How UK businesses can prepare for extreme heat

Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about your role and your work at SEFE Energy.

I’ve worked at SEFE Energy since 2008 in a range of different roles. Over this time, I’ve developed a strong understanding of our business and the challenges our customers face. Currently, my focus is on large, complex industrial customers, helping them navigate energy challenges and optimise their energy procurement and management strategies.

I’m passionate about delivering great customer service and strive to become an extension of my customers’ teams by sharing industry knowledge, market insight, and best practice. Building trusted, long-term relationships is incredibly important to me.

Following reports that June’s heatwave cost the UK economy over £1 billion, which types of businesses are most exposed to these risks?

The businesses most directly exposed are those with high cooling requirements, temperature-sensitive products, energy-intensive operations or large physical workforces. This includes food and drink manufacturers, cold storage, logistics providers, retailers, healthcare providers, hospitality, manufacturers and data centres. For these organisations, extreme heat can affect product quality, equipment performance, site safety and customer service. It can also create sharp increases in energy demand, particularly where air conditioning, refrigeration and cooling, are already operating close to capacity.

What knock-on risks does extreme heat create for energy use and supply chains that companies may not immediately anticipate?

The secondary impacts of extreme heat can be just as disruptive as the heat itself. Businesses may face increased energy costs, pressure on air conditioning and cooling systems, transport delays, supplier disruption, staff absence, reduced productivity and stock spoilage. For sectors reliant on just-in-time delivery, refrigeration, continuous production or customer-facing sites, even a short period of disruption can create wider operational and financial consequences. Extreme heat can also expose weak points in business continuity plans, particularly where energy use, maintenance, staffing and supply chain resilience have not been stress-tested together. It can also affect the wider energy system. While gas demand might usually be expected to fall in warmer weather, higher electricity demand for air conditioning and cooling can increase reliance on gas-fired generation, particularly during evening peaks, periods of low wind output or when solar generation is unavailable.

What practical steps can businesses take right now to protect critical operations and manage costs during periods of extreme heat?

The first step is to understand where heat is likely to create pressure. For many businesses, that means looking at when energy use rises, which sites or systems are most exposed and whether air conditioning, cooling, refrigeration or ventilation equipment can cope during prolonged hot periods. Businesses should also identify the operations they cannot afford to lose, from stock storage and production lines to customer-facing sites, and agree what action they would take if demand, costs or disruption increased. By grounding a heat plan in previous energy usage, and in collaboration with their energy supplier, businesses can move from reacting to heat-related cost spikes to actively planning for them.

How can companies build longer term resilience against recurring heatwaves while balancing operational demands and energy expenditure?

Businesses can build longer-term resilience by understanding where heat creates the biggest cost and continuity risks and use that insight to prioritise investment. That means reviewing energy use during previous hot periods, identifying critical assets, checking the resilience of air conditioning, cooling and refrigeration systems and ensuring maintenance is completed before peak demand periods. Over time, businesses can improve insulation and ventilation, invest in more efficient cooling and refrigeration systems. Where possible, businesses can also shift energy-intensive activity away from the hottest parts of the day and use data from meters or energy monitoring systems to spot unusual spikes early. Working with an energy supplier can also help businesses identify which sites, systems or times of day are driving heat-related demand, and where usage could be reduced, shifted or better managed. The more visibility a business has, the less likely it is to have to make costly, reactive decisions. This targeted, data-led approach can strengthen operational resilience without requiring businesses simply to add costly cooling capacity across every site.

What exciting plans and goals do you have for SEFE Energy over the next few years?

Our focus over the next few years is to continue helping businesses navigate an increasingly complex energy market while strengthening their long-term resilience. That means supporting customers to understand and manage their consumption more effectively, make informed purchasing decisions and prepare for changing operational and sustainability requirements. Our goal is to combine reliable energy supply with the insight and support customers need to manage costs, reduce risk and progress their wider energy ambitions.