Bringing clarity to data reading within B2B client relations
.JPG)
Commercial rooftop solar by SGS Energy generates 73.7 MWh at Raven’s Budgens
Raven’s Budgens Abridge in Essex is a busy convenience store attached to a petrol station, serving local customers seven days a week. The site relies on power throughout the day for fridges, lighting, tills and other essential equipment, so reliable electricity is a constant part of keeping the business running.
As energy costs continued to rise, commercial rooftop solar became a practical way to make better use of the building and reduce the amount of electricity bought from the grid. Generating power on site gave Raven’s Budgens a cleaner way to support its daily operations, while also helping to cut running costs and improve control over future energy spend.
The installation needed careful planning, as both the shop and petrol station had to remain open and safely accessible throughout the work. SGS Energy delivered a commercial rooftop solar PV system around these requirements, keeping disruption to staff and customers to a minimum.
Since going live, the system has generated 73.7 MWh of renewable electricity, helping Raven’s Budgens power the business in a cleaner and more cost-effective way.
Key wins
- Strong lifetime generation: The system has produced 73.7 MWh of renewable electricity since installation.
- High on-site energy use: The system now supplies around a quarter of the site’s recorded electricity use, helping this energy-hungry convenience store and petrol station rely less on bought-in grid power.
- Commercially attractive projection: The original model estimated £11,617.71 in year-one net bill savings, a 36.45% bill offset, and a projected 4.3-year payback period.
- Measurable environmental impact: To date, this solar PV system has saved 14 tonnes of CO₂ saved. That's the equivalent of 862 trees planted.
Execution was reorganized into agent-driven tasks with clear boundaries. Work was picked up based on capacity, failures were isolated, and retries followed defined rules instead of manual intervention.
Visibility was built into the workflow, so every run could be inspected without additional tooling. The system was designed to adapt to load rather than pushing everything at full speed.
Technical summary
Challenges and solutions
Keeping trade moving
Raven’s Budgens is a busy shop and petrol station, with customers, staff and deliveries on site every day. To avoid interrupting trade, the installation needed careful planning from the outset.
What SGS Energy did
SGS Energy coordinated closely with the site team, scheduling works around peak trading times and daily site activity. This helped the business continue operating as normal while the installation was completed safely and efficiently.
Managing safety on a live site
Customers, vehicles, staff and deliveries were moving around the site, so the installation had to be carried out without compromising safe access or day-to-day operations.
What SGS Energy did
SGS Energy planned the works in clear phases, keeping work areas controlled and maintaining safe routes for customers, staff and contractors.
Designing around high energy demand
Convenience stores attached to petrol stations use a lot of electricity. Refrigeration, lighting, tills and long trading hours all create steady demand, so the challenge was to design a solar PV system that could support the site’s ongoing energy use.
What SGS Energy did
SGS Energy’s SolarEdge-trained designers assessed the roof space, shading and the site’s electricity usage profile to inform the solar PV system design. The original design expected around 46.96 MWh of solar energy to be consumed by the building each year, helping Raven’s Budgens rely less on bought-in grid power.
Supporting long-term savings
The project needed to make sense commercially, not just environmentally. For a business with high energy use, solar offered a way to take more control over future electricity costs.
What SGS Energy did
The original model projected £11,617.71 in year-one net bill savings and a 4.3-year payback period, showing a strong financial case for the system.
Avoiding disruption during the final connection
Raven’s Budgens trades from 6am until 10pm, so connecting the completed solar PV system to the building’s electrical supply needed to be carefully timed to avoid affecting normal operations.
What SGS Energy did
SGS Energy scheduled the required power-down for midnight, after the store had closed. This allowed the team to complete the solar connection outside trading hours, avoiding disruption to customers, staff and day-to-day operations.
Installing across three different roof types
The site had three different roof types, pan tile, flat roof and trapezoidal metal, each requiring a different installation approach. The challenge was to install the solar PV system securely across all three while working with the individual characteristics of each roof.
What SGS Energy did
SGS Energy’s installation team adapted the mounting approach to suit each roof type, using appropriate fixing methods across the pan tile, flat and trapezoidal metal sections. This allowed the available roof space to be used effectively while ensuring the system was installed securely and appropriately for each surface.
What's next?
After seeing the benefits of their existing solar system, Raven’s Budgens has ordered 23 more solar panels.
The new panels will allow the store to generate even more of its own electricity from sunlight. The system is expected to produce around 9,590 units of electricity each year, helping the business buy less power from the grid and reduce its energy costs.
It's also expected to prevent around 1.86 tonnes of carbon emissions each year (roughly the same environmental benefit as planting 85 trees).
The new installation will include:
- 23 high-efficiency AIKO solar panels
- Equipment that helps each panel perform at its best
- A new SolarEdge inverter, which converts the electricity from the panels into power the store can use
Once installed, the extra panels will build on the success of the first system, helping the store meet more of its day-to-day electricity needs from its own roof.
Client testimonial
We’re really pleased with the commercial rooftop solar installation SGS Energy completed for us.
As a busy convenience store and petrol station, we needed the work to be done safely without getting in the way of the business. The SGS Energy team planned everything around how the site runs day to day, kept disruption low and made sure customers, staff and deliveries could still move around safely.
They also took the time to look properly at the roof, shading and our electricity use before designing the system. Since it was installed, the solar PV system has helped us generate our own clean energy on site and rely less on electricity from the grid.
The project was well managed from start to finish, and we’re very happy with the result. We’d be happy to recommend SGS Energy to other businesses considering commercial rooftop solar.
It was a simple choice for me to come back to SGS to expand on the already great work they have done for us. - Goran Raven, Director
.jpeg)
.png)
