Woolworths – Driving $80M+ in Savings Through Whole-Store Energy Optimisation
Woolworths Group, Australia’s largest supermarket network, operates more than 1,200 stores nationally. With energy costs and sustainability expectations rising, Woolworths needed a smarter way to track consumption, detect inefficiencies, and benchmark store performance—all in real time, across every energy-using system.
Partnering with Bueno, Woolworths rolled out a full-store analytics platform built to manage energy across refrigeration, HVAC, lighting, and solar. At the heart of this strategy is Energy Slip—a predictive tool that flags underperforming sites and unlocks major efficiency opportunities at scale.
The Challenge – Hidden energy waste across a complex retail environment
Even with high-quality infrastructure and good maintenance practices, store energy use can drift silently over time. Factors like equipment overrides, control logic issues, and schedule creep rarely raise alarms, but they add up—especially across 1,200+ sites.
Woolworths needed a way to identify and fix these issues early, before they impacted budgets or sustainability targets, without relying on manual reviews or guesswork.
“Bueno gives us the ability to manage our entire energy footprint—not just refrigeration—in a smarter way. We can see which stores are drifting, prioritise fixes, and hold teams accountable to efficiency targets.” — Woolworths Energy & Sustainability Team
The Journey Begins – A predictive approach to portfolio-wide energy control
Woolworths deployed Bueno across its entire grocery network, integrating with BMS systems, meters, and other in-store infrastructure to collect data every 5 minutes from 178,000+ devices. The platform provides near real-time insight into energy use across all major systems.
The key ingredient: Energy Slip
Bueno’s proprietary Energy Slip engine calculates what each store should be consuming based on location, equipment type, and environmental conditions. When actual usage deviates from the model, the platform flags that site for action—prioritising performance drift and enabling timely intervention.
The Results – Quantifying efficiency gains at national scale
With predictive analytics and automated benchmarking in place, Woolworths transformed how it manages energy across the network:
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Annual Energy Cost Savings: Over $80 million (cumulative)
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Emissions Reduction: 27% reduction in total carbon emissions
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Full-Site Monitoring: 1,200+ stores actively tracked
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Cross-System Analytics: Refrigeration, HVAC, lighting, and solar in one platform
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Reduced Manual Review: Energy outliers are flagged automatically
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Portfolio Benchmarking: Store ranking supports targeted follow-up and investment
Woolworths’ energy analytics platform now supports a more strategic, data-driven approach to portfolio performance:
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Prevent Energy Drift: Early detection before costs rise
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Improve Consistency: Insights standardise operations across diverse stores
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Validate Upgrades: Built-in measurement and verification tools (M&V)
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Surface Control Issues: From overrides to peak load mismanagement
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Track ESG Progress: Benchmark progress toward energy and emissions targets
Conclusion / Next Steps – Building the future of grocery energy management
Woolworths’ results show what’s possible when predictive analytics meets energy strategy. With Energy Slip and full-site visibility, the business has gained control over energy consumption, performance drift, and operational variance—while reducing costs and emissions in parallel.
Bueno continues to support Woolworths in applying these insights across its network, reinforcing a leadership position in retail sustainability and energy intelligence.