Power Factor Wizard
Frustration to Installation in Weeks
"I’ve sat through countless proposals over the years where the numbers just didn’t stack up. Power factor correction was one of those things I’d heard about more than once."
The technical case always seemed solid, but the financial case never quite made it. The payback stretched into years, the returns were invisible to the wider business, and frankly, I had better uses for our capital.
That was until Power Factor Wizard. The no Capex model changed the entire conversation. Instead of asking me to release funds from an already stretched budget, it gave me the benefits without the capital burden. From a finance perspective, that was the breakthrough. For once, we could have operational savings, improved capacity, and compliance benefits without denting cash flow or tying up reserves.
In My Experience
“Did you worry about another long payback period?”
I’ve seen too many projects that promised savings years down the line but tied up capital in the meantime. This wasn’t like that. With no Capex, there was no ‘payback’ in the traditional sense, the savings were there from the start.
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“How did you justify it to the board?”
That was the easiest part. Normally, I’d be battling to prove the case against other investment priorities. But this didn’t need Capex approval. I simply presented it as an operational improvement that pays for itself and was cash-flow positive from day one. No objections, no debates, just a straightforward decision.
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“Did you feel it was financially risky?”
The structure meant there was no capital at risk. We weren’t gambling with company funds, we were simply reducing operating costs. That’s a very easy risk profile to defend.
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“Were the savings meaningful?”
Yes. Lower bills were clear to see as we eliminated a substantial reactive charge. Freeing up electrical capacity meant we avoided even larger infrastructure spends later. It wasn’t just about cost reduction, it protected us from future expenditure too. I call these the invisible benefits, but all I’m interested in is that bottom line, and it’s gone up, not down.
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“Did you have to get heavily involved?”
Hardly. Once I’d signed off on the agreement, the process took care of itself. My finance team monitored the numbers, of course, but there were no financial surprises and no endless admin.
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“Would you put this in the same category as other efficiency schemes?”
Not really. Most efficiency schemes are Capex-heavy and come with long, uncertain paybacks. This was different, minimal involvement, immediate results, and no drain on capital budgets. The savings are calculated from simple maths, theres no guesswork involved.
My Takeaway
As Finance Directors, we tend to avoid being caught up in emotional decisions, we look at facts and numbers, for that reason some would say we're too cautious. They think we look at downside, and too often, the numbers kill the deal. Power Factor Wizard was different. No Capex. No long wait for payback. Just measurable savings, delivered without risk. If you’ve dismissed power factor correction in the past because the financials didn’t add up, I’d encourage you to look again, because this time, the maths works.