In commercial real estate, energy efficiency has become the new currency of competitiveness. As markets shift and carbon regulations intensify, energy management is central to ESG performance, investor trust, and long-term asset value.
The built environment consumes 32% of all global energy, accounting for around 34% of CO₂ emissions. This statistic is one of many that highlight why managing resource consumption is non-negotiable in any large enterprise.
Energy Management Systems (EMS) help leaders uncover inefficiencies, predict usage trends, and transition from reactive maintenance to intelligent, performance-driven operations. But which EMS solution is the best fit for your commercial properties?
What Are Energy Management Systems for Commercial Buildings?
An energy management system (EMS) is a software platform that monitors and optimizes utility usage and performance. An EMS platform will gather data from sources like IoT devices and utility metering to provide analytics on energy consumption, demand forecasting, and sustainability performance.
Investing in an EMS is an essential facility management best practice for reducing operational expenses (OpEx) and improving your building’s overall environmental performance. Certifications and assessments like LEED, BREEAM, GRESB, and ENERGY STAR require auditable data, which is precisely what you’ll get with energy management systems.
The best EMS operate as central nervous systems for data, leveraging features like real-time monitoring of utility metering and IoT devices, anomaly detection to spot waste, and demand forecasting to predict load requirements. They also support scalable, multi-site deployment, essential for large commercial portfolios.
Benefits of Energy Management Systems
The best energy management systems deliver value for commercial building owners and operators beyond simple utility bill payments. The ability to turn data into actionable intelligence has benefits across compliance, finance, sustainability, and long-term business strategies.
Reduced Energy Costs and Emissions
The continuous, granular data an EMS provides is the insight needed to achieve lower OpEx and energy usage for Net Zero and decarbonization goals. These efforts help you significantly reduce your building’s overall carbon output (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) across all commercial buildings, from offices and healthcare facilities to research spaces where laboratory management demands precise environmental control.
Stronger ESG Performance and Regulatory Readiness
Centralized and standardized performance data provides the audit trail needed to meet demanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets and comply with external frameworks like the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, LEED certification, and ISO 50001 for energy management systems.
Better Visibility for Stakeholder Decision-Making
Energy management systems provide a single source of truth for how buildings consume energy. With detailed, real-time data on HVAC, lighting, and equipment performance, facility teams can pinpoint inefficiencies and verify the results of improvement projects. This level of transparency gives executives and asset managers the confidence to prioritize upgrades with the most substantial return on investment.
Key Features to Look for in an Energy Management System
1. Real-Time Metering and Load Monitoring
The best EMS continuously collects energy data from utility and submeters, such as electricity and steam metrics. Real-time metering supports early detection of inefficiencies like equipment left running outside of operational hours or abnormal spikes in consumption, helping facility teams take corrective action immediately. Over time, this insight supports benchmarking, budgeting, and performance optimization across your portfolio.
2. Open API and BMS/IoT integration
Many EMS are open platforms communicating with existing building technology through an open API. You can choose an EMS that integrates with the central building management system (BMS) and pulls data from various IoT devices for a complete view of all resource consumption. This flexibility allows integration with project and workflow tools such as monday.com workflows, enabling seamless collaboration between facility, finance, and sustainability teams as they track and act on energy insights.
3. Forecasting and Predictive Analytics
Select an EMS that goes beyond historical reporting. It should use AI-powered analytics to forecast future energy needs based on factors like weather and occupancy schedules. Tools that leverage predictive analytics continuously learn from real data through a process known as model inference, allowing you to establish a preventative maintenance program that anticipates usage peaks, aligns procurement with demand, and balances loads more efficiently.
Top 10 Energy Management Systems for Commercial Buildings
1. Verdigris
As an AI-powered energy and electrical intelligence platform, Verdigris is designed for smart data center management. It tracks energy consumption, optimizes efficiency, predicts cost savings, and provides real-time insights.
Main Features
- Proprietary hardware (high-speed, high-fidelity meters)
- Automated measurement and verification (M&V) to track energy use and costs
- Zero-latency data platform
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: High-precision electrical monitoring.
2. WINT Water Intelligence
WINT’s AI-powered water management and leak detection platform addresses the often overlooked water-energy correlation in commercial and industrial environments. Unlike sensor-heavy setups, WINT is an in-line, AI-powered system that monitors all water systems and shuts off leaks in real time, completing traditional BMS and EMS.
While most EMS platforms focus on electrical and HVAC loads, WINT protects all water systems in a building. With WINT, you can avoid the consequences of unmanaged water infrastructure, such as irrigation overuse and water damage events leading to carbon-intensive repairs. The platform also supports multi-site deployment with scalable dashboards and portfolio-wide visibility.
Main Features
- Uses AI and signal processing for real-time leak and waste identification
- Real-time automatic shut-off to prevent energy wastage
- Insights and reporting dashboard help you detect issues and optimize consumption
- 24/7 service and proactive alerts so you can react during an incident
Pricing: Get in touch with the WINT team for tailored pricing information.
Best for: It is the only solution providing multi-water system management with real-time automatic shut-off capability to prevent water damage and waste.
3. Gridium
Gridium is an energy-management-as-a-service platform for the commercial real estate sector. Property owners and operators use it to manage energy usage and reduce operational expenses.
Main Features
- Hardware-free solutions relying on data integrations
- Streamlined reporting features for budgeting and compliance
- AI-powered diagnostics identify cost-saving opportunities
Pricing: From $470/month (for buildings up to <75K square foot) to $833/month (for buildings +400K square foot). There is a discount for 5+ buildings.
Best for: Hardware-free, subscription-based energy-management-as-a-service.
4. Atrius BuildingOS
Atrius is a cloud-based building operating system integrating hardware expertise, such as lighting and building technologies, with advanced software capabilities.
Main Features
- Atrius Energy centralizes energy data from utilities and submeters
- Atrius Sustainability automates carbon accounting and reporting
- Atrius DataLab makes building data accessible and actionable for all Atrius solutions
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: Integrating lighting expertise with carbon accounting.
5. EnergyCAP
EnergyCAP’s energy and utility management software combines all utility-related data for finance, energy, and sustainability teams. It’s designed for businesses in education, government, manufacturing, and commercial campuses.
Main Features
- Delivers financial-grade data on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for accurate reporting
- Offers utility bill payment services as an add-on
- Compares facility performance across a portfolio
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: Financial and compliance reporting for multi-site institutions.
6. Johnson Controls / Metsys
Metsys is Johnson Controls’ flagship building automation system (BAS). It is a platform for monitoring and controlling mechanical, electrical, and lighting systems for building performance optimization.
Main Features
- Manage building systems from any device through a web browser
- Includes pre-configured blocks for standardized control sequences like ASHRAE Guideline 36 (G36)
- Connected Workflow Application (CWa) feature streamlines project management
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: Built-in ASHRAE G36 sequences for HVAC efficiency.
7. Siemens Desigo CC
Siemens Desigo CC is part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, which enables the transformation to self-adapting buildings. This building management software is scalable and suitable for small- to medium-sized facilities, large buildings, and distributed campus infrastructure.
Main Features
- Unifies control and operation of all major building disciplines, including commercial HVAC systems and fire safety.
- Open design supports various industry-standard communication protocols (e.g., BACnet)
- Native cloud connectivity for remote management
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: Large campuses and multi-disciplinary system integration.
8. Schneider Electric EcoStruxure
EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, IoT-enabled system architecture and digital platform. It connects all OT and IT systems and components, including smart devices and sensors, to the cloud.
Main Features
- IoT-enabled architecture for vast connectivity and data collection
- Leverages scalable cloud tech for cybersecurity and optimization
- Provides real-time information and business logic
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: Open IoT-enabled architecture connecting OT and IT.
9. Trane
Trane is a global provider of commercial HVAC systems and services. They also offer a web-based building management system for facility managers operating multiple sites.
Main Features
- Trane® Air-Fi™ is a wireless communication solution for building controls systems
- Accessible from PCs, tablets, and smartphones for remote facility management
- Compatible hardware accessories available, e.g., energy meters and sensors
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: HVAC-centric building modernization and wireless controls installation.
10. Honeywell
Honeywell’s portfolio of products supports the entire utility value chain, from power generation to transmission and distribution. Under this umbrella, Honeywell offers hardware and software to manage energy resources.
Main Features
- Smart city solutions, such as energy optimization for public lighting
- Microgrid management and distributed energy resource management (DER) to monitor local power generation
- Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for smart gas, electric, and water metering
Pricing: By inquiry.
Best for: AMI and smart city services.
Water: The Missing Piece of Energy Management
The market for energy management solutions offers diverse solutions, from legacy platforms like Siemens to agile, data-driven vendors like Gridium. Given this complexity, you must carefully evaluate the right EMS based on portfolio complexity and unique sustainability challenges.
However, even the most advanced EMS platforms often share a critical blind spot: the water-energy nexus. Traditional systems focus heavily on electrical loads and HVAC, frequently ignoring the significant energy implications of unmanaged water infrastructure.
WINT’s AI–and signal processing–driven platform detects and stops leaks at the source, triggering real-time alerts and automatic shutoff to prevent damage before it starts. The platform protects every water system, from domestic cold and hot water to HVAC loops and cooling, for complete visibility and control.
It also supports verifiable ESG performance, LEED and BREEAM certifications, and enterprise-level sustainability reporting by helping reduce water waste and the energy associated with water movement and heating. Meanwhile, scalable dashboards help you demonstrate across commercial portfolios.
Contact us to learn how WINT can help you reduce waste, cut costs, and eliminate water-related risks from your portfolio.
