The Facilities Event Live: Panel debate - who’s responsible for energy management in your building?

This has led to many organisations not prioritising energy management and missing out on opportunities to increase efficiencies and make savings. 

At the same time, there is an increasing amount of energy data available which many organisations are failing to understand and use to their benefit. 

So who should really be responsible for energy management?

This was the question being debated by an expert panel comprised of Colin Wills, CEO, Cambridge Maintenance Services; Mark Tew, CAFM Explorer; Michael Kenny, senior consultant, LCMB; and Geoff Prudence, director/chairman, Property, FM and Building Services groups.

According to Mark Tew, "it's the facilities manager who tends to be the end user of that data but there is also a level above them who it's important to push that data to, because there's obviously a financial commitment for the building occupiers and owners. We are providing technology that helps in the gathering and analysis of that data for reporting to the next level in that chain".

"My view is there's two areas," Geoff Prudence said. "There's outside the building, there's sustainability colleagues, procurement etc. but in terms of just the building itself, then I agree it has to be the facilities manager. But I'll qualify that further by saying that for me it's the technical facilities manager - the engineering discipline either as an in-house manager or a strong service provider - they are best placed to manage energy within a particular building."

Colin Wills however said it's very much the service provider that's responsible. "Most building management software (BMS) is very outdated and difficult to understand so deciding whether or not the schedule should operate from 8am in the morning to 8pm at night is best left to the people with the best skill set and that would be the service provider. But it's also down to the technology they have to create easier visibility - there's lots of technology out there that can help them to make better decisions."

The last of the panel to give their opinion was consultant Mike Kenny who said that the problem is that it varies from company to company as not all businesses warrant employing their own energy manager. 

"Sometimes I'm dealing with a director, sometimes I'm dealing with the facilities management company, sometimes the sustainability department - but I think somebody does just need to take responsibility for it in each organisation and become an energy champion. Somebody has to be able to look at the data, interpret it, analyse it and come up with ideas to reduce energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions, reduce costs."

The panel agreed that unfortunately energy management does often slip between the gaps with no one properly managing it. This is also exacerbated by a skills gap.

Prudence said: "People have been very good in FM at organising and managing data but perhaps don't have the understanding and background knowledge around energy and controlling systems. So I think we can all do more to educate the willing FMs who want to understand and improve. Another dilution has been within the larger organisations that have sustainability teams. They often get a responsibility for energy management and recycling and life cycle costs - but often they're not directly close to the people managing the systems and the service providers. 

"The skills gap is not only in the soft FM side - it's also getting good service providers, good tradespeople coming through with the understanding about how the systems work."

A lack of skills and understanding can lead to a lot of energy being wasted. Colin Wills explained that in 62% of the buildings that Cambridge visit on maintenance contracts, they find plant running 24/7. This is because when service engineers are called out to fix problems they often just switch it to 'on'. 

As in most industries, more and more data is becoming available - to the point where we could drown in it. With this in mind, the panel were asked 'how can we start getting better at managing data?'

According to Tew it's about policy driving behaviour. "The policy has to drive the data analysis or you will be drowning in it. Starting small is perhaps the best advice and then growing from there and gathering more and more data as you become more experienced."

The session concluded by the panellists discussing how FMs can start to take the lead in managing their energy use.

Wills said that it is important to write it into the maintenance contract - somebody must take ownership of all operators and time schedules, and review it on a quarterly basis to make sure we're not burning energy.

Kenny added: "I'm a big fan of data but I think if we just start at a basic level, looking at the patterns of consumption for your electricity supply, seeing that if no one's using the building at the weekend things should be turned off. Check your invoices on a monthly basis - make sure there aren't any exceptions - compare this month to last year. And where there are exceptions in the data make sure you set up an alert system."

More free educational seminars will be taking place at The Facilities Event on Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th April. 

To find out more please visit: https://www.facilitiesevents.com/fm-seminars