Installing advanced meters may seem like a demanding investment for businesses with multiple sites or branches. However, the examples below show how a pilot project at selected locations can deliver crucial insights, define best practices, and build a strong business case for wider rollout. Businesses can also cut costs through economies of scale by sharing service and consultancy expenses across similar sites.

These examples are based on case studies published by Carbon Trust, an organisation specialising in supporting businesses in reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency.

Peacock Group

The retail chain, which operates over 800 stores (Peacocks and Bonmarché), ran a pilot in 10 locations. Each store paid about £7,000 a year for electricity. By installing advanced metering, the company identified out-of-hours energy use and labelled equipment as either “essential” or “non-essential.” Using this data, they built business cases to automate the shutdown of non-essential equipment when stores were closed.

Cardiff City Council

The city manages about 500 buildings, most too small to be legally required to have advanced metering. They piloted the system in 5 sites and uncovered simple, no-cost savings such as turning off lighting and heating in modular classrooms left on overnight.

Orange Retail

The chain of 250 stores spent £780,000 a year on energy. They launched a pilot to understand their energy use in detail. Before the pilot, they had not focused on energy savings. Half-hourly data revealed unnecessary lighting, heating, and cooling in empty spaces, especially at night.

Bupa Care Homes

Bupa Care Homes, the UK’s largest elderly care provider, runs more than 290 homes and spends over £9 million on energy each year. Instead of installing meters in all sites at once, they ran a pilot in 10 locations. One home, Forest Court, stood out as a best-practice example, and the company now uses its data as a benchmark. Based on the pilot results, they developed a business case to expand advanced metering across all homes.

Conclusion

By piloting advanced metering at selected sites, businesses can spot savings opportunities, cut emissions, and build a strong foundation for wider optimisation. A pilot project offers a cost-effective first step for any multi-site company aiming to boost energy efficiency. Do you manage operations across multiple sites? Let’s talk.

^{_{Source: Carbon Trust – “Advanced metering for SMEs: Half-hourly metering for multi-site businesses”, available at: www.carbontrust.com}}