Ben Brading 5 min read

Business energy monitoring: Reduce costs with real-time usage data

Smart meter rollout across Britain provides businesses with access to real-time energy data to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Business energy monitoring systems use automatic meter readings to provide insights and visualisations that help businesses improve energy efficiency, optimise energy costs, forecast future bills, and report on carbon emissions.

Here are the key parts of our guide on business energy monitoring:

What is business energy monitoring?
Key features of business energy monitoring
How to monitor business energy consumption
The benefits of business energy monitoring
Business energy monitoring KPIs

What is business energy monitoring?

Business energy monitoring is the process of using smart meter data to track and analyse commercial energy consumption.

To explain how business energy monitoring works, we’ll outline the three key steps for providing real-time energy consumption insights.

Measuring energy usage

Energy monitoring systems receive real-time measurements of electricity and gas consumption from the following devices:

Smart business energy meters – Modern commercial gas and business electricity meters configured to provide automatic meter readings as frequently as every 15 minutes.
Half-hourly business meters – Electricity meters that automatically transmit readings every 30 minutes in energy-intensive commercial buildings.
Advanced business gas meters – Business gas meters that automatically transmit half-hourly meter readings.
Sub-meters – Specially installed meters and sensors designed to measure energy usage for specific energy-intensive processes.

Data communication

Business energy monitoring systems use a centralised platform that aggregates real-time consumption data from multiple meters.

Modern monitoring systems are typically cloud-based, with data processing occurring off-site.

Each energy meter transmits readings wirelessly over a 4G or Wi-Fi connection.

Data processing and reporting

Energy monitoring systems use analytics software and algorithms to transform raw energy consumption data into useful insights.

The next section provides a summary of the key features and insights that business energy monitoring can offer.

Key features of business energy monitoring

This section summarises the key features of monitoring systems available to businesses in the UK.

Data visualisation

Monitoring systems convert continuous streams of meter-reading data into digestible data visualisations and dashboards that help you understand energy consumption at a glance.

Here are some typical examples:

Energy usage line graphs – Show real-time versus historical consumption trends.
Energy usage bar graphs – Compare energy use by site or department.
Current and historical cost data – Visualise billing trends month-to-month or year-to-year.

Automatic reporting

Monitoring systems automatically prepare and send reports that help you understand and optimise energy consumption. Here are some common examples:

Energy consumption reports – Customisable regular reports that compare past and present energy usage by site.
Energy cost analysis – A breakdown of monthly energy costs by individual sites and departments.
Billing forecasting – Automatic forecasting of future energy costs to help businesses plan financial budgets.

Alerts and notifications

Business energy monitoring systems can provide the following event-driven alerts:

Energy consumption alerts – Unusual energy spikes identified by AI analytics.
Maximum demand alerts – Triggered when maximum demand exceeds the Maximum Import Capacity on an individual business electricity connection.
Equipment failure detection – Malfunctioning machinery detected through energy anomalies in sub-meters.
Renewable outage detection – Unexpected failures of solar systems or inverter equipment to generate power on sunny days.

Benchmarking

A business energy monitoring system can compare energy consumption with historical or external data to identify opportunities to improve business energy efficiency.

Here are some typical benchmarking insights:

Site-by-site comparison – Compare the energy consumption of different properties in your portfolio to identify anomalies and energy-saving opportunities.
Year-by-year comparison – Compare a site’s energy consumption with previous years to measure the impact of energy-saving initiatives.
Energy intensity ratios – Measure business-specific energy intensity ratios, such as consumption per unit of production, to provide enhanced site-by-site or year-by-year comparisons.
Industry benchmarks – Compare your consumption against industry-standard benchmarks.

Peak demand monitoring

A business energy monitoring system will automatically measure and display the maximum demand of each electricity connection in your portfolio.

The software will compare recorded maximum demand against the Maximum Import Capacity of each connection to identify:

Instances where you may incur penalty excess demand charges.
Opportunities to reduce the Maximum Import Capacity to lower business electricity standing charges.

Carbon reporting

Business energy monitoring software can automatically produce the reporting and analysis required for compliance with the following mandatory schemes for large organisations:

The software can also produce carbon footprint reports to help businesses assess the environmental impact of sustainability initiatives and inform their ESG strategies.

Integration with on-site renewable generation

Business energy monitoring software can be integrated to receive the following live data associated with commercial solar panel systems:

Power generation from solar panels.
Power exported to the grid under the Smart Export Guarantee.
Charge status of commercial solar batteries.

The software can use this data to generate analytics, reporting, and forecasting of renewable energy performance.

Power quality monitoring

Energy monitoring systems can measure the power quality of incoming voltage at each of your electricity grid connections in real time to identify:

Consistent overvoltage or undervoltage
Voltage spikes

This data can be used to assess the requirement for installing a voltage optimisation system.

Bill validation

Business energy monitoring systems can provide independent verification of commercial electricity and business gas bills.

The system uses actual meter readings and business energy contract information to recalculate monthly bills, allowing:

Checking for overbilling from estimated readings.
Validation of correct unit rates.
Verification of passed-through DUoS charges.
Validation of TNUoS and BSUoS charges.
Recalculation of capacity and excess capacity charges.

How to monitor business energy consumption

In this section, we explain the steps we recommend for setting up a business energy monitoring system to help your company track and manage business energy usage.

1. Identify monitoring requirements

Before investing in an energy monitoring system for your business, it is essential to consider which aspects of your operations consume the most energy and which monitoring features are most useful to your business.

Audit of energy consumption

We recommend carrying out a formal review of all MPANs and MPRNs across your sites to identify which areas of the business use the most energy.

A structured approach for larger organisations to identify their most energy intensive activities is to carry out an external business energy audit.

Identifying essential features

Review our list of features of business energy monitoring to understand which functionality would be most beneficial to your business.

Consider integration requirements

When choosing an energy monitoring system, it is important to consider any necessary integrations that will allow energy consumption data to be shared with other systems your business may use:

Building management systems, which provide active control of heating, cooling, and key industrial processes.
Carbon accounting software, which calculates carbon emissions using various business data, including energy consumption.
Battery management systems, which provide state-of-charge reporting and control over the charge and discharge process.

2 – Create a metering strategy

Effective business energy monitoring software requires real-time electricity and gas consumption data from the parts of your business that consume the most energy.

We recommend reviewing your portfolio of commercial properties to identify:

Older non-communicating meters – Request smart business energy meter upgrades for any main meters that are not automatically transmitting meter readings.
Energy-intensive equipment – Install sub-metering to isolate the energy consumption of any key pieces of energy-intensive equipment.
High-consumption tenants or departments – Install sub-meters at floor-level distribution boards to isolate certain areas of large commercial properties.

Read our full article on sub-metering for businesses to understand the process for their installation.

3 – Choosing an energy monitoring platform

Using the information gathered from steps 1 and 2, the next stage is to select an energy monitoring system that fits your business and a suitable supplier to deliver it.

Read on in this guide for:

Types of business energy monitoring systems – Our breakdown of the distinct types of systems available in the UK, along with the key features offered by each.
Business energy monitoring solutions – Our list of the different energy suppliers and specialist monitoring system vendors in the UK.

4 – Hardware installation and integration

The best business energy monitoring solutions provide a fully supported installation and integration process that includes:

Installation of sub-metering (where necessary)
Connecting metering data to software
Creation of initial dashboards and reports
Configuration of automated alerts
Testing, validation, and handover

Using a business energy monitoring portal from your commercial electricity or business gas supplier will be much simpler, as they already receive your meter-reading data.

The benefits of business energy monitoring

A business energy monitoring system provides real-time insights into how your business consumes electricity and gas, delivering several important benefits to your organisation:

Reducing energy consumption

Energy monitoring gives businesses accurate, real-time visibility into how and when they use electricity and gas.

The analytics provided by monitoring software can reveal patterns such as overnight wastage, unexpected spikes, or inefficient equipment cycles. These insights enable businesses to identify opportunities for improvement and prioritise action.

Since business electricity prices and business gas rates are charged on a per-kWh basis, these efficiency improvements directly contribute to reductions in overall energy costs.

Optimising business electricity

As well as helping businesses reduce overall energy use, business energy monitoring software enables organisations to optimise their power consumption in the following ways:

Optimising the timing of energy consumption – Live reporting of energy use allows businesses to strategically shift energy-intensive activities to take advantage of cheaper off-peak unit prices.
Minimising capacity charges – Monitoring systems can use half-hourly meter data to measure maximum demand in real time, giving businesses the insight and control needed to avoid excess capacity charges.
Demand-side response incentives – Businesses with real-time energy monitoring have the insight and control to reduce consumption when requested by the grid and receive revenue through the demand flexibility service.

Energy cost reporting and forecasting

Business energy monitoring software provides monthly historical cost analysis, enabling accurate forecasting of site-by-site future energy costs.

Accurate energy forecasting is essential for successfully executing a business energy procurement strategy.

The analytics also allow independent verification of monthly energy bills to detect overbilling, estimated readings, and duplicated charges.

Compliance and ESG

Electricity and gas consumption is a major source of emissions for most large businesses.

Business energy monitoring systems help these organisations produce automatic reports and calculations for the carbon footprint associated with energy purchases.

Carbon footprint reports help businesses assess the environmental impact of sustainability initiatives and can directly inform mandatory emissions reporting requirements for large businesses.

Encouraging efficient energy usage

Business energy monitoring systems offer real-time energy usage insights, improving staff awareness of actions that directly impact energy consumption.

Viewing real-time data on energy consumption encourages simple steps, such as switching off computers and lights at the end of the day.

Types of business energy monitoring systems

This section outlines the main types of business energy monitoring systems available to British businesses.

These systems can be provided either directly by a business energy supplier or by a third-party monitoring service.

Smart meter-based monitoring

By the end of 2025, all small commercial properties should have a smart meter installed for their business gas and electricity connections.

Smart meter-based monitoring uses real-time consumption data from these meters.

Smart meter-based monitoring is the simplest type of business energy monitoring system and is offered free of charge by many energy suppliers online.

Business energy monitor display unit

Energy monitoring display units offer a simple solution for micro business electricity customers, such as hairdressers and newsagents.

An energy monitor unit has a dedicated digital display that shows electricity and gas consumption, along with a few predefined graphs that allow you to track consumption at a single site.

Most energy suppliers include energy monitor units free of charge in domestic energy packages, but businesses typically need to purchase them separately.

Energy Management Systems

Energy Management Systems are monitoring systems that use real-time energy consumption data to control and optimise complex energy infrastructures.

A common example is directing electricity generated from solar panels between solar batteries and on-site usage, depending on whether it is a peak or off-peak period on a multi-rate business energy meter.

Read our guide to Energy Management Systems for businesses to learn more.

Industrial Energy Monitoring Systems

Industrial Energy Monitoring Systems are used by energy-intensive businesses and are designed to provide a more detailed view of energy consumption.

These systems use sub-meters and IoT sensors installed at the department, production line, or machine level to deliver granular energy consumption data.

Industrial Energy Monitoring Systems can generate automated alerts for unexpected spikes in energy usage, enabling teams to identify and address equipment malfunctions quickly.

Enterprise Energy Management Systems

Enterprise Energy Management (EEM) Systems are designed for businesses with large property portfolios.

EEM Systems collects data centrally and offers real-time monitoring of gas and electricity consumption across hundreds of properties simultaneously.

An EEM System enables large businesses to understand, optimise, and budget for their energy expenditure.

Find out more in our guide to optimising multi-site business energy management.

Business energy monitoring solutions

The best business energy suppliers offer energy monitoring services to their customers.

Business energy suppliers already receive automatic meter reading data from your properties, so no setup is required.

EDF Business Energy – The Energy View system is available to existing customers through their online portal.
SSE Business Energy – The SSE Clarity system is an energy management platform provided free of charge with all their business energy tariffs.
British Gas Business Energy – Energy 360 DataView is a free platform that provides business customers with a view of their consumption data.
E.ON Business Energy – Their Energy Management Centre is a remote monitoring hub supported by regional energy managers who can provide additional assistance.

Use our business electricity comparison service to discuss switching business energy suppliers to one that offers free business energy monitoring software.

Third-party energy monitoring services

Multi-site businesses with multiple energy suppliers or a large property portfolio should consider using a dedicated third-party energy monitoring service.

A third-party monitoring service can typically receive data from your main meters, sent by your meter operator, and can also implement sub-metering hardware to provide a more detailed view of electricity and gas consumption.

Business energy monitoring KPIs

The table below provides practical examples of KPIs that businesses use to monitor and optimise their energy consumption.

Category	KPI Name	Description	Typical Use Case
Core Consumption	Total Energy Consumption (kWh)	Total electricity/gas use over a period	Track usage trends and overall performance
Core Consumption	Peak Demand (kW/kVA)	Highest power draw in the period	Manage demand charges and reduce peaks
Core Consumption	Base Load (kW)	Minimum overnight/off-hours consumption	Identify waste and unnecessary running loads
Core Consumption	Time-of-Use Breakdown	Usage split by peak/off-peak periods	Optimise tariffs and shift loads
Financial	Total Energy Cost (£)	Total billed cost for energy	Financial reporting and budgeting
Financial	Cost per Site/Dept	Allocated energy cost by location or team	Internal cost allocation
Financial	Avoided Cost (£)	Savings from PV, efficiency, or load shifting	Verify benefits of energy projects
Financial	Bill Accuracy Variance (%)	Difference between measured and billed usage	Bill validation
Carbon/ESG	Carbon Emissions (kgCO2e)	Total emissions using UK GHG factors	SECR/ESOS reporting
Carbon/ESG	Carbon Intensity	Carbon per unit output/floor area	Track true efficiency improvements
Carbon/ESG	On-site Renewable Self-Consumption (%)	Percentage of PV used on site	Optimise self-consumption versus export
Normalised	Energy Use Intensity (kWh/m²)	Energy per floor area	Offices/retail estate benchmarking
Normalised	Energy per Employee	Energy divided by staff count	Offices and hybrid workplaces
Normalised	Energy per Operating Hour	Energy adjusted for hours open	Retail/hospitality visibility
Normalised	kWh per Unit Produced	Energy per product/output volume	Manufacturing KPI
Equipment-Level	Efficiency per Asset	kWh per unit output per machine	Production optimisation
Equipment-Level	Equipment Idle Energy (%)	Percentage of machine energy use while idle	Reduce unnecessary consumption
Power Quality	Power Factor (PF)	Ratio of real to apparent power	Avoid PF charges and equipment strain
Power Quality	Voltage Stability Events	Count of sags, swells, and dips	Identify electrical issues

Business energy monitoring – FAQs

Our business energy experts answer frequently asked questions about business energy monitoring.

How much does business energy monitoring cost?

There is a wide variation in the cost of energy monitoring systems for UK businesses. Solutions offered by business energy suppliers are typically free for existing customers.

Basic third-party monitoring software that uses only the metering data already available at your properties starts from approximately £100 per property per month.

More advanced Energy Management Systems, which include the implementation of sub-metering, can be significantly more expensive, especially for large business energy customers.

What’s the difference between a business energy monitor and a smart meter?

A smart meter is a physical device that measures your gas or electricity consumption and automatically transmits meter readings.

A business energy monitor provides insights into energy consumption using smart meter data.

Put simply, a smart meter measures electricity or gas usage, whereas a business energy monitor analyses and presents data insights about energy usage.