Power shortages continue to impact hospitality businesses, but there are ways to negate that by optimising energy solutions.

During the latest ‘Talking Energy with FEDHASA’ Summit at the end of last month, alternative energy experts shared insights into how hospitality businesses could potentially save and protect themselves against the effects of load shedding.

Energy specialist, Henning Holm, pointed out that one of the problems is that South Africa is coming out of a regime of very cheap energy.

“Legislation regarding energy efficiency has changed substantially over the last 20 years. So we often still find hotels without insulation on pipe systems or heat pumps that haven’t had servicing for a long time.

“This wasn’t considered [optimising buildings for energy solutions in the future] when we developed many buildings currently running today. They are designed and focused on cheap resources, and we have to have a strategy around this to change it with time,” Holm explained.

Log and monitor energy usage

Holm said hospitality businesses first needed to know what they wanted to achieve about saving energy.

“There are very different inputs and outputs that could be implemented to save energy. The very first step is measuring and knowing what your energy usage is.”

Marshall Fourie, Utility Management Specialist at Energy Resource Optimizer, a company that has been actively assisting the hospitality sector for the past 21 years, said the main point was for businesses to know their energy usage through monitoring and measuring.

“If you don’t know the ‘what, how and why’ of your energy usage, you won’t know how to make your business more energy efficient.”

Gerrit Meyer, Head of the Commercial, Industrial and Agricultural division at Holm Energy, who had been involved in surge and lightning protection of structures, and electronic and electrical equipment since the 1990s, said he wanted to take it a step back.

“Let’s start first by logging energy usage before implementing anything. You must have your energy plan, but first log to see your power quality and energy consumption. First, get yourself as efficient as possible, then implement the smallest sustainable system for your business.”

Protect and maintain

Meyer noted that one of the problems of load shedding was that the country already received ‘dirty power’ from Eskom.

“This adds to the need for maintenance because of all the equipment degradation. Hospitality businesses might sometimes be subjected to load shedding two to three times a day. Because they need to provide essentials such as Internet, warm showers and cold beers, it is important to start with protection before implementing sustainable energy solutions. Other factors such as lightning during rainy seasons should also be considered when referring to protection.”

To clarify what “protection” means, Meyer said: “When we talk about protection, we are not talking about the surge plug you put behind the TV – we are talking about good surge and lightning protection. If you’re doing surge protection, you might as well do lightning protection simultaneously because otherwise, you will just repeat the labour and product cost.

“Businesses’ equipment will last when they start to protect, bringing their maintenance down. When they implement protection, everything within that system that has degraded up to a certain point will stop degrading. And at that point, everything new that is implemented, whether it’s globes or a fridge, that degradation will not kick in and subsequently extend the life of the equipment.”

Meyer and Fourie both suggested that businesses look at the best equipment available.

“It’s 2023 – you have some of the best technology on the market. It doesn’t matter if you’re running great technology inefficiently. It will have the same result and the lifespan of the equipment will shorten,” Fourie said.

“With surge protection, always look at the equipment that will protect electronics. The next thing is reaction time. You need a surge resistor to ensure the reaction time is almost instantaneous, otherwise your electronics will start to degrade. There are very good products out there. Look at surge and lighting resistors that give you the longest warranty. Some products have five or ten years’ warranty,” Meyer added.

Meyer further advised hospitality businesses to do regular maintenance as part of their own risk mitigation process.

“If you don’t maintain your generator, you are going to use more diesel. The latter risk of that is also electrical fires. So the only way to understand all of this is by understanding your specific infrastructure. If you understand that, then you can start your maintenance plan. You are doing proper maintenance and protection, doing a full-on risk and liability assessment for your business and staff. In this way, you will take your business to the next level.”

Holm stressed that businesses should also consider the transition period between switching to more sustainable energy solutions.

“It’s not replacing your whole hotel or restaurant in a single go, it is just too expensive – it’s a process. Protect your investment and see how long you can stretch it because that is capital already invested.”

Education and behavioural changes

All three experts, including host presenter David Milne, who is the Group Hospitality Executive at Peermont Global (Pty) Ltd and a FEDHASA Inland Board Member, advised businesses to educate and implement behavioural changes across the spectrum.

“Arrange your team so that everybody knows where you are going in terms of saving energy,” Holm said.

“Communicate with your staff and team members. It comes down to educating everyone. If everyone understands the purpose behind the maintenance plan, then you have a winning team,” Meyer said.

“Attend like this one for example. Get a plan together to find out how you will achieve your energy solution end goal. It doesn’t have to be big – start small. It’s okay if you only start by saving ten kilowatts a month. If you save energy, you save money. So in other words, in time, you will have more money to invest in more efficient energy solutions.

“Behavioural change is the most cost-effective way to save energy – it costs nothing. Educate your staff, for example, by teaching them why they shouldn’t keep the lights or air-conditioners on when there’s nobody in the room. Or when it’s cold outside, turn the air-conditioners off. Don’t cook four kettles for four cups of coffee either,” Fourie said.

Milne concluded by saying businesses should consider when the best time was to bring in staff to safe energy during peak usage times.

“For example, when do chefs start turning on the ovens compared with when the laundry staff start washing the linen in the morning. Through small easily achievable initiatives like this, business will start reaping benefits such as saving more energy and money.”