Retrofitting is no longer just about sustainability

Alice Williams, VP of Digital Energy at Schneider Electric UK&I, explains why organisations can no longer afford to delay upgrades to inefficient and poorly connected building systems.

Most organisations operate buildings with electrical infrastructure, HVAC plant, meters and controls that have been installed piecemeal over decades. While many of these assets are not new, they are not yet ready to be replaced. The temptation is to delay retrofitting until something breaks, but this approach does not address the immediate issue: these assets are often poorly connected, poorly understood and run inefficiently under today’s operating pressures.

Commercial electricity prices rose by 75% between 2021 and 2024. Labour-related operational costs in the building sector could rise by up to 16% by 2030. Meanwhile, heatwaves and other extreme conditions are testing whether buildings can remain safe, comfortable and productive when demand peaks.

Retrofitting is no longer a sustainability project to defer until capital is available. It is a business decision. It can improve resilience, control costs and help organisations get more from the assets they already own.

In Schneider Electric’s experience, multi-site portfolios can have energy inefficiencies of 10–30% linked to limited operational insight, rather than poor strategy. The opportunity is not always wholesale replacement. It is to find and fix the overlooked inefficiencies that drain performance every day.

Find the faults, loads and controls that are costing the estate

Energy waste is rarely caused by one dramatic failure. More often, it is the accumulation of small problems: plant running when a building is empty; heating and cooling working against one another; an unexplained overnight baseload; or an electrical asset that receives attention only after it fails.

These hidden inefficiencies put pressure on facilities teams. Many are forced to work reactively, responding to complaints, alarms and breakdowns. The result is costly call-outs, short-term fixes and too little time to improve the underlying operation of the building.

Digital retrofitting can help address these challenges. It can shift teams from reactive firefighting to centralised, proactive control, helping them identify issues earlier, prioritise work by impact and verify that action has delivered a result.

Resilience should be treated in the same way. It is not an insurance policy for when systems fail. It is an operational discipline: designed, monitored and improved every day.

Start with what is already installed

A successful retrofit does not begin with a technology list. It starts with a clear picture of the estate.

Consultants, specifiers, contractors and facilities teams should combine asset records, site surveys and live data to answer a few basic questions:

• What is being measured, and at what level of detail?
• Which major electrical loads and critical assets are not visible?
• Is the BMS helping operators optimise performance, or simply managing alarms and schedules?
• Which existing systems can be integrated, and where are targeted upgrades needed?
• Can data be compared across sites, or is each building operating in isolation?

This assessment identifies immediate actions as well as longer-term investment needs. It avoids replacing assets simply because they are old, while exposing those that present a genuine risk to energy performance, occupant comfort or continuity.

Effective retrofit strategies use lifecycle value, not the lowest upfront cost, as the deciding factor.

Get the right visibility at the switchboard, plant room and across the estate

A single utility meter may show total consumption, but it will not explain what is driving it. Organisations need monitoring at the points where data supports action.

That can include incoming supply monitoring to understand demand and peak loads; sub-metering for major plant, zones or distribution boards; and monitoring of critical electrical assets to identify emerging capacity or condition risks. HVAC and BMS data should also be compared with occupancy, schedules and outside conditions.

The aim is not more data for its own sake. It is useful, trusted insight.

That means defining what good performance looks like, who owns each issue and how success will be measured. An analytics platform can highlight inefficient operation, but savings will only follow if the right person receives a clear priority, makes the change and verifies the result.

Integrate, don’t automatically replace

Digital retrofit does not require a rip-and-replace programme. Often, the best route is to retain sound existing assets and add the visibility, connectivity and intelligence needed to improve how they work together.

This could mean integrating electrical metering with an existing BMS, establishing a common view across multiple sites or using analytics to identify where HVAC controls need tuning.

But interoperability must be planned. Legacy estates may include proprietary protocols, obsolete controllers, inconsistent naming and undocumented overrides. A robust project should therefore set common data standards, define control boundaries and use secure, open architectures wherever possible.

It is also vital that organisations review and strengthen their cybersecurity. As electrical, operational and digital systems become more connected, organisations must build in access control, segmentation and ongoing management from the start.

Make sure systems work together before handover

A retrofit is not successful just because devices are installed and data is visible. Commissioning must test how systems perform under real operating conditions. Does the BMS schedule match occupancy? Are heating, cooling and ventilation strategies coordinated? Are alarms meaningful? Does energy data align with the building data? Can operators use the information confidently?

For consultants and specifiers, that means setting clear performance requirements. For contractors, it means delivering accurate points lists, records and training. For facilities teams, it means being involved before handover, rather than receiving an unfamiliar system without the skills or authority to use it.

Technology creates value only when it is embedded into operational workflows, so digital insight must be paired with human expertise.

Use live insight to prevent faults and protect uptime

A digital retrofit can help teams spot rising baseloads, underperforming plant and recurring faults before they result in downtime, comfort complaints or costly reactive work. It enables practical interventions when they will have the greatest impact, from correcting schedules and control settings to prioritising repairs or targeted asset upgrades.

For consultants, specifiers and contractors, the task is to deliver secure, interoperable upgrades that can be properly commissioned and expanded over time. For facilities teams and building operators, it is to use that visibility to plan maintenance, reduce call-outs and apply proven improvements consistently across sites.

That is why retrofitting cannot wait: the next practical intervention can reduce energy waste, prevent avoidable disruption and extend the useful life of existing assets. Start with the greatest operational risk or clearest source of energy waste, measure the outcome, then scale what works.