Zot Engineering signed into long term contracts during the energy crisis and were therefore contracted into rates that are less than favorable compared to current market rates. Their current broker failed to deliver the promised level of energy services promised. The challenge was to make the business as profitable as possible, despite the rates they were contracted into. Zot Engineering wanted to understand more about their energy usage / profile, and how to optimise their energy in efforts to reduce energy consumption and associated costs. 

Jordan Carter, Toby King and Nate Jackson from Direct Business Solutions (DBS) and Direct Energy Solutions (DES) collaborated to deliver a comprehensive solution, each playing a distinct role in helping Zot Engineering reduce its energy costs.

DBS introduced Flexible Energy procurement to Zot Engineering. This approach allowed the company to take advantage of multiple opportunities to purchase energy at optimal times, rather than being restricted to a single day of decision-making, which is the case with fully fixed contracts. This gave Zot Engineering greater control over their energy buying decisions. The DES team implemented the Power raddar energy monitoring system. This cutting-edge system enabled Zot Engineering to track their energy consumption in real time, identifying inefficiencies such as unnecessary out-of- hours usage. With these insights, the company was able to address energy wastage and optimise peak- hour consumption, which led to immediate cost savings. By combining DBS’s strategic procurement and DES’s technical monitoring, Zot Engineering gained both the flexibility to lower future costs and the tools to reduce current energy waste. 

Very positive experience working with DBS. We have worked with a number of utility provider companies, but DBS have been by far the easiest to work with. Very professional and from day one communication has been very good, everyone we have dealt with within the company has been very helpful. Unlike working with other companies, we have never felt hurried or pushed into a decision.

Power costs have become a large problem for the business, rising over 150% in the last few years, putting the business under real pressure and becoming a huge concern for our competitiveness going forward. We feel with the solutions put in place by DBS, we are now in a position control our power costs better and reduce this pressure going forward, putting the business in a stronger more competitive position. It is early days, but we are already seeing savings from deploying the PowerRadar energy monitoring system. It has identified areas of power usage during non- working hours as well as highlighting peak consumption during working hours that we have reduced by better machine utilisation.