Summary
With rising fuel prices there has been a need for small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) to have access to independent energy efficiency advice and training in order to reduce costs to help maintain their competitiveness. The project has involved supporting small/medium businesses to use automatic detailed monitoring and targeting technology (intelligent metering). The detailed metering has been established for a range of business types and sizes in the small/ medium business sector and the resulting detailed energy and water use data has been analysed to identify energy saving opportunities. This information has helped with providing energy awareness training to staff of the business, and in providing any on site energy survey. It has been intended that the training will form part of certified training programme, and the training will give staff the ability to continue to analyse the data themselves beyond the duration of the project.

Aim of the project
The project has aimed to demonstrate the potential for energy savings from automatic intelligent metering and to increase the uptake of intelligent metering in small and medium sized businesses.

The project's objectives have been to automatically monitor energy (electricity, gas, heat, etc.) and water data in 75-100 small/medium businesses (SMEs) from a range of sectors (manufacturing, commercial, etc.) in 5 different European countries.

Work Packages
The first phase of the project involved recruiting small /medium sized businesses to receive intelligent metering in the project, and setting up the monitoring systems.

The second phase involved the initial analysis of the detailed data collected, identifying energy saving opportunities. This was followed by the provision of a bureau service for the organisations undergoing monitoring.

The fourth phase was the communication and dissemination of results of the project.