When it comes to deciding on your energy provider, It’s easy to waste time churning through dozens of sites reading hundreds of reviews. One Green Mountain review may rave about them, while the next thinks they’re terrible. One site rates Payless Power five stars, but you’ve had bad customer service from them. And on it goes.
At some point, most businesses will opt for an energy management software solution. This allows you to take control of your own energy management, seeing what your actual usage is and making optimizations.
When you make this decision, you want a solution that meets your exact data collection and reporting needs. You can keep it as simple as just tracking your current usage, or you might want a full-experience product that can provide advice and optimizations.
In any case, it’s time to ditch the Excel spreadsheets and find the right program for you. So with these factors in mind, here are the top seven energy management software solutions for business and enterprise.
Simple cloud-based solution – Energy Elephant
When it comes to value for money, Energy Elephant is a clear leader in this field. Being cloud-based means that it’s easy to implement. You won’t need to be a tech whiz to get up and running so you’ll be able to start seeing savings immediately. Energy Elephant has one of the lowest price points in the cloud-based range, so it’s a good entry level solution. Plus it has apps for both iOS and Android.
Full service for small to medium business – Wattics
For a more powerful solution, look no further than Wattics. Again, it’s cloud-based so it’s fairly simple to set up. The data collection is straightforward and the reporting functions are intuitive and adaptable. It’s a well-designed single tool to measure, predict and analyze data and then to generate reports. Crucially, the Wattics customer service is responsive and professional so any bugs or optimizations are addressed rapidly.
Commercial building management – MACH Energy
This is a great option for people who are managing multiple properties and tenants with tenant billing and building and portfolio reporting. Through the app, you can see energy usage in real time, allowing you to check if any equipment is running unnecessarily. The software is rounded out with powerful budgeting and forecasting abilities, as well as a feature that identifies savings opportunities automatically, making this a truly full service solution.
Power across huge locations – Entronix
If you’re managing millions of square feet, look no further than Entronix. The easy to read dashboards provide rich data. Crucially, Entronix and uses historical data against similar weather patterns to predict future energy usage. It also has the ability to monitor and control fans and other cooling/heating units, as well as tenant billing and building comparisons.
Environmental social governance (ESG) reporting – Accuvio
If one of your goals is to comply with ESG reporting as well as reduce your energy bills, Accuvio is a great choice. As well as tracking greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, it also includes water treatment and waste. What sets it apart is the ability to monitor travel by employees, for both business travel and everyday commutes. Accuvio undoubtedly makes it much easier to write annual corporate responsibility reports while also creating cost savings.
For energy management providers – DEXCell
DEXCell has been created specifically for businesses that provide energy management solutions to clients, or work on energy reduction projects. Track customers usage and automatically send through reports, or use the data to develop solutions for them. As well as energy monitoring and reporting, DEXCell has a Savings module to track the economics side. It gets bonus points for being easy to use by clients with little onboarding to get them started.
Industrial power – AVReporter
For industrial plants and complexes, AVReporter provides real time data on utilities and buildings across energy, water, gas and waste. It offers both a hosted and cloud-based version, depending on your security needs. It is simple to use and isn’t burdened with loads of features that might be irrelevant to factories. Unlike most of the other providers, it’s sold out of the box – no monthly fees – although they continue to provide phone and online support.
This list only covers software specific to energy management. There are also more robust solutions for specific industries that include end-to-end business management solutions, allowing you to track inventory and asset management, employee locations, inspections, automated maintenance workflows, vendor management and preventive workflows. They can be complex and have a steep learning curve. But having an all-in-one solution may be useful to your business.
However, if your focus is on energy management, then these are your best options. Find the energy management software that’s right for your business type.
