a reporting exercise rather than a scramble.