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another level

by Amy French

The bar at Feels Like June – the restaurant on the ground oor of Canary Wharf’s Tribe hotel

Tribe has opened as the rst hotel actually on the Canary Wharf estate. Level39 members were lucky enough to host our most recent monthly meet-up there and experience its quirky bar and restaurant. For us, this is not only exciting but incredibly signi cant. Being home to a community of global entrepreneurs, Level39 often welcomes international delegates and hosts events that attract people from overseas.

Having Tribe’s agship hotel on our doorstep makes international travel for our community that much easier and more convenient.

We were thrilled to have so many of our community join us – 100 Level39 members descended on Feels Like June, the Californian-inspired bar and restaurant that resides on the ground oor of the Wood Wharf hotel.

We lucked out with the weather and enjoyed drinks and tasty canapes served on the summer terrace, overlooking Union Square.

Tribe and Feels Like June are just two of the exciting recent openings in Canary Wharf that are now within close reach of our residents, workers, local community, and visitors. Next to try out will be Fairgame and Dishoom, once they open later this year.

We host community meet-ups at Level39 or other venues on the estate, each month.

All members are welcome to join. If you’re interested in joining our tech community – please do drop us a line or follow us on social media. We host meet-ups at Level39 or other venues each month. If you’re interested in joining our tech community please do drop us a line Amy French, Level39

Amy French is director at Level39 in Canary Wharf – follow @Level39CW on Insta and Twitter and @Level39CanaryWharf on LinkedIn

Go to level39.co for more information about the One Canada Square-based tech community

Scan this code to nd out more about Level39’s work and the activities of its member companies and tech startups

how Utilidex helps its customers to manage their energy billing, data, purchasing and carbon emissions

by Jon Massey

The topic of energy is seldom out of the news at present. There’s the government plan to cap household bills at an average of £2,500 through 2023 with six months of equivalent support for businesses at a cost of more than £100billion.

Then there’s the longer term problem that, unless humanity brings down global carbon emissions by fi nding ways to generate the power we need in more environmentally friendly ways, then our activities on this planet will be the end of our species.

Whatever is going on in the market or with the planet, organisations’ ability to accurately know their own usage and impact is essential. That’s where Utilidex comes in. Founded in 2012, the company is based at Level39 Canary Wharf’s tech community spread across various fl oors in One Canada Square.

“We create software for businesses, the public sector and industry,” said co-founder and director Mike McCloskey. “We do three things. Firstly, we do billing and, by default, bill validation for our customers. Secondly, we handle energy procurement – that means buying energy for the future for large corporates and industrials particularly.

“The reason we do that is so companies are less exposed to big changes in prices, to mitigate big shocks in the market.

“Then thirdly, from the data we receive, we create, assess and monitor the carbon footprint of an organisation based on the latest conversions. These actually change every year based on how much renewable energy is in the system.

“Once you have that data, which tends to be in half-hourly granularity in the UK, you can make observations – a business can monitor things like how much energy is being used when a property is vacant or a fl oor is empty in a building.

“You can work out things like energy intensity per square foot and then compare diff erent build-

ings to see how they diff er. That’s how you start to understand whether you’re wasting energy. “Once you start looking at data in this highly granular form, then the observations become more interesting. “These days, companies are devoting a bit more time to this – they are carbon aware – but even prior to that there was still a requirement for people working in facilities management to understand day-on-day, week-on-week, month-on-month, whether the organisation was making energy reductions and procuring power more eff ectively. “These are the sorts of things we try to inform our customers about. With our software, it’s all about usability and understanding how the system works – getting as much benefi t as you essential. That’s where wish and deciding how much activity you can and want to devote to energy. “In terms of value, we can measure the impact of projects and behavioural change – for example, swapware for businesses, ping to LED light bulbs. The data can provide the justifi cation for doing things like that. We also do the basic things like ensuring our customers’ bills are accurate. If your bill is £5million, then you’ll want to know if it’s correct or whether you’re under or over. “It could be that a company is still being billed for a property it no longer owns, that the rates have changed or that the meter data is either not coming through or has been poorly estimated. “There’s a lot of talk about energy suppliers over-billing, but in my experience, they’re just as likely to under-bill which is equally problematic if there’s a shock at the end of the year and it wasn’t in the budget. “Traditionally much of this work was done manually, which was time consuming and prone to error, so we do it digitally.” Utilidex, which has recently added water to the list of utilities its software supports, did not spring fully-formed from the minds of its founders – Mike and co-founder and CEO Richard Brys. Instead it is a company where change and evolution have

wish and deciding how much activity you can and want to devote to energy. example, swapping to LED light Utilidex’s Mike bulbs. The data can

McCloskey provide the justifi cation

10

Years since Utilidex was co-founded by Mike McCloskey and Richard Brys

As energy costs increase to eye-watering levels, companies will increasingly need to be on top of their usage, which is where Utilidex comes in

The energy market evolves in a dynamic fashion, but you have to adapt to those changes to stay in business

Mike McCloskey, Utilidex