Since 2018, the New Zealand Electricity market has been defined by falling natural gas supplies, record quantities of coal to be burned at Huntly, inconsistent hydro storage levels and rising costs. All of these factors have led to price instability, and the timing of your next electricity contract negotiation can have a significant impact on the prices offered.
Example: Food and Beverage Industry In this example, our proactive approach to procurement achieved the green pricing before the customer’s contract end date.
In total, eight retailers bid for forward energy supply.
Had they waited until the last minute, the likely number of participant retailers would have been reduced to 3 or 4.
Advance pricing is 32% lower than last-minute pricing.
Example: Hotel Industry In this example, our proactive approach to procurement achieved the green pricing before the customer’s contract end date.
The customer was able to smooth out their energy contract costs over the term of supply.
Advance pricing is 38% lower than last-minute pricing.
Waiting until the last minute to renew your electricity contract could be risky.
Why Act Early?
Allowing your electricity contract to expire or delaying securing a new one can expose your business to unnecessary risks and higher costs. Electricity prices are highly volatile due to factors like hydro storage, so timing your contract negotiation is crucial.
Waiting too long can lead to significantly higher electricity prices. Delaying until the last minute often leaves you with fewer options and less favorable terms. By acting early, you can negotiate better terms and avoid disruptions in service or unexpected cost increases.
Strategic Planning
Start looking at prices six months before your contract ends. This gives you time to find the best deal or reassess the market closer to contract expiry.
Optimal Contract Term
The best term for your electricity contract depends on market conditions and your business goals. Longer-term contracts can offer price stability and potentially lower rates, while shorter-term agreements provide flexibility but often come with higher costs and risks.
Total Utilities procures a range of contract terms and provides recommendations that balance short-term flexibility with long-term price security, ensuring your contracts align with your business strategy and market conditions.
Shop Around
In addition to acting early, it’s essential to compare different offers. The electricity market is competitive, and prices can vary significantly between providers. By comparing offers, you can ensure your current supplier’s renewal offer is competitive.
Proactive Procurement Total Utilities offers services to help you:
Why Total Utilities? With over two decades of experience, Total Utilities conducts around 300 market reviews annually, providing strategic advice tailored to your business needs. They help optimise utility costs and ensure reliable procurement.
Smarter tools, deeper insights, better decision making — discover how Panoramic Optimise can transform your future of energy management.
Enhanced User Experience: Enjoy a sleek, intuitive design with quicker navigation and AI-driven quick search for improved results in seconds.
End-to-End Personalisation: Customise dashboards, widgets, device grouping, and naming. Tailor benchmarks, thresholds, and visualisations to your unique needs.
Continuous Innovation: Benefit from regular feature updates, cutting-edge improvements, and AI-powered features with a forward-looking roadmap.
Empowered Team Performance: Engage stakeholders across various departments with tools for teamwork, task delegation, and incident management.
Improved Performance and Security: Experience 80% faster load times, 50% fewer network errors, and top-tier data security on a robust cloud infrastructure.
Smarter Energy Intelligence: Gain deeper insights into energy patterns, custom benchmarks, and proactive maintenance with AI-powered tools tailored to your KPIs and workflows.
Smarter decisions with customisable widgets.
Multiple views, smarter insights, and deep data exploration.
Our expert team can help you unlock significant energy savings with a short-term return on investment (ROI). Typically, we can identify up to 25% savings with an ROI of less than 2 years.
We achieve this by conducting a comprehensive site-wide energy audit (Type 1), examining everything from lighting and HVAC systems to chillers, boilers, refrigeration and other energy-intensive systems. Additionally, we install Panoramic Power our non-intrusive energy intelligence system, providing real-time device-level energy data visibility. For more information check out a brief overview of our service here.
Has your organisation invested in commercial solar panels, or are you considering deploying solar power? If so, you might be looking for ways to maximise your return on investment (ROI).
In today’s challenging business environment, adapting your energy strategy is crucial. Objective tracking of your assets’ cost and performance is becoming increasingly important. Without this data, you could face additional pressure on your bottom line, complicating your budget amid rising costs.
The Power of Panoramic Power
Panoramic Power’s end-to-end energy management and intelligence platform can help you clarify your energy picture. The benefits of real-time data start from the very beginning of your solar system’s lifetime. Panoramic Power can help you track your organisation’s electricity demand and energy costs. With real-time alerts and reporting, you’ll be able to view energy usage for your entire site. This can help you identify opportunities to cut wastage and reduce your total energy demand.
Lowering Usage and Reducing Costs
Lowering your energy usage means drawing less energy from the grid. This allows you to meet more of your total demand via your solar system, providing more stable prices and accurate forecasts. If you invested via capital sale, this could even help reduce your solar system’s payback period.
If you haven’t invested in solar power yet, tracking your energy usage can still benefit your business. Reduced usage means you’ll need a smaller system, with a 25% reduction resulting in a roughly 25% smaller solar system. This can lower your upfront costs and free up your budget for other investments.
Achieving Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is a priority for many organisations. For some, energy monitoring can deliver quick wins and effective short-term savings. However, progress can stall without a more granular view of energy usage and cost.
With device-level insights, you can track exactly how much energy you’re using and where. Panoramic Power provides a detailed view of where and when you could reduce your energy usage. By uncovering opportunities to cut back on wastage, you can ensure that you’re only using the energy you really need.
Transforming Your Energy Strategy
Pairing energy monitoring with commercial solar power can transform your energy strategy, offering dual benefits. Bringing your energy generation onsite reduces your reliance on grid supply, shielding you from volatile electricity prices. By tracking your energy demand, you’ll know you’re paying the right price for the right amount of electricity.
In conclusion, data-driven energy monitoring and insights can help you maximise your ROI in commercial solar power. By collecting, analysing, and acting on data-driven insights, you can bridge the gap between commitments and implementation, achieve your energy goals, and build a more sustainable future.
How Total Utilities Can Help
Our expert team can help you unlock significant energy savings with a short-term return on investment (ROI). Typically, we can identify up to 25% savings with an ROI of less than 2 years.
We offer the easiest-to-install, and fastest for ROI energy management solution, that scales effortlessly from a few devices to full-site or multi-site operations. Experience actionable insights and real-time analytics that drive efficiency and sustainability. Our solutions work for everyone, helping your organisation kickstart cultural transformation towards a sustainable future.
Total Utilities partners with Kristin School to provide real-time monitoring of solar panel performance with our world-class energy monitoring solution. Read their story here.
Hidden inefficiencies are draining your profits and hindering your sustainability goals.
We’re not talking about dramatic equipment failures that halt production. Instead, we’re exposing invisible efficiency killers—machines that appear fully operational while steadily eroding your bottom line and inflating your carbon emissions. The culprits are your most commonplace industrial machines: boilers, hot water systems, compressors, lighting, HVAC and refrigeration systems.
Every unit of wasted energy means lost money and unnecessary emissions. As New Zealand businesses face mounting pressure due to escalating energy prices, for executives tasked with controlling costs, Panoramic Power represents a transformative ally.
The Invisible Problem: Why Inefficiencies Go Unnoticed
Many inefficiencies remain hidden because you can’t fix what you can’t see. Machines that appear operational can quietly drain profits and inflate emissions. Without advanced energy monitoring, these “silent thieves” stay undetected, eroding both financial performance and sustainability credentials.
Total Utilities provides a simple, cost-effective way to identify quick wins and the real-time visibility needed to expose these invisible efficiency leaks, equipping businesses with actionable insights to transform waste into measurable gains.
Excessive Steam Discharge: Can account for up to 30% of energy waste.
Scale Buildup: A 1mm layer can increase fuel consumption by 2–5%.
Faulty Controls: Malfunctioning thermostats or regulators increase inefficiencies.
Real-life example: A Panoramic Power client identified that 30% of their steam was wasted. Real-time insights enabled targeted fixes, reducing gas usage and emissions.
Sediment Accumulation: Reduces heat transfer, requiring more energy.
Corrosion and Leaks: Often unnoticed until damage is extensive.
Real-life example: Monitoring revealed a pump running four times faster than needed. Adjustments led to significant energy and cost savings.
Compressed Air: The Hidden Energy Monster
Air Leaks: Drain 20–30% of output.
Short-Cycling: Misaligned systems disrupt efficiency.
Improper Pressure Settings: Cause waste and operational disruptions.
Real-life example: A bottling plant reduced compressor pressure from 100 PSI to 96 PSI, saving energy and reducing wear without affecting production.
HVAC Systems: The Silent Energy Drainers
Unbalanced Airflow: Causes some areas to overheat or over cool, wasting energy.
Dirty Filters: Reduce efficiency and increase energy consumption.
Faulty Thermostats: Lead to inconsistent temperatures and energy waste.
Real-life example: A client discovered that their HVAC system ran 24/7 due to a faulty thermostat. Fixing it saved significant energy and reduced costs.
Lighting Systems: The Overlooked Energy Consumers
Outdated Bulbs: Older lighting technology consumes more energy.
Improper Scheduling: Lights left on when not needed.
Inefficient Fixtures: Poorly designed fixtures waste light and energy.
Real-life example: A warehouse switched to LED lighting and implemented motion sensors, cutting their lighting energy use by 40%.
Refrigeration Units: The Hidden Cold Costs
Door Seals: Worn seals allow cold air to escape, increasing energy use.
Defrost Cycles: Inefficient cycles waste energy.
Temperature Settings: Incorrect settings lead to higher energy consumption.
Real-life example: A food processing plant adjusted its defrost cycles and repaired door seals, resulting in a 15% reduction in energy use.
Total Utilities leverages Panoramic Power to turn hidden inefficiencies into measurable improvements. Using real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and customised dashboards, the platform:
Identifies inefficiencies across machines and systems.
Provides actionable insights to reduce energy waste.
This integration of visibility and intelligence empowers manufacturers to cut costs, lower emissions, and enhance competitiveness.
Why Panoramic Power Stands Out
Unlike generic energy monitoring tools, Panoramic Power aligns with executive priorities by translating data into strategic opportunities. The platform simplifies:
Inefficiency detection: Identify hidden energy drains.
Data customisation: Tailor dashboards to operational needs.
By addressing both cost savings and environmental impact, Panoramic Power helps users achieve measurable results and lead in sustainable innovation.
How Total Utilities Can Help
Our expert team can help you unlock significant energy savings with a short-term return on investment (ROI). Typically, we can identify up to 25% savings with an ROI of less than 2 years.
We achieve this by conducting a comprehensive site-wide energy audit (Type 1), examining everything from lighting and HVAC systems to chillers, boilers, refrigeration and other energy-intensive systems. Additionally, we install Panoramic Power our non-intrusive energy intelligence system, providing real-time device-level energy data visibility. For more information check out a brief overview of our service here.
Ready to start saving? Contact us today to schedule your energy audit and begin your journey towards greater efficiency and cost savings!
In today’s business landscape, whether your priority is energy efficiency, cost reduction, or sustainability, a successful long-term strategy relies on a degree of certainty about the future. When market conditions are volatile, a rigorous approach to data becomes more crucial than ever. Long-term uncertainty makes it challenging to plan and even harder to sell sustainability strategies within the wider business. However, a data-driven approach provides businesses with something tangible to build on.
The Role of Data and Analytics
For those looking to manage energy more effectively, data and analytics often focus on consumption, carbon emissions, and cost. Establishing baselines for all data sets and systematically tracking them as you make operational changes or implement new technologies is essential. This approach ensures you know what’s working, what isn’t, and why.
Addressing Energy Costs in New Zealand
With increasing pressure to control energy costs due to systemic market constraints in New Zealand, businesses must find ways to reduce energy usage. Simply absorbing costs is not a viable option. Understanding where your energy is going is crucial. By identifying operational inefficiencies, you can discover where savings can be made, helping you make smarter decisions.
Leveraging Real-Time Energy Intelligence
Combining self-powered, wireless sensors with real-time energy intelligence software provides the overview you need and allows you to analyse data to develop a data-driven strategy for the future. This approach can help mitigate costly downtime, reduce waste, enhance agility, and boost productivity.
Benefits Across Various Industries
Using end-to-end energy management tools to build energy intelligence offers benefits for various industries, types of operations, and facilities:
Industrial Manufacturers: Avoid equipment downtime by predicting failures, maximise energy savings, detect operational inefficiencies, and optimise overall equipment effectiveness. Typical results include reducing maintenance costs by 60%, equipment downtime by 50%, and equipment capital investment by 3-5% by extending the useful life of machinery.
Multi-Site Retail and Grocery Stores: Cut costs by reducing energy waste, optimise equipment and maintenance, enhance brand reputation through sustainability, and monitor the entire operation from one dashboard. Typical results include eliminating 30% excess energy consumption and a 10% reduction in energy costs, boosting net profit margins by up to 16%.
Commercial Buildings and Business Campuses: Predict failures and operational anomalies through real-time alerts, reduce energy waste, measure retrofit effectiveness, and continuously improve operational effectiveness. Typical results include cutting equipment maintenance costs by 40% and extending equipment lifetimes.
Panoramic Power: Your All-in-One Energy Intelligence Solution
Our expert team can help you unlock significant energy savings with a short-term return on investment (ROI). Typically, we can identify up to 25% savings with an ROI of less than 2 years.
We offer the easiest-to-install, and fastest for ROI energy management solution, that scales effortlessly from a few devices to full-site or multi-site operations. Experience actionable insights and real-time analytics that drive efficiency and sustainability. Our solutions work for everyone, helping your organisation kickstart cultural transformation towards a sustainable future.
