ENERGY MANAGEMENT FOR SMES
AS businesses across Malaysia fight to maintain market growth in an economy stunted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we must ensure that our small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not left behind.
As we look ahead to an economic rebound, we must support small businesses in addressing business infrastructure issues that threaten their resilience and competitiveness in a reset economic landscape.
SMEs fuel Malaysia’s economy. With 98.5 per cent of our country’s businesses made of SMEs, their contribution is key to our recovery as a nation.
These numbers not only demonstrate the importance of SMEs to the economy, but they also provide a window into the fierce competition between SMEs for market share in increasingly crowded online and traditional marketplaces.
Energy management is one critical area where the stakes are high, and an area of business that SMEs must optimise in order to not just stay ahead of the game, but survive.
In an era of tighter margins and increased competitiveness, developing an energy management plan allows SMEs to cut operational costs, increase efficiency and ensure business continuity in a changing energy landscape.
An energy management plan is necessary for SMEs to meet the evolving expectations, and sometimes standards, of governments and consumers around sustainability.
The relationship between a business and energy supply is changing.
SMEs across Malaysia are inevitably focused on generating revenue growth and short-term profit, often with little time and resources devoted to creating efficiencies across their most basic functions.
At Schneider Electric, our experience shows that reducing resource consumption by implementing some of the scalable technologies now available to SMEs — technologies that were once only available to large enterprises — can have a major impact on profitability and competitiveness.
This and other efficiency gains will be vital post-pandemic.
A reset economy will encourage SMEs to interrogate their bottom lines more closely.
An energy management plan can be the key differentiator for a business profitability, enabling SMEs to shave up to 50 per cent off their energy costs.
These savings can be channelled into increasing a SME’s competitive advantage, like improving research and development as well as marketing, or into business rebound strategies.
At the same time, shareholders, customers and employees are asking companies to operate with a lighter environmental touch.
This pressure will encourage SMEs to act quickly or risk becoming uncompetitive and unattractive to customers who are increasingly value environmental credentials.
SMEs in Malaysia looking to grow faster than their competitors can proactively meet the ever more stringent and evolving energy expectations and standards.
As the urgency to meet climate targets increases, governments across the region are implementing policies and plans to ensure that companies take the steps to decrease their energy usage and emissions.
Malaysia has taken a steadfast approach in launching the National Energy Policy that serves as the planning and development agenda for the country’s energy sector as it transitions towards a low-carbon future.
Smart SMEs can stay in front of changing policies by meeting these standards before they are enforced.
Digitalisation can deliver lowcost, data-driven energy management plans for SMEs.
Platforms such as Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure allow companies to combine energy usage data onto a single platform, where it can be analysed for key action areas.
By being able to predict and prevent problems, improve forecasting and purchasing decisions and reduce downtime, SMEs will be able to meet their profitability and environmental targets.
We know that 48 per cent of companies globally have no strategic energy plan, and this number increases as the size of the company drops.
This is a concern for an economy that will need to be optimised for economic recovery in a post-pandemic reality.
The time is right and critical for SMEs looking to cement their competitive advantage, increase their profitability, meet the changing expectations of governments and customers, and ensure their business continuity, to establish a digitally-driven energy management plan that helps Malaysia reignite growth.
Energy management is one critical area where the stakes are high, and an area of business that SMEs must optimise in order to not just stay ahead of the game, but survive.