For most enterprises, energy is among their biggest non-discretionary – and most unpredictable – costs, and is often looked at as a tax on operations. At many organizations, energy remains unmonitored and not carefully managed, likely due to complexity and lack of control. But leading enterprises are demonstrating innovative strategies for taking control of their energy spend, demonstrating sustainability leadership, and becoming more competitive as a result. Here are the top three ways energy storage makes businesses more competitive.
1. Gain a competitive cost advantage
Taking control over the energy line item of the budget reduces operating expenses and delivers budget certainty so you can more accurately predict costs and profits. Energy storage reduces your energy costs by optimizing your energy use automatically. By storing and discharging energy at critical times, energy storage lowers utility bills through demand charge management, energy arbitrage, demand response, and coincident peak management. Energy storage also gives you the ability to participate in wholesale energy markets to earn additional revenues. Opportunities to participate in wholesale energy markets exist today in California, Massachusetts, and Ontario, and will open up in New York and other regions in the near future.
Energy storage improves your bottom line, unlocking cashflows that you can reinvest into innovation and growth.
2. Differentiate with sustainability leadership
Innovative energy and sustainability projects enhance brand reputation and support Environmental Social Governance (ESG), which is increasingly important to investors. Increasingly, investors and consumers alike are seeking brands that are actively showing their sustainability leadership by reducing carbon emissions, adopting renewable energy, and acting as environmental stewards. Today, most of the Fortune 500 and at least 15,000 other companies around the world have a senior executive in charge of sustainability and/or corporate responsibility.
Energy storage is a key component of a comprehensive sustainability strategy. Through grid services applications, energy storage helps integrate more renewables on the grid while enhancing grid reliability. Energy storage also helps businesses go solar. Pair energy storage with onsite solar assets to increase solar consumption and reduce demand peaks that occur in the morning or evening when solar production is low. Pair energy storage with offsite solar projects to turn those assets into a flexible resource that can be traded in wholesale energy markets, allowing you to capture more value from the project. Energy storage is available with the same purchase or PPA financing agreements as solar, and can usually be bundled into the same agreement.
3. Mitigate risk and build resilience
Extreme weather, heatwaves, wildfires, and aging grid infrastructure are all rising threats to normal business operations and revenue projections. Utilities such as PG&E in California and ERCOT in Texas have warned customers to expect more blackouts going forward.
Identifying ways to reduce downtime and adapt to the increasing risk of power interruptions will enhance the resilience of your business and mitigate risk. Energy storage delivers fast, automatic transitions to battery power when the grid is down, responding in less than 200 milliseconds to a power outage. Keep the lights on and your business running with energy storage.
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