Is Energy-as-a-Service, Future Proof Lighting?
Lighting technology is constantly improving as new generations of light bulbs and fixtures become more energy efficient, offer higher color rendering, longer life ratings, or other improvements. Meanwhile innovation brings about entirely new lighting technology and solutions. With high upfront costs, it can be daunting to make a large scale lighting upgrade even when the long-term benefits are obvious. Who’s to say there isn’t a better solution right around the corner? What if you could future proof your office or retail lighting? Current, Powered by GE may do just that by offering energy-as-a-service.
Energy-as-a-service shifts the management, implementation, and updates, to the vendor with little or no capital expense to a commercial business. Instead of companies being responsible for ongoing maintenance and technology evaluation or committing to technology that may not meet long-term needs, Current has everything bundled into a service fee that includes hardware, software, and financing options. This means new lighting technologies can be adopted much more quickly and the energy savings realized much sooner compared to the traditional energy model.
“All our solutions can be updated and augmented as needed. We can easily collaborate with any third-party developers or technology vendors you choose.”
Paired with the Internet of Things and GE’s cloud-based platform Predix, companies have real-time insights on energy usage trends. While many companies already utilize vacancy and occupancy sensors, not as many are collecting the data to make long-term energy or office layout decisions. Predix not only collects and stores that data but it helps companies analyze and optimize the performance of their commercial office spaces. After implementing energy-as-a-service, 50% of offices surveyed implemented strategies to cut down on space while improving productivity.
Want to see it in action? Current powered 200,000 lights at the 2016 Rio Olympics across more than 40 projects including half of the sports venues for a 50% reduction in energy costs. Could this be the way to future proof your commercial lighting? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Follow us on LinkedIn for more commercial lighting articles and ways to reduce your operating costs or how lighting can improve employee engagement.
