SPONSOR CONTENT FROM SIEMENS

How Businesses Are Reducing

Their Energy Costs and
Building Resilience
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017
Business leaders have significant concerns about energy. A Harvard Business
Review Analytic Services report, sponsored by Siemens in conjunction with a
national series of seminars focused on energy innovation, found that approximately
90 percent of executives feel significant pressure to reduce their energy spend, and
more than 80 percent said fluctuating energy prices are a challenge. Lengthy
business interruptions from weather-related events and the specter of cyber-attacks
on the utilities and power grids were also major concerns among this group.

Yet most companies reported that they still manage energy on a short-term, reactive
basis. Only a third of the executives surveyed said their organization have an energy
management strategy or have the ability to generate power onsite. Even fewer have
an energy procurement strategy backed by senior management.

However, a small group of leading edge companies report they now see energy as a
key business value driver, and are deploying new technologies and strategies to turn
energy into competitive advantage.

Tackling the Challenge

Traditionally energy has been a major cost. But, according to Matthew Walters,
Siemens Head of Distributed Energy Systems, U.S. Center of Competence,
organizations havent tackled it because capital investment in distributed energy can
be high and therefore, has longer paybacks than other strategic uses of an
organizations capital budget.
However, the survey found that changes in energy technology and business models,
along with major environmental, social, and business trends are starting to change
that picture.

About 35 percent of organizations in the

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Read the Siemens-sponsored Harvard
Business Review Analytic Services
Report: Business Resiliency and
Energy Innovation
survey, for instance, said they are
generating power on site, often through
solar energy. That trend is expected to
continue: Nearly 80 percent believe their
organizations use of solar energy will
significantly increase in the next 10 years.
Nearly half see similar levels of growth in
wind power.

Such onsite power generation can have a

major impact on costs. Walters points out that a 25% reduction in energy costs could
add millions to a large companys bottom line.

But cost cutting is only part of the story behind these new energy strategies.
Reducing carbon emissions is also a top driver for those companies, amid the
changing expectations of customers and mainstream investors who increasingly
expect companies to demonstrate environmental responsibility.

Businesses Want Government Involvement

Companies are entering a new era where they can turn energy management into
competitive strength by taming costs, reducing risk and deploying new energy
business models in their communities. And individual organizations realize they cant
do this alone. The leaders in the survey support a strong government role in energy
innovationnearly 90 percent said that businesses and municipal governments
should work together to assure resiliency on the part of both.

They point to places like Pittsburgh which has spearheaded public/private

partnerships for energy resilience as part of its economic renaissance. Dubbed The
Pittsburgh Way, the city is working with universities, utilities, and businesses to make
the case for energy innovation, achieve broad-based understanding of the energy
market, and assure that investments in energy innovation pay off for businesses and
the city.

Companies are increasingly turning to onsite power generation, says Walters.

They are using it to reduce costs, improve their organizations environmental
footprint and assure the resiliency of their operations.

Siemens helps organizations stay connected to the grid while generating and
managing power themselves. The companys solutions cover the entire energy value
chain from generation to management to consumption.

To learn more about how Siemens can help your organization address the energy
challenges it faces, please visit www.usa.siemens.com/onsite-power.