Energy management systems for commercial buildings help facility managers and building owners monitor energy usage, track energy consumption patterns, and optimize energy usage across HVAC systems, lighting, plug loads, and other control systems. When paired with on-site generation, battery energy storage, and smart software, an EMS like e2Companies’ Virtual Utility®—an EMS can support energy optimization, power quality, and resilience.
For commercial building owners pursuing cost savings and sustainability initiatives, the practical goal is straightforward: use real time data and energy analytics to reduce energy waste, improve operational efficiency, and lower operational costs—without sacrificing occupant comfort or equipment performance.
What is an energy management system?
An energy management system (EMS) is the combination of hardware (e.g., energy meters, submeters, sensors) and software that collects energy data, analyzes historical data and real time monitoring streams, and turns those insights into informed decisions—and, in more advanced deployments, automated actions that optimize energy.
In federal agencies and large-enterprises, you may also see the term Energy Management Information System (EMIS) used to describe a family of tools that monitor, analyze, and sometimes control building energy use and system performance. The DOE's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) maintains an EMIS initiative to help organizations implement these systems for building energy cost reduction.
EMS vs. building management systems vs. building energy management systems
These terms are often used interchangeably online, but they are not identical in practice:
- Building management systems or building automation systems primarily focus on control of building equipment (HVAC control sequences, schedules, set points, alarms).
- Building energy management systems (BEMS): typically emphasize building energy management outcomes—metering, energy analytics, and energy optimization—often leveraging the BMS for actuation.
- Energy management systems (EMS): broader umbrella that can span portfolio benchmarking, energy and asset management, power monitoring, carbon emissions reporting, and integration with renewable energy sources and storage.
A modern approach is to connect EMS software to existing building systems (BMS/BAS, meters, switchgear, UPS, EV chargers, solar inverters) so facility managers can see electrical system behavior and operating constraints in one place—supporting comprehensive energy management.
Why energy management matters in commercial buildings
Commercial buildings have complex energy consumption patterns driven by weather, occupancy, process loads, and equipment health. In the U.S., space heating represented a substantial share of commercial-building energy, with ventilation and lighting also significant categories, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
HVAC is also a major lever for efficiency improvements. ENERGY STAR notes that space cooling accounts for roughly 15% of electricity used in commercial buildings, second only to lighting.
At the macro level, DOE notes that homes and commercial buildings consume about 40% of the energy used in the United States, which is why building energy management and energy efficiency are persistent priorities for cost reduction and emissions.
How energy management systems work
At a practical level, energy management systems work in four layers:
1. Data capture: metering + context
An EMS aggregates energy data from:
- Utility interval data and rate structures
- Main meters and submeters
- BMS points (including temperatures, valve positions, fan speeds, schedules)
- Equipment telemetry (including chillers, boilers and rooftop units)
- Power monitoring (including voltage sags/swells, harmonics, breaker events) for power quality
This is where many "management systems for commercial" deployments fail.
If the system cannot normalize data from existing infrastructure, the analytics become noisy and facility managers lose confidence.
2. Analytics: identify inefficiencies and predict energy usage
With clean data, the EMS applies:
- Energy analytics to surface abnormal energy consumption patterns
- Baselines and weather normalization
- Fault detection signals (e.g., simultaneous heating/cooling, stuck dampers)
- Predictive models to predict energy usage and anticipate energy demand
Many vendors market “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning,” but the measurable outcome is whether the platform reliably produces actionable energy insights (not just graphs) that map to real equipment performance constraints.
3. Optimization: translate insights into actions
The best systems recommend or automate actions such as:
- HVAC schedule optimization and setpoint reset strategies
- Demand limiting during peak periods
- Load shifting (pre-cooling / thermal strategies where appropriate)
- Verification of savings (M&V logic using historical data and real time monitoring)
The goal is optimal energy use—reducing energy costs while maintaining building performance.
4. Control and integration: act through existing building systems
An EMS delivers the most value when it can coordinate with:
- Existing BMS/BAS
- DER controls (solar, battery, generators)
- EV charging controls
- Power controls (switchgear, protection relays) where appropriate
This is the boundary between “monitor energy usage” and actually “optimize energy usage.”
Key features to look for in energy management systems for commercial buildings
When evaluating building energy management systems, commercial building owners and facility managers typically prioritize:
- Real time energy monitoring (not next-day batch uploads)
- Interval data handling (15-minute or sub-minute where available)
- Energy meters and submetering support for tenant allocation and critical loads
- Energy optimization workflows (recommendations + verification)
- Seamless integration with existing building systems and existing infrastructure
- Energy and asset management visibility (run-hours, alarms, maintenance triggers)
- Power quality and power monitoring for sensitive loads
- Carbon emissions reporting aligned to sustainability efforts
DOE’s Buildings program also emphasizes advanced building controls and interoperability standards that enable these integrations at scale.
Connecting EMS to solar + battery energy storage for commercial buildings
For solar-equipped sites, EMS value increases when the system can coordinate on-site generation, storage, and load.
Solar-plus-storage can shift solar output to evening/night hours and provide additional grid benefits (peak reduction, grid services). NREL summarizes that solar-plus-storage shifts output and that energy storage supports multiple grid services, including reducing peak demand.
Where e2Companies fits
Most building energy management platforms stop at monitoring energy usage and analytics, providing visibility into energy consumption without the ability to materially influence how power is generated, stored, or dispatched at the facility level.
e2Companies takes a fundamentally different approach by combining on-site generation, battery energy storage systems (BESS), intelligent controls, and grid interaction under its Virtual Utility® model.
Virtual Utility® delivers utility-grade energy services behind or in front of the meter. Rather than acting solely as a software-based energy management system, Virtual Utility® treats a commercial site—or portfolio of sites—as a controllable energy node that can actively manage energy demand, power quality, resilience, and energy costs.
Unlike traditional building energy management systems, the Virtual Utility® is designed to operate continuously, picking up a facility's full load even during grid disturbances. This allows commercial building owners to maintain stable electrical system behavior while optimizing energy usage. They can also voluntarily reduce their reliance on utilities during peak times, potential earning revenue from utility rate incentives.
At the core of the Virtual Utility® is the R3Di® System, a self-contained power generation and battery battery energy storage system that starts at 1 megawatt of power.
The R3Di® System is purpose-built to deliver high power quality suitable for sensitive equipment and mission-critical operations. It can integrate with any power source, including renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines.
Grove365™ is the AI-powered energy management software that intelligently powers the R3Di® System, monitoring weather, grid conditions and assets and deploying it automatically during specific times determined in advance.
This software extends the Virtual Utility® beyond hardware and controls by providing ongoing energy optimization, monitoring, and lifecycle support. It functions as the operational layer that ensures energy and asset management strategies continue to perform as expected over time.
This helps facilities continuously monitor the performance monitoring of generation, storage, and control systems, analyze historical data and usage patterns to identify inefficiencies and optimization opportunities, and inform maintenance decisions to improve its useful life.
Jump to Topic