How to outsmart the future

Understanding energy opportunities today

to create an energy resilient tomorrow

The way that energy is generated and consumed around the

world is undergoing rapid change, bringing with it a growing
instability in supply. While there are many worst-case scenarios
in the world of crisis management, an energy-related failure
ranks among the most frequent and most damaging, and yet
it remains one of the least prepared for.

of businesses have The demand for energy is increasing exponentially as industries and

92% experienced an populations continue to grow, and this could push traditional power
energy-related failure grids to the breaking point. Renewable energy sources, like wind and
in the past 12 months tidal, are doing their part to mitigate the soaring demands on energy,
but they’re intermittent in their energy-producing peaks.

If we then add rising fuel costs and strict emissions targets to

the mix, the scale of the problem facing organizations that rely
on a secure and stable energy supply, begins to look almost
insurmountable.

And therein lies the problem: reliance. Organizations depend on

external providers for a constant, uninterrupted supply of energy.
But they also take it for granted – which it no longer is. The only
practical answer is for organizations to become less energy reliant
and more energy resilient – by investing in their own energy-
producing capabilities as well as making the energy they already
use go even further.

What makes an energy-related failure so hard to protect against, and

therefore so damaging to a business, is unpredictability. But studying
the various causes of those failures shows that there are ways that
businesses can be better protected.
Centrica Business Solutions  How to outsmart the future
of businesses have
69%
experienced power
supply problems due
to poor maintenance
of equipment
2
Ageing and poorly-maintained equipment are among the most common
causes of energy-related failures, but maintaining every piece of equipment
and machinery so that it remains in peak working order is an inefficient way
for any large organization to prevent breakdowns.
However, energy analytics technology can provide a granular view into
your organization’s current energy usage, how it’s supplied, and how an
energy related failure would impact on various processes. The intelligence
driven by this kind of data could help you optimize performance, deal
with potential equipment failures before they happen, and reduce energy
inefficiencies and waste.
Organizations that have introduced Energy Insights to their systems
have been shown to benefit from reduced maintenance costs, prevented
unscheduled downtime, and seen savings upwards of 50 percent.
Centrica Business Solutions  How to outsmart the future

For organizations that want to take greater control of their energy usage
of businesses experienced
by being able to produce their own energy, Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

49%
unscheduled downtime
as a result of an energy-
related failure last year
offers an efficient two-for-one solution.
Gas remains far cheaper than electricity, so with gas-powered CHP
generators on-site, businesses have a cost-effective alternative energy
source that protects against local grid failure. It also protects against future
rises in energy prices – non-commodity costs in particular.

In addition, CHP units are able to capture the heat that they generate so
that, instead of wasting it, it can be used as a low-cost heat supply. Less
external reliance, more internal resilience.

of businesses agree that Centrica Business Solutions recently surveyed energy decision-makers
across multiple industries to fully assess the challenges posed by a lack of

69%
the cost of building an
energy resilience strategy
is far less that the cost of
an energy-related failure
energy continuity. The resulting data proves how energy resilience can help
businesses reduce their vulnerability to energy-related failures, unstable
energy markets and unreliable energy providers.

Want to know more?

Visit www.centricabusinesssolutions.com/us/resilience to download
The Resilience Report and learn more about how energy resilience
can help organizations to outsmart the future.

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