Keeping your hotel and or restaurant well-lit, warm, and operating smoothly with the right tools is essential to impressing your guests. However, with the current energy costs soaring, it can be difficult to cover the bills.  As a business energy provider, we have been helping our customers manage their rising bills, offering our best tips and advice to help keep costs down. For the hospitality industry, lots of energy is required to offer the very best service, so keeping costs low can seem like a far greater challenge. However, with the right advice, you can aim to lower your energy consumption, thus managing your business electricity and gas bills. Below are some of the ways we would recommend managing your energy consumption and costs.   Schedule a business energy audit One of the first and most effective actions you can take as a business is to schedule an energy audit. As we have touched on in previous blogs, an energy audit will provide you with an assessment of your business’ energy consumption and energy efficiency. This information, provided by an external auditor or by a DIY checklist, will provide you with some initial recommendations that will help you to improve the energy efficiency of your business. This information will be unique to your business type and also the premises, meaning the steps you choose to take will be effective.    Monitor your heating and cooling systems  Any modern hospitality business, whether you run a restaurant, bar or hotel, will have heating and cooling systems in place. Perfect for maintaining a comfortable climate for your guests and staff, however these systems can impact your energy costs quite considerably! To ensure you are not overusing these systems and wasting money on heating and cooling your business, be sure to monitor these closely. Most systems will allow you to set a regular temperature. We would recommend staying between 18-20 degrees celsius when heating your premises.    Maintain your commercial fridges  Commercial fridge freezers consume far more energy than the standard domestic fridge freezer, making these a costly expense. However, commercial fridges are essential in the daily running of a commercial kitchen or bar. In order to maintain your fridges whilst reducing your energy consumption and keeping your bills low, we would suggest having these services regularly, whilst also ensuring they are not left open for long periods of time. Servicing a fridge can make a huge difference in the quality of its output, meaning the fridge won’t have to consume excess amounts of energy to maintain a regular, cool temperature.    Shutdown unused electrical equipment  Throughout a large hospitality business, such as a hotel, you may find lots of electrical equipment and tools that are consuming electricity but do not need to be. This is where the energy audit comes into play again. An energy audit could help identify these electrical items, giving you an idea of just what and how many electrical appliances may not need to be switched on permanently. Simply shutting down these items could make a real difference to your bills.    Motivate your staff to save energy while on shift  A positive attitude amongst your staff regarding energy saving and sustainability will support your business in its efforts to cut down consumption. Promoting this amongst your teams can be as simple as creating a checklist of electrical appliances to monitor, communicating your goals with your staff, asking your staff for ideas, and ensuring every team member is involved.  For more information about your business energy bills or to discuss options for cutting energy consumption, do not hesitate to get in touch with the D-ENERGi team.

Understanding the energy market and the details of the deals and prices available to you is important in ensuring you are not paying more than you should be for your business energy. In a financial climate like the one we are currently living through, businesses will be even more cautious to sign up to deals they are unaware of and as they should.  If you are looking to set up a new business energy contract, you may be thinking “what’s best?”. In this blog we are hoping to clear the confusion slightly, delving into the topic of fixed rate tariffs for business energy. Reviewing whether these are best for businesses.    What are fixed rate business energy tariffs? Ensuring we are not assuming you already know the definition, we will start by simply explaining what a fixed tariff is.  Fixed rate tariffs are a good option for businesses hoping to lock in a price for their business energy for the next year or two. Usually lasting between 12-24 months, a fixed rate tariff offers a way to pay energy bills that are not influenced by fluctuations within the wholesale energy market. However, as with any tariff you sign onto, the more you use, the more you will pay. The price you are agreeing to pay in the beginning, that stays locked, is the price you pay per unit.   How a fixed rate tariff benefits a business  Unlike those receiving a salary from their employer, your business relies on the success of its sales each month to bring in revenue. Having the revenue to cover costs such as energy bills is absolutely vital to the survival of your business. Therefore, many tend to consider a fixed rate tariff as the most suitable type of energy contract for business energy customers, since the price per unit is locked in and is much more manageable than variable-rate deals.  Some of the benefits of a fixed rate contract for businesses include:  – They are typically cheaper than a variable rate  – Enable the customer to be protected from the fluctuations of a volatile energy market – Allows businesses to control their monthly spend by simply managing their energy usage It is important to note that when you are looking for a fixed-rate tariff, how ‘cheap’ this will be will ultimately depend on the market at the time. Suppliers will determine their fixed prices based on the conditions of the market, so it is also important to bear this in mind when shopping around.    D-ENERGi fixed price business electricity  AT D-ENERGi we are continuously working to provide our business energy customers with the very best prices for business electricity. Our tailored solutions are designed to suit your business needs. With our offer of fixed price electricity guarantees you know exactly how much you will be paying each month, with no surprises. To get your free business electricity quote today and to find out more about our fixed tariffs, simply get in touch with our friendly customer service team.

Firstly, what is a business energy audit?  Energy audits are a style of assessment that is a legal requirement for any commercial enterprise that hires more than 250 people. The audit will analyse the energy efficiency of your business, as well as your energy usage and will also review the needs of your business. The complete audit will allow you to review your business energy usage, finding areas in which you can amend your consumption in order to reduce your energy costs and enhance the efficiency of your building.  Why business energy audits important As mentioned above, it is a legal requirement for certain businesses to have an energy audit. However, for smaller businesses where this isn’t a legal obligation, there are still many reasons why a business energy audit is beneficial.  Poor energy efficiency has been found to be one of the main reasons for the high costs of a business energy bill. Businesses across the country could benefit from simply understanding the energy efficiency rating of their business premises, in order to get started. Once you are aware of the energy that you may be losing due, you can take the small steps required in order to enhance your energy efficiency and start saving hundreds of pounds!    How a business energy audit works  For businesses that are legally required to carry out an audit, an external assessor must be granted access to your business in order to complete the audit. However for those who do not have to do this legally, a phone audit or even a DIY audit can be done.  An on-site external audit must be carried out by a qualified professional. This auditor will visit your site and will carry out a thorough assessment of your premises. Reviewing areas such as energy usage, your business operations, and looking at ways in which you can reduce this consumption. They will pay close attention to the equipment and tools you use within your business, assessing how much these are used and how much energy is required to power them. They will then provide you with details on their recommendations.    Save money with an internal DIY energy audit  For smaller businesses who wish to carry out their own energy audits, can do so while saving money with a DIY energy audit!  This energy audit will be completed by you or a member of your own internal team. Although not as concise as an external audit, the DIY checklist you will be provided will cover all the necessary areas of an audit. This will help you identify major problems such as poor insulation and expensive lighting or heating. This DIY style of assessment will help make you aware of any issues with your consumption or efficiency leaving you with the opportunity to choose how you wish to deal with this.    How an energy audit can promote sustainability Since sustainability has become such an important element of a business’ operations, an energy audit is even more useful. Suggesting ways to improve energy efficiency and cut down on consumption, not only does an energy audit recommend ways to help your business save money but it also identifies areas of your business that may be having a negative impact on the environment. With the information you are provided from an audit, you can work to improve your sustainability, improving your business’ emissions and carbon footprint.  To save even more money on your business energy bills, why not get in touch with the D-ENERGi team. Our business energy rates are just as competitive as those of the top 5 energy companies in the country. Send an enquiry today and we can provide you with a free, quick quote.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed while wading through the energy industry. Whether you’re looking for a new supplier or simply trying to understand your business’ energy bill, there’s lots of new terminology to grasp. From understanding definitions, processes, and terminology – it can quickly feel like you’re trying to understand a foreign language. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what is meant when we talk about ‘capacity’ or ‘demand’, then this post is for you! Here’s a helpful glossary of terms commonly used within the energy industry so that you have all the knowledge needed to make better-informed decisions on your business energy requirements. Below we have provided an A-Z style of glossary to help explain some complicated and good-to-know terms.    Agreed Capacity  This is the agreed amount of electricity load that can be supplied to a property. If you are renting or newly purchasing a property for your business operations this will be stated in your property’s Connection Agreement with the local DNO*.   Automatic Meter Read (AMR) An automatic meter read is taken by a system that takes meter readings remotely. This data will be passed onto your business energy supplier for billing purposes.   Biomass Biomass energy or bioenergy, as it can often be referred to, is an energy sourced from organic materials, this includes matter from recently living organisms such as plants. This is considered a ‘carbon neutral’ method of generating energy.    Carbon Credits  Carbon credits are a rising form of credit that can be purchased on the voluntary carbon market. These are used to permit owners an allowance of carbon dioxide emissions. Also known as carbon offsets. Many businesses are now opting voluntarily to buy carbon credits in order to develop a ‘green business strategy’ that coincides with government plans to achieve net zero carbon.    Carbon Neutral  Carbon neutrality means reaching a state in which there are net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by either balancing the total amount of carbon dioxide removed with the total emitted or by completely eliminating the emission of CO2 from within society. Both are something governments across the world are hoping to achieve, as agreed.    *District Network Operator (DNO) A district network operator or DNO is responsible for the installation and maintenance of electrical cabling, as well as the distribution of electricity to the supply point of the grid.  If you are attempting to contact your DNO, one way you can do this is by looking them up using your location information, such as postcode. Each district will have a different DNO.    Fixed Term Contracts A fixed term contract is a supply contract decided with your energy provider for a fixed price over a fixed period of time.    Greenhouse Gas (GHG)  A GHG is simply a type of gas found in the atmosphere that traps heat. The main GHGs found in Earth’s atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.