Businesses in Africa, particularly small-to-medium sized organisations, continue to grapple with the challenge of acquiring reliable power supply whilst simultaneously having to comply with environmental regulation. Energy management strategies have become a must say experts in the field of sustainable and renewable power resources.

Strategies should be designed to reduce carbon footprints, save energy and save time – and they need to be put in place as a matter of urgency says Dr Raj Naidoo, Director of Enermatics.

Enermatics is an established provider of smart metering technology and reseller of power to end users.

According to Naidoo there is a calculated, measured process to developing and implementing a strategy. “It starts at executive level, then requires that the right resources be put in place. Accountability must be put in place, people empowered and progress tracked.”

Enermatics believes that an investment into sustainable energy can be implemented as part of a cost saving strategy for a company. However, the key challenges are the capital upfront costs with energy interventions and the resources required to keep energy optimised.

“But if training and awareness programmes are put in place and individual key performance indicators are linked to energy usage in some way, this can go a long way to alleviate issues and address these challenges,” Naidoo adds.

The power supply company suggests that solar PV and solar water heating is gaining momentum in the market, as well as energy efficiency devices such as LED lighting and heat pumps.

One of the key aspects to remember, says Naidoo, is that energy management initiatives can be measured and verified to ensure that the strategies deployed are working.

Aspects such as energy baselines, ongoing measurements and key performance indicators are relevant and will add value.