Best Energy Management Software
Energy management software reports and monitors energy system usage in facilities, saving businesses money on energy costs. These solutions include real-time energy usage monitoring, energy data analytics, HVAC systems controls, and carbon and sustainability reporting. Energy management software often contains tools that alter energy usage to promote more efficient consumption and reduce carbon emissions.
Businesses use energy management software to maintain a single source of truth for all data related to energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions through smart energy distribution, analyze energy consumption, and reduce energy consumption-related costs. Software in this category is designed to improve efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce operational costs.
Energy management software is similar to sustainability management software, and products overlap in feature sets quite a bit. Energy management and sustainability management software are sometimes used in concert and occasionally integrate, interacting with IoT-connected sensors that monitor energy usage in real time.
To qualify for inclusion in the Energy Management category, a product must:
Best Energy Management Software At A Glance
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Spacewell Energy (Dexma) is a sophisticated energy management software solution designed to assist organizations in monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing energy consumption within commercial and indus
Apollo is an AI-powered energy and sustainability intelligence platform designed to help organizations manage energy costs, improve efficiency, track carbon emissions, and enhance sustainability perfo
10 Twitter followers
EnergyElephant is one of the fastest-growing energy and sustainability management software platforms. It covers energy, waste, water and more, across cost, consumption and carbon, all in one simpl
3,305 Twitter followers
Insight empowers architects and engineers to design more energy-efficient buildings with advanced simulation engines and building performance analysis data integrated in Revit.
275,277 Twitter followers
Metasys Building Automation System is the foundation of modern building energy management efficiency. This intelligent, world-class technology system connects your commercial HVAC, lighting, security
Galooli has been leading the smart revolution of energy efficiency for over a decade, with a business presence spanning the globe. We provide an agnostic, all-encompassing remote monitoring and manag
334 Twitter followers
The IBM Envizi ESG Suite, delivered as an easy-to-adopt SaaS solution, provides comprehensive data and analytics software to collect, manage and derive insights from environmental, social, and governa
708,744 Twitter followers
RETScreen is a clean energy management software system for energy efficiency, renewable energy and cogeneration project feasibility analysis as well as ongoing energy performance analysis.
39,441 Twitter followers
Autodesk Green Building Studio is a flexible cloud-based service that allows you to run building performance simulations to optimize energy efficiency and to work toward carbon neutrality earlier in t
275,277 Twitter followers
Events2HVAC software integrates your room schedules from one or many sources with your HVAC controls for true building schedule automation. Eliminate fixed weekly building HVAC schedules by heating an
59 Twitter followers
Ekotrope TCO is a cloud-based, integrated design management software that gives you the ability to identify the designs that meet your business needs and provides a way to compare cost and performance
116 Twitter followers
ENEF is an energy management system that provides integrated monitoring of the various facilities and utilities. ENEF is designed and engineered for each application to provide accurate monitoring of
44 Twitter followers
Fluke Energy Analyze plus is a powerful software package designed to simplify the downloading, analysis, tracking and reporting of power quality and energy data. This software application includes eas
1,283 Twitter followers
Automate Manage Schedule This intelligent energy management software control system is designed to reduce energy consumption, improve the utilization of the system, increase reliability, predict
1,617 Twitter followers
FutrOS is an advanced cloud-based artificial intelligence platform designed to enhance the management of distributed solar operations. With FutrOS, you can optimize the efficiency of your assets' main
2 Twitter followers
Learn More About Energy Management Software
What is Energy Management Software?
Energy management software, often referred to as energy management systems (EMS), tracks and manages facilities’ energy usage. Energy management tools may contain features that include real-time meter monitoring, HVAC controls, energy usage monitoring and dashboards, sustainability reporting, and carbon usage reporting. These systems are designed to help companies monitor, manage, and ultimately reduce their energy consumption and boost energy savings.
For example, a data center with high energy consumption levels because of the costs associated with cooling huge server racks is looking to boost efficiency and reduce emissions. The organization may implement a piece of energy management software to determine the current state of their energy consumption and actively manage their energy usage to reduce environmental and financial costs.
What are the Common Features of Energy Management Software?
The following are some core features within energy management software that can help users:
Energy monitoring: This software feature monitors energy consumption and usage in real time. This feature is the core of many energy management solutions and lets users see their energy usage live. EMS tools increase the amount of automation within the energy management process and help streamline it, boosting cost savings in the process.
Systems management: The software helps manage energy usage within internet-connected systems. As IoT-connected devices become more prevalent, connectivity becomes easier across facilities, and live monitoring sensors can constantly transmit monitoring data to energy management systems for far-flung devices. This feature allows users to make adjustments across an organization’s energy-consuming technology.
Analytics dashboard: This EMS feature provides users with a single-pane view of analysis related to energy consumption across devices and systems. A dashboard allows users to have a real-time view of information important to them, often producing visualizations for users to easily digest information.
Benchmarking: This feature allows users to compare their energy usage and efficiency performance against standardized benchmarks. This feature can be useful when a business is looking to meet a specific energy efficiency standard or reduce its energy use to a certain level.
Report production: This software feature helps produce reports on energy consumption across a given facility or multiple facilities. These energy monitoring reports can be used to make informed decisions related to energy policy and device or systems usage throughout a facility to reduce overall consumption.
Systems integrations: This feature helps connect the software with all energy-consuming systems and devices within a given facility. To monitor energy consumption and reduce energy use, energy management systems need to be connected with the devices they monitor to collect energy data.
What are the Benefits of Energy Management Software?
The benefits of energy management software include:
Improves energy efficiency: Energy management tools allow businesses to reduce the amount of energy they use by providing the ability to adjust consumption depending on real-time data collected by monitoring devices. This is particularly important for enterprises with a high level of consumption, as these tools help them reduce utility bill costs. By using these solutions, companies can reduce their energy costs and tout a reduced carbon footprint, which is often a large part of organizations’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies and initiatives.
Provides live data collection: Real-time information on energy consumption allows facilities managers to craft and implement energy policy via energy control systems that focus on optimization. Cloud-based energy management systems drive deeper levels of understanding by streamlining energy data collection and giving easy access to energy data. Companies can benchmark against key performance indicators (KPIs) to reduce carbon emissions and drive improved energy efficiency metrics.
Who Uses Energy Management Software?
Facility managers: Facility managers look after all operational aspects of running a building or multiple buildings. They use energy management systems to consolidate energy consumption and management-related tasks and introduce more automation to their work to boost efficiency.
Software Related to Energy Management Software
Related solutions that can be used together with energy management software include:
Sustainability management software: Energy and sustainability management software tools provide similar functionality. While energy management solutions focus on operational efficiency and energy consumption monitoring, sustainability management tools focus on compliance with emissions standards and reducing the overall business impact on the environment.
Meter data management software: Energy management software provides complementary functionality to meter data management software. Meter data management solutions monitor data gathered by smart meters. Energy management systems can use that data to help provide facility managers with more insight into energy consumption.
Challenges with Energy Management Software
Energy management solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Lack of IoT devices: Energy management systems are only as good as the amount of real-time data they can collect. If an EMS cannot connect to a specific piece of energy-consuming equipment, then it has a blind spot. Every piece of machinery, technology, or equipment that consumes energy in a given facility should have an internet-connected sensor or device to transmit real-time information on consumption to the energy management solution.
Security: Security will always be a concern for an organization with thousands of internet-connected devices. An EMS will typically connect to many different endpoints, given the amount of energy-consuming devices within a facility or organization. To address this concern, a security stakeholder should be involved from the start of the research process to help steer the selection committee toward a robust and secure solution to mitigate risk down the line after implementation.
How to Buy Energy Management Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Energy Management Software
The selection team should put a list of their requirements together and include all relevant facility-specific information. The number of energy-consuming devices, all historical energy consumption information, future expansion plans, and desired outcomes should be considered. The process should also involve security stakeholders, particularly if the facilities the EMS manages are critical to the business or organizational functioning.
Compare Energy Management Software Products
Create a long list
The long list should comprise all products meeting the list of core functionality put together during the requirements gathering phase.
Create a short list
The short list should comprise all products that fit the specific needs, including ones with nice-to-have features. The short list should consider security concerns and expectations for ROI to measure success post-implementation.
Conduct demos
During the demo process, a list of questions should be put together and asked. The list should include specific scenarios likely to occur during the regular management of a given facility in which the energy management system will be used.
Selection of Energy Management Software
Choose a selection team
The selection team should contain an actual user (typically a facility manager), a systems specialist responsible for integrating the new tool into the existing tech stack, and a security stakeholder with compliance knowledge. The team should also include anyone with an understanding of exactly how the new EMS will fit into the tech landscape at the organization.
Final decision
The final decision should be a collective one, made by the selection committee and taking into account all relevant needs and concerns.
