How a West Midlands business cut its energy costs through BEAS

Our Mission

 

The Business Energy Advice Service (BEAS) is a pilot scheme managed by the Business Growth West Midlands (BGWM), designed to help businesses cut costs and adopt greener practices. As energy prices continue to rise, it has become increasingly urgent for businesses to reduce their energy consumption. Fortunately, there are many simple steps they can take to decarbonise and save money in the long term. BEAS supports this by offering free energy assessments and grants ranging from £1,000 to £100,000 for SMEs in the West Midlands.

 

What is BEAS?

 

Funded by the Government and managed by BGWM in partnership with Pro Enviro, this service is delivered by expert advisers who provide personalised support and business assessments. Their goal is to identify areas of improvement for businesses to reduce carbon emissions and lower energy costs.

 

BEAS also offers tailored one-to-one advice, webinars, workshops, and peer networks to help businesses gain the knowledge needed to maintain sustainable practices long after participating in the BEAS programme.

 

Helping Businesses Succeed

 

Alpha-Rowen is the UK’s largest specialist sub-contractor for the Austempering of spring steel with a Heat Treatment process that strengthens metal for the spring and presswork market. As an energy-intensive business which uses furnace burners daily, energy costs are a significant expense and with gas prices rising, the performance of the business was in jeopardy and at real risk of closure. They registered with BEAS in the hopes of improving the energy efficiency of their site and ultimately reducing costs to the business.

 

After registering online, they were referred to the local delivery partner, Pro Enviro, who ran an assessment which revealed that modifying the control on Alpha-Rowen’s furnace would improve energy efficiency and result in reduced gas consumption. It was also noted that once the number of furnaces was reduced and all put onto one site, the company’s monitoring system would require re-configuration to be able to track energy consumption.

 

Once Alpha-Rowen implements the changes recommended by Pro Enviro—optimising the furnace burner and reconfiguring the energy monitoring system—the company is expected to save enough gas to heat approximately 30 homes for a year and reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 12 cars off the road for a year.

 

Mike Leach, Managing Director of Alpha-Rowen says:

“I was delighted by the depth of insights gained from the free business energy assessment provided by the Black Country delivery team (Pro Enviro) for the BEAS-Decarbonisation Net Zero Programme. The recommendations supported our plan and the assessments provided were not only practical but should also lead to a reduction in our energy costs. Without the Grant Funding support, we wouldn’t have been able to move forward. The added benefit is that the quantified opportunity it generated also made the grant application far more straightforward.”

 

Find out if You’re Eligible to Sign Up

 

Energy assessments and grants are still available for SMEs across the West Midlands, including Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. We also cover Worcestershire and the Marches, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire.

 

After a business undergoes an energy assessment, there will be an opportunity to apply for a grant to invest in energy efficiency measures. To find out if your company qualifies, register online for a free energy assessment.

 

To learn more about BEAS and our mission to decrease carbon emissions in the West Midlands, please visit BGWM’s BEAS webpage.