Cultura entrusts the energy management of its real estate to EFICIA
Paris, June 2023 – Leroy Merlin, French market leader in home improvement, has chosen EFICIA, the FrenchTech expert in energy management for commercial buildings, to support its virtuous approach to reducing consumption across its entire real estate portfolio.
The challenge: real-time control of energy drift
After equipping its buildings with BMS and BMS systems, Leroy Merlin decided to step up the monitoring of its energy consumption by managing it in real time and controlling it remotely. In 2020, the company submitted a set of specifications to a dozen or so players, targeting this dual objective. Three were selected, including EFICIA. Over the course of a year, each of them demonstrated its solution through a POC carried out in two stores. At the end of this year of testing, during which a number of criteria were evaluated (operation, ease of reading, exchange with stores, etc.), Leroy Merlin chose EFICIA to support it in the energy management of its 144 stores, its 3 national warehouses and its head office, based in Lezennes.
“Our choice was carefully considered. We took many criteria into consideration, such as feedback from store teams, the responsiveness of energy suppliers, the quality of tools and the relationship between operational teams and technical assistance. For us, user experience is of paramount importance. And, in the face of more traditional competing systems, EFICIA’s modern spirit, with its intuitive interface and educational approach, convinced our staff to use its EMS. The financial aspect was also a decisive criterion, as EFICIA helped us to obtain financial aid for such a project“, explains Arnaud Berchon, Real Estate Technical Director at Leroy Merlin France, and head of the “Positive Real Estate Impact” CSR strategy.
Fast, real-time results
Deployment began in 2020, and today 70% of sites are equipped and monitored. By October 2023, 100% of sites will be managed by EFICIA.
To illustrate his experience, Arnaud Berchon explains: “For example, we were able to deploy our sobriety plan on all our sites extremely quickly. Thanks to EFICIA’s teams and EMS (Energy Management System), it only took us half a day for all our connected sites, whereas it would have taken weeks with local, site-by-site management.“
The project carried out with EFICIA is part of an overall energy renovation plan (relamping of all Leroy Merlin sites, insulation of buildings, elimination of gas boilers replaced by heat pumps, etc.). These combined actions have enabled the company to achieve significant reductions in its energy consumption. In 2022, Leroy Merlin was able to reduce its net energy consumption by 15% compared with the previous year. Under totally equivalent operating conditions (rough climate, opening hours, etc.), this figure would rise to 20%.
“Like many companies in the retail sector, our business is driven by figures, and with EFICIA, our energy KPI is automatic and in real time!
A collaboration with virtuous prospects beyond energy
And the collaboration with EFICIA is set to expand over the coming months as Leroy Merlin looks to tackle another resource whose future is becoming a cause for concern: water. The two players are working hand in hand on a project for connected water meters linked to EFICIA’s EMS. This will enable Leroy Merlin to monitor water consumption on its sites and be alerted in the event of an incident, so that it can take action as quickly as possible.