The as-a-service model, in which capital-intensive costs are spread out over the useful life of the product or offering, has become commonplace. The best example is software-as-a-service (SaaS), now the preeminent way to acquire and use personal and enterprise software. This model replaced the more capital-intensive approach of businesses buying their own computing infrastructure, purchasing and updating these servers with new versions of their applications, and spending significant amounts of money to do so. Within energy and building technology, the use of SaaS applications is not new. For example, co-working providers offer workplace-as-a-service, which replaces a long-term lease, plus a lot of other costs (such as utilities, furniture and facility management) with a flat monthly fee based on simple metrics like the total number of desks or people.

Another offering, data-as-a-service, provides a stream of data for a flat “per point” or “per feed” price. This simplifies the complexity that goes into collecting these data streams, which may include deploying sensors and other hardware. This model also has been offered within building energy management. Energy waste, and the elimination of it, is a significant business opportunity, though the high upfront costs to improve building performance have always created friction in the market. Energy management software, offered as an as-a-service solution, was one of first approaches to deliver energy efficiency. While software dashboards and reporting products are fairly ubiquitous, an open question is whether some energy waste is being left on the table. This is due to  […]