It’s an exciting time to be in the renewable energy industry. Globally, we’re working towards reaching unprecedented milestones. Prices of fossil fuels are on the upswing, and countries are motivated, now more than ever, to adopt renewable energy solutions.

In fact, according to recent IEA projections, renewables could overtake coal and become the largest source of electricity worldwide by early 2025. In this scenario, renewables would account for over 90% of the global electricity expansion.

With the forecast calling for large and diverse energy portfolios, asset managers who prioritize the following three key areas will be ready to take full advantage of the industry’s momentum.

By lowering their businesses’ operational expenditures (OPEX) in a balanced way, asset managers can gear up for success. The key areas to consider for OPEX reduction are threefold: your business’s processes, people, and use of technology.

Processes

An inefficient process will rarely be solved by technology. There’s no point in striving for optimal productivity through asset management tools if you don’t clearly know where your business is going and how you will get there. Take time to ask yourself:

• What are the business goals that we need to achieve? Are we an Asset Owner, Manager, Optimizer, etc.?
• What % of the time is the team focusing on value-adding activities for us to reach our business goals?
• What would happen to our existing processes if we doubled in size?

If you’re finding it difficult to answer these questions, working through the operational foundations of your business by focusing on your processes is a great place to start.

People

I don’t have to tell you people are significant. You already know the basis of any strong and successful business is the team of people who make up that business. This is why you need to make sure you’re creating teams that perform.

It might be helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I have the right people in the right roles?
  • Think about more than their past education and work experience. Consider their interpersonal skills in relation to their current role. Play to their strengths.
• Do people have access to the right information at the right time?
  • Software can make communication and delegation much easier and more dependable within your organization.
• Is knowledge centralized to a few key people?
  • To prevent corporate amnesia, consider having key documents in a centralized database. This can help you remember who has been tasked with keeping up with compliance responsibilities for which project, for example. Even if people move on to new roles, their responsibilities and documents needed for their roles will be more easily reassigned with the help of a centralized database.
• Is my team too busy/not busy enough?

Depending on how you answered these questions, you should know what to do to make your teams work better. If you’ve issues with access to information, you need to take steps to improve access to the right information at the right time. It shouldn’t make or break a project or a task if one of your team members is out sick.

Technology: the last part of the equation

Welcome to our wheelhouse!

This is where we come in as your friendly asset management software company. When we first speak to our users, we see a lot of the same questions being asked:

• In terms of the tools I have in place, are they the best/are they adapted to my business goals?
• How can I further support my people and processes with technology?
• What manual processes should I consider automating?

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all software solution for businesses, but there are definitely commonalities to learn from.

Technology should be built to empower your team, simplify and support your processes, and make information easier to access.

At PowerHub, we have had the pleasure of working with small and large companies where these questions and more are constantly being re-assessed. If you want to chat about Development and Asset Management processes, you’re in the right place.

We’re in the business of helping you grow.