The UK is probably the most mature and crowded market place in the world for automatic monitoring and targeting products so what made Spanish company Dexma decide that its product would be good work here. Tim McManan-Smith got met up with UK managing director Steve Norman to find our why

1. Procurement
Your complete energy management solution
Bespoke purchasing
strategies
Revenue audits
and recovery
Invoice validation and
consumption management
Integrated Energy Services
Revenue Recovery
Visit BIU at !e Energy Event, Hall 3, Stand B10-C09
16th-17th September 2014
Turn to pages 14 & 15 to !nd out more.
01253 789816 events@biu.com www.biu.com @BIUenergy
BRITISH INDEPENDENT UTILITIES THE UK’S LEADING ENERGY CONSULTANCY
August/
September
2014
Issue 93
E f f i c i e n t c o n t r o l o f u t i l i t i e s a n d f a c i l i t i e s
theenergyst.com

2. ENERGY MANAGEMENT
New app-roach to software
The UK is probably the most mature and crowded market place in the world for automatic monitoring
and targeting products so what made Spanish company Dexma decide that its product would be good
work here. Tim McManan-Smith got met up with UK managing director Steve Norman to find our why
Dexma formed in
the UK in February
2013 and after a
successful first
year of trading it is looking
to expand even further
with its software that has
the ability to be developed
by the user as an app.
“Ultimately its all about
data,” states Norman, “and
you could use an excel spread
sheet set up to produce the
analysis that most monitoring
and targeting software is
able to perform. But the
complexity as well as the
potential for human error
would mean that the energy
manager would spend all of
their time doing this. Software
enables very quick gathering
of data from sometimes-disparate
systems and is able
to integrate them seemlessly.”
“The thing that you have
to realise with monitoring,
metering and benchmarking,”
continues Norman, “is
that it is a tool; it enables
understanding and to spot
where improvements can be
made. It allows benchmarking
and comparisons and prevents
drift after energy reduction
programmes have been
implemented. Although it
can be a really powerful tool
and a necessary one to have a
complete overview of energy
efficiency projects within an
organisation it won’t actually
save a single kW of energy.”
Presenting data in the
correct manner, such as
with dashboards, has been
an increasing part of the
market but most do not
address the issue of energy
saving that effectively
argues Norman. Although
he does say that it can act
as an aid to behavioural
change, especially for those
non-energy related staff.
The Dexcell system
“Dexcell is our cloud-based
systems that has all of the
data in one place and allows
analysis of this. It is particular
adept at project based energy
reduction programmes.
The software allows you
to run projects with a time
line to a measuring and
verification standard such
as IPMVP,” says Norman.
“How do you know if a
payback that is quoted will be
true? The ability of our system
is that the repository of data
is anomalously used to verify
what others similar to you
have done and how it panned
out in the past. It is possible to
conduct a virtual e-audit from
past data that enables you to
spot the best technology and
manufacturers that would suit
your particular future project”,
comments Norman. The thing
about exception reporting in
general is that it spots waste
but doesn’t tell you that you
should change the lighting
or the boiler says Norman.
Norman believes that you
have to use the data in an
effective and timely manner
to get the best result from it.
“Energy management software
is like gym membership. If
you don’t use it in the right
way it won’t do anything
for you,” says Norman.
Although the UK is a
mature market for energy
management software
Norman says that it is still
only at the tip of the iceberg.
There are lots of companies
who could be using software
more effectively and many
that would benefit by looking
at their data differently.
Regarding ESOS Norman
says that he believes that it
does help energy managers
because it works in the same
way as energy managers do.
Unlike the CRC, for instance,
which was a cap and trade,
“Energy
management
software is like
gym membership. If
you don’t use it in the
right way it won’t do
anything for you
24 August/September 2014 | water energy & environment theenergyst.com

3. carbon based scheme that
recycled money and appealed
to the finance department of
the company. ESOS works on
an energy management level
and is all about identifying
opportunities to save.
It’s all about the apps
“The thing about the
Dexma software – Dexcell;
what makes it different
to competitors, is that
additional functionality can
be obtained from apps.
“Dexma has an open API
(application programming
interface) so that anyone can
devlop apps for the Dexcell
system. You can devleop it
in-house, get another party
to develop it or Dexma is able
to assist too. You keep the IP
for the developed app and
can sell it to all of our other
customers if you wish to on
our app store,” states Norman.
An example of the sort of app
that has been developed would
be an app to utilise BMS
functionality to, for instance,
change the lighting from the
Dexcell systems directly.
Norman believes that the
apps will help Dexcell become
the product to standardise on.
He can see 500 apps available
within the next year. Dexcell’s
job is to capture, store and
deliver data in the best way
possible, others are then able
to add further functionality
to this offering through
the development of apps.
“Data for your company
is pre-processed in all the
time needs that you require
and stored in these time
dimensions; minutes,
hours, weeks, years and
so on. This increases the
speed of data retrieval
significantly,” says Norman.
Dexcell will integrate
directly with the
manufacturer’s hardware.,
this is important as people
want a single place to
look at all of their data.
Another benefit of Dexcell
is that SMEs are catered for
as much as I&C companies
because the only licensing
element that Dexma charges
for is the data points that
it has to store and not user
numbers. “I am confident
that some customers will
understand with certain
systems they are being
charged for both volume and
users numbers and realise
that they are being double
charged,” comments Norman.
dexmatech.com
theenergyst.com August/September 2014 | water energy & environment 25