Energy Manager April 2018

APRIL 2018

www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk

Precision energy management for perfected built environments from SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions See page 10

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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31

University of Kent signs deal to turn coppiced trees into biofuel

Improving building energy efficiency through testing

Water reuse and flood resilience in one

Reducing water and waste water costs “It’s simple when you have the knowledge”

Water Strategy Water Audit Water Procurement

Centralise billing data Compile a water and waste water database Clean data base Complete a water audit by identifying any historical water company overcharging and undercharging Identify and implement “low hanging fruit” – fixed and none variable charges Water management – Drive down water consumption, benchmark sites, compile high users list Complete site surveys where applicable, compile written report containing recommendations for reducing water costs Implementation of recommendations The Scottish and English water retail markets - procurement of Scottish and English water supply contracts Future water strategy – ongoing monitoring and water bill validation

www.h2obuildingservices.co.uk

Tel: 01924 387 873

FRONT COVER STORY: Changing the way you think about energy See Page 10

sseenergyoptimisation.co.uk

APRIL 2018

PUBLISHER: Ralph Scrivens ralph@energymanagermagazine.co.uk PRODUCTION: Sarah Daviner sarah@energymanagermagazine.co.uk ACCOUNTS: accounts@energymanagermagazine.co.uk PRINT: Mixam Print

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PAPER USED TO PRODUCE THIS MAGAZINE IS SOURCED FROM SUSTAINABLE FORESTS. Please Note: No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior permission from the publishers. The publishers do not accept any responsibility for, or necessarily agree with, any views expressed in articles, letters or supplied advertisements.

All contents © Energy Manager Magazine 2018

INSIDE:

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Power network reveals next steps toward a smart future

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Five steps to keep cooling costs low

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Control your lighting, without the disruption of hard-wired installation

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How human-centric lighting can help shift workers

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The new energy generation

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The key to optimising public sector water savings is to tap into a water audit services expert

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Consider alternative water sources with Veolia

ISSN 2057-5912 (Print) ISSN 2057-5920 (Online)

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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NEWS

POWER NETWORK REVEALS NEXT STEPS TOWARD A SMART FUTURE

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K Power Networks’, the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, has revealed the next steps in its plans to transform its network into a smart, flexible grid. A new report, ‘What our stakeholders said’, summarises how the responses to the network’s 2017 Future Smart consultation, will inform its 2018/2019 Distribution System Operator (DSO) plans to support ‘a smart grid for all’ and deliver better outcomes for customers.

The feedback from the consultation highlighted 8 key areas of focus and UK Power Networks has come up with solutions that will benefit customers including how customers can connect to the network, low cost and hassle free electric vehicle charging, support for community energy schemes, a forward-look at flexibility services and a consumer A-Z of Future Energy.

The 8 key themes are: • Accelerate the roll-out of Active Network Management to facilitate quicker and cheaper connections • Continue to run flexibility tenders for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) and improve understanding of our flexibility needs • Support local energy growth through providing information and collaboration • Educate and inform different customer groups of the transition to DSO and opportunities of the future of energy • Improve network visibility and monitoring at the lower voltage levels to accommodate DER growth, prioritising areas where we see electric vehicle clustering

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Consider how vulnerability might change as a result of future energy developments and explore who will serve and respond to the needs of vulnerable customers • Clarify the DSO’s roles and responsibilities as separation steps are taking place in National Grid at the transmission level • Strengthen the collaboration between different energy sectors such as transport, heat and gas as will have an influence on electricity networks within a while systems approach UK Power Networks won praise for its creative, consumer focused consultation that resulted in 32 responses from customers, industry partners, government, community groups, generators, the regulator charities and suppliers. Over 90% of respondents agreed with its DSO capability model, DSO roadmap and DSO strategy.

Sotiris Georgiopoulos, Head of Smart Grid Development, said, “We

have already begun our transition to become a DSO so that we can empower and enable our customers and the communities we serve to benefit from a decentralised, decarbonised and digitised system. The responses we got to the consultation have given us confidence that we are going in the right direction, and given us inspiration for how we can continue to improve.”

UK Power Networks is transitioning to a DSO, to respond fully to the changing needs of customers, both now and in the future, and work with the wider industry to deliver a decentralised, decarbonised and digitised energy system at lowest cost. Over 9GW of local generation, of which half is from renewable sources, is already connected to UK Power Networks across London, the East and South East of England.

To see the full range of supporting comments and views which we are also considering in developing out strategy further, please view the detailed consultation response insights. www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk

Record year for wind energy – Government releases official figures

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enewableUK is highlighting new Government statistics which show that wind generated 15% of the UK’s entire electricity demand in 2017 – the highest annual amount ever – up from 11% in 2016. Renewables overall provided 29.4% – up from 25%.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s “UK Energy Statistics Report” reveals for the first time that onshore wind generated 8.5% (up from 6% in 2016) and offshore wind provided 6.2% (up from 5%), due

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to increased capacity and higher wind speeds. The report noted that “falls in the amount of electricity generated by coal and gas were offset by renewables, primarily wind generation”. These are the first official Government figures on energy production for 2017.

RenewableUK’s Executive Director Emma Pinchbeck said: “These official figures confirm that it’s been another record-breaking year for wind energy, which generated 15% of the UK’s electricity in 2017. The

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

move to a smart, renewables-led energy system is well underway.

“The cost of new offshore wind halved in 2017 and onshore wind is already the cheapest of any new power source in the UK. So it’s vital that new onshore wind should be allowed to compete in the market for sake the consumers.”

The Government also published figures showing that in the final quarter of 2017, wind reached 18.5% of the UK’s electricity. www.renewableuk.com

NEWS

University of Bristol to divest all fossil fuels by 2020

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niversity of Bristol announced that it will divest its £58.5m endowment from fossil fuel companies, after extensive talks and a long-running campaign led by the student group Fossil Free University of Bristol since 2014. The movement from partial to full divestment is planned to be completed by March 2020.

Bristol is the 10th Russell Group university to fully divest fossil fuels and joins 62 other UK universities with some kind of divestment commitment. They follow in the footsteps of University of Edinburgh in February and comes within a week of full divestments at both Durham and Cardiff universities.

Robert Kerse, Chief Financial Officer at the University of Bristol, said: “We’ve made a commitment to completely withdraw our investment from companies which support the fossil fuel industry by March 2020. It’s an ambitious timescale but we realise the importance of swift action to combat climate change.”

Last year, the University committed to divest from all companies who derived more than 5% of their revenue from thermal coal and

tar sands. This was completed earlier in 2018. The 2017 agreement also promised the investment of £3 million in a ‘green’ fund. However, since September 2017, Fossil Free University of Bristol have continued to campaign for nothing less than full divestment.

Papatya O’Reilly, Fossil Free University of Bristol President studying English & Philosophy, said ‘It fills me with pride to know that our University is playing its part in the Fossil Free movement. So many institutions have divested now that it has become mainstream, and its impact is undeniable. Divesting is a powerful way of showing solidarity with frontline communities, whose exposure to fossil fuels takes its daily toll on their crops, health, and liberty. Now, we call on all other Universities to follow Bristol’s lead. Join us in preventing climate destruction, in moving our economics and culture towards a sustainable future, and in ensuring a just transition for those bearing the brunt.’

Until recently, the University maintained that it could use its remaining shares in fossil fuel companies to influence their transition to

sustainability. However, following action taken

by Fossil Free University of Bristol, this position was understood to be untenable.

Chris Saltmarsh, Fossil Free Campaigns Coordinator, People & Planet, commented, “Bristol’s full divestment after a powerful student campaign is another hammer blow to the fossil fuel companies haemorrhaging their social license to operate. 2018 has already seen Huddersfield, Sussex, Edinburgh, Anglia Ruskin, Durham and Cardiff divest millions from this terminally declining rogue industry. It’s time for our banks like Barclays and the UK Government to take our students’ and universities’ lead and exile fossil fuels from our economic and political life.” www.bristol.ac.uk

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NEWS

GREEN LIGHT FOR SWINDON COUNCIL’S HUGE ENERGY STORAGE FACILITY

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windon is set to be home to one of the UK’s largest battery-based electricity storage facilities after Public Power Solutions, the wholly-owned company of Swindon Borough Council, received planning consent for the project.

The battery storage scheme, at the former Mannington Depot owned by the Council, has a permitted capacity of up to 50 MW making it one of the largest standalone batteries to be developed so far in the UK. The brownfield site, enclosed between the A3102, railway line and Mannington Retail Park, with a grid connection via the nearby substation at Toothill, was formerly used as a municipal depot. Having successfully achieved planning consent, PPS is now in discussions with developers seeking front of the meter battery storage opportunities to take on the funding and construction of the project, which benefits from a very low grid connection cost.

Steve Cains, Head of Power

Solutions, PPS, said: “The project has a great location next to a sub-station, meaning the grid connection cost is very competitive - so this is a good opportunity for a developer looking for front of the meter battery storage opportunities that will enable them to generate an income in a variety of different ways.

Local authorities are in a unique position to benefit from the growing demand for electricity storage, with diverse property portfolios and high energy consumption.

We’re making it work at home here in Swindon but this project could be replicated in many other parts of the country, helping generate an income for the cash-strapped public sector.”

The project is designed to have a 30-year lifespan and will offer a longterm land rental income for Swindon Borough Council. It will be able to deliver balancing services for National Grid, to help enable the growing proportion of renewable generation in the UK, making a significant contribution to the future flexibility of the UK’s energy system and

helping reduce costs for consumers.

Cllr Toby Elliott, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainability, said: “The fact this will be one of the largest battery storage schemes in the UK speaks volumes for our ambition in Swindon. It also shows our willingness to look for innovative ways in which to utilise our assets, generating an income for the Council to protect vital services.”

Connecting large batteries to the National Grid helps to smooth out the peaks and troughs which occur in power demand, and match them better with variable supply. The batteries can be used to store energy when it is abundant, and therefore cheaper, and discharge it when demand is greater and the cost is higher. The technology also helps reduce the need for expensive investment in upgrading the grid, also helping reduce energy costs for consumers in the long run.

Contact: Cheryl Sloan csloan@publicpowersolutions.co.uk

NEW GOOD PRACTICE GUIDANCE FOR MULTIFUNCTIONAL SOLAR CAR PARKS IS LAUNCHED

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new guide by BRE National Solar Centre and carport design and manufacturing company FlexiSolar looks at the best way to deliver multifunctional solar car parks that combine renewable energy generation with energy storage and EV charging points.

‘Multifunctional Solar Car Parks: a good practice guide for owners and developers’ provides an outline of the key factors to be considered when developing a business case for a multifunctional car park project from planning through to delivery. These include funding models, planning permission, regulations, design options and procurement.

Funded by Innovate UK and launched at Ecobuild, the Guide shows how multifunctional solar carports can add value to car parks by improving their economic and environmental performance.

Chris Coonick, Senior Consultant and author of the guide said: ‘At present there are few documents that cover

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the integration of solar with other technologies such as storage and EV charging. As the UK Government seeks to include more renewable energy in the energy mix, solving problems associated with intermittent renewables generation will become more imperative due to the inflexibility of our electricity distribution network, as mentioned in the recent Clean Growth Strategy. Low carbon solutions which balance electricity supply and demand are required to achieve this, and multifunctional solar car parks can be part of this solution.’

Robert Carpenter, Managing Director at FlexiSolar said, “The National Grid estimates that there could be over 1 million EVs on the road by 2020 and 9 million by 2030. Multifunctional solar carports can provide a more welcoming EV charging experience for users, offering accessible and well-lit spaces protected from the weather and supplying clean, renewable energy for their EV. Multifunctional solar car parks are typically more cost effective

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

than installing the three technologies (PV, energy storage and EV charge points) separately, as they share infrastructure and project delivery costs.”

Dr Nina Skorupska CBE, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association said: “The national roll out of EV charging infrastructure that is reliable, accessible, and affordable is an increasingly urgent issue to ensure the delivery of the Government’s ambition to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. The integration of solar and storage can help facilitate this historic transport shift, whilst ensuring that it is renewable energy powered to boot.”

Free to download, the Guide which includes a number of international multifunctional solar car park case studies is aimed at investors and developers considering new opportunities for deploying solar generation as a way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, provide energy security, reduce energy costs and deliver new revenue streams.

For further information, please contact www.bregroup.com

NEWS

UNIVERSITY OF KENT SIGNS DEAL TO TURN COPPICED TREES INTO BIOFUEL

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he University of Kent’s Estates Department has signed a deal that will see trees coppiced from its Canterbury campus grounds sent to a biomass plant to be converted to energy.

The deal, signed with Euroforest, will see trees felled taken to a biomass plant in Sandwich and converted to energy used to provide power to locations in Kent, such as the nearby Discovery Park.

All profits made from the sale of the coppiced wood will be reinvested and used for other sustainability initiatives taking place at the University.

The University’s Grounds team began implementing the woodland management plan in the winter of 2015/16 by coppicing a number of sections of Bluebell Wood. This was followed up in 2016 in Brotherhood Wood and in winter 2017 in Parkwood Wood.

Coppicing increases the structural and compositional diversity of a woodland by opening up the canopy to provide varying

light levels and encouraging a range of different aged trees in the woodland.

This encourages growth of different species of flora on the woodland floor which, in turn, attracts a wider range of fauna increasing the overall biodiversity of the area.

The move is part of the wider commitment to sustainability at Kent led by its Estates Department.

Earlier in March the University signed a pledge to adhere, wherever possible, to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in both its operations and its curriculum.

Furthermore, it continues to increase its efforts on waste reduction and recycling, with 2,315 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill in the 2016-17 academic

year, equivalent to 210 TyrannosaurusRex. The University has also cut carbon emissions by 16% since 2005.

For more information: contact the University Press Office: Tel: 01227 816769; Email: d.worth@kent.ac.uk

The 8th World Water Forum highlights the need for information sharing

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he 8th edition of the world’s biggest water-related event, the World Water Forum, came to a close at the Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center in Brasilia, Brazil, on Friday 23rd March, a day after World Water Day. The World Water Council, in cooperation with the Government of Brazil, held its triennial World Water Forum in the Brazilian capital between the 18th and 23rd March. Over 10,000 delegates and experts participated in the summit, along with 12 Heads of State and 60 ministers, 134 parliamentarians, 150 local authorities, 83 judges and prosecutors, CEOs from several fortune 500 companies, representatives from the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the OECD, and other international organizations.

In addition, over 70,000 people visited the World Water Forum’s Fair and Citizen’s Village. More than 172 countries were represented across 300 thematic sessions.

One of the main purposes of the Forum is to raise political awareness and mobilization of decision-makers on water issues, linking technical issues to political action. Some major political outcomes during the World Water Forum included the Ministerial Declaration: An Urgent Call for Decisive Action on Water validated by ministries from over 100 countries, which

recognizes that all countries must take urgent action to address challenges related to water and sanitation, including sharing knowledge and fostering cooperation across sectors. The Ministerial Conference also established multilateral cooperation through multi- stakeholder roundtable dialogues. The local and regional authorities declaration, Brasilia Local and Regional Governments Call for Action on Water and Sanitation, encourages local leaders to consider several recommendations to encourage fair and sustainable governance and management of water resources and decentralized funding, among others, as outlined in the guide for local and regional authorities, Start with Water. This publication seeks to provide strategies and support to help cities make concrete contributions to global agendas.

Likewise, the Conference of Parliamentarians within the 8th World Water Forum published its Parliamentarian Manifesto, emphasizing their role in proposing and defending legislation related to the right to water and sanitation. The Brasilia Declaration of Judges on Water Justice is a declaration of ten fundamental principles to promote water justice through the application of water law and the environmental rule of law.

In addition, the Sustainability Declaration highlights that current water policies will not be sufficient to reach the targets

of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and re-quests high-level decision makers within the water community to push for cooperative alliances, water reforms and financial innovations.

Igniting action on water-related issues and reducing widespread water crises is paramount to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all, by 2030.

Across the globe, some of the most pressing problems surrounding water are not about quantity, but quality. This is a matter of life and death for many worldwide as 40% of the world’s population faces water scarcity and 2.4 billion lack access to improved sanitation.

In particular, severely low levels of sanitation coverage are leading causes of death and disease across the globe; as recently as 2016, 8% of children under 5 died from diarrhoea, which is usually caused by contaminated drinking water. Those without adequate sanitation access live primarily in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Women and girls are affected the most by drinking water and sanitation issues, as they spend a collective 200 million hours per day collecting water.

For more information email: communication@worldwatercouncil.org

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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NEWS

CONNECTED ENERGY APPOINTED TO SUPPLY INNOVATIVE, CIRCULAR-ECONOMY ENERGY SOLUTION TO LANDMARK EVOLT AND DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL EV PROJECT

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undee City Council’s ‘Go Ultra Low’ Cities project leads the way in the development of EV charging hubs in the UK. Evolt has appointed Connected Energy to supply one of its E-STORAGE 60/90 energy storage systems to complement its EV charging hub on Princes Street, Dundee. The hub will be the flagship site of Dundee City Council’s Go Ultra Low Cities project.

The hub, which is due to be constructed in the spring of this year, will incorporate 6 rapid chargers and solar canopies alongside the 60kW, 90kWh E-STOR system.

The E-STOR system will be used to improve the business case and reinforce the environmental credentials of the project by managing the peak load, maximising the use of the solar energy to charge electric vehicles and taking advantage of differences in electricity cost throughout the day.

E-STOR energy storage systems utilise 2nd life electric vehicle batteries to provide cost effective stationary energy storage so make a significant contribution to the sustainability of both electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

Evolt has secured the overall contract and will be managing installation.

Matthew Lumsden, CEO of Connected Energy said, “This is a landmark project in terms of the development of EV charging hubs in the UK so we are very pleased to be contributing to the development of the system and the supporting operational and business case.”

Lynne Short convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee said: “This is an important project for the city and it will take

us to the next level when it comes to our charging infrastructure.

“Within the 26 square miles of perfection that is Dundee we will have a charging network second to none and working with skilled and efficient suppliers is a key part of that.”

For further detail on how Connected Energy can help advise on storage strategies, in particular E-STOR, contact on 0191 495 7322 or contact info@c-e-int.com

ECO GAS PRODUCT LAUNCHED

BY GAZPROM ENERGY

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azprom Energy has announced the launch of its Eco Gas product for the UK business market, designed to help medium to large sized businesses meet growing environmental targets and fulfil corporate social responsibility goals.

Just days after the new product became available, the UK’s leading business gas supplier also signed its first major Eco Gas customer – a multibillion Euro global cosmetics company.

Customers of the new product have their contracted gas consumption offset through the Green Gas Certification Scheme. Renewable Gas Guarantee of Origin (RGGO) certificates evidence that a volume of biomethane gas equivalent

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to the customer’s own usage has been injected into the natural gas network.

Stuart Taylor, Head of UK Sales at Gazprom Energy, said: “As the UK’s largest business gas supplier serving many major retailers, manufacturers and other organisations who care significantly about their environmental credentials, it is essential that we keep innovating to ensure we’re supporting their evolving requirements.”

It is estimated that global companies in the Fortune Global 500 spend collectively around £13.2bn on corporate social responsibility activities, including environmental initiatives. Gazprom Energy’s Eco Gas product provides an additional way for organisations to

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

neutralise their carbon footprint, while still accessing the essential energy supply they need in order to operate effectively.

Gazprom Energy’s first Eco Gas customer contract is valued at over £200,000 over two years, and covers the customer’s full UK gas needs across six manufacturing sites.

Eco Gas is available to any UK organisation with a gas usage of over 732,000 kWh per annum, on both fixed and flexible purchasing contracts. The product is available through both third party intermediaries and direct from Gazprom Energy. www.gazprom-energy.co.uk

NEWS

SHARC welcomes Scottish Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy to Clyde Gateway

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ottinghamshire-based SHARC Energy Systems welcomed Scotland’s Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, to Clyde Gateway where it has been contracted to install a low carbon district heating system.

Clyde Gateway was established in 2008 to carry out the regeneration of 840 hectares across the east end of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire.

Working in partnership with Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, Clyde Gateway is driving forward £1.5 billion of private sector investment to establish this area as a hub of business activity.

The success to date has been remarkable – of the 800,000 square feet of Grade A office and industrial space that Clyde Gateway has already developed, more than 85 per cent has been let or sold.

SHARC Energy Systems, the European arm of Vancouver-based SHARC International Systems, has been contracted by Clyde Gateway to install a low carbon district heating system at the site, using its heat recovery technology that taps into the latent heat of the town sewer systems to drive efficient operation of water source heat pumps.

SHARC has designed and developed a new method for extracting waste heat

from raw sewage flows. Through heat pump technology, it produces clean, renewable thermal energy for buildings, resulting in vital savings in energy, costs and carbon emissions.

Russ Burton, Chief Operating Officer of SHARC Energy Systems, said: “We are really excited to be supporting Clyde Gateway’s ambitions, and having established the viability of our technology and business solution as a method for developing a low carbon / renewable district heating solution, we are delighted to be nearing financial close on the development of the project, which is also supported by the LCITP. “It was a great pleasure to meet Paul Wheelhouse and to have the opportunity to discuss the Scottish Government’s ambition for a low carbon economy and the transition strategy they are pursuing in this quest.

“SHARC is working hard to ensure its technology meets the Scottish Government’s policy criteria and we look forward to continuing to support the delivery of this progressive agenda being championed by the Minister and his department, across Scotland.

Russ added that the Clyde Gateway project is being closely watched by others around the UK, including a significant district heating scheme in London.

Business Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “The economic and social regeneration

of disadvantaged communities is a key priority for the Scottish Government, and we are committed to the Clyde Gateway project which is continuing to deliver positive outcomes on behalf of its communities, which it has done with Scottish Government financial support since 2007.

“I have been very much impressed by the exciting work being done by Clyde Gateway to bring derelict land back into use, enable quality new build premises and homes to be constructed, and to bring businesses to the area and encourage local businesses to grow.

“Clyde Gateway are doing a great job in creating new, sustainable employment opportunities for local people and delivering on inclusive growth across the area and I wish them even further success in the future.”

Ian Manson, Chief Executive of Clyde Gateway said: “It has been a pleasure to welcome the Minister to Clyde Gateway and show him why the regeneration of this area has been so successful to date. Companies tell us they are being attracted by the quality of business space, the excellent transport links, the cost savings compared with city centers and the business support on offer.

The fact that a workforce of 1.5 million live within a 60-minute commute of Clyde Gateway also makes recruitment easy, which is an added bonus.” www.sharcenergy.com

GOLDEN AGE OF GAS DEPENDENT ON CHANGING DNA OF INDUSTRY, NEW EI SURVEY REVEALS​

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new report published by the Energy Institute (EI) at International Petroleum (IP) Week sheds light on the attitudes of global oil and gas professionals towards reducing the climate change impacts of natural gas.

While much of the debate about cleaning up gas has focused on the technologies required, the EI report finds lack of awareness could also be holding back progress.

Speaking at IP Week, EI President Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng FEI said: “There’s an elephant in the room of the global energy system and it’s called natural gas. It looks like a golden age for gas, with unconventional production soaring and global LNG trade forecast to more than double by 2040. But at the same time the world has committed to keeping temperature increases within 2°C, requiring net zero emissions in the second half of this century.

“The EI report’s findings are a call for action. Tackling climate change

in all ways needs to become equally – and profoundly – part of businessas-usual. It must enter all our DNA.” • Most respondents to the survey are confident about the role of natural gas through to 2050. They also take a largely positive view of the potential to tackle carbon emissions from combustion, believing CCS offers the greatest potential of any technology to reduce emissions in the natural gas lifecycle. Nine out of ten believe industry has a role to play in developing and implementing CCS. • But on methane leakage during production, too many professionals underestimate the significance of fugitive emissions, and the possibilities for reducing them cost effectively. Two thirds expressed surprise at the extent of the problem and these possibilities within their own operations.

Natural gas is an abundant and flexible

fuel. It contributes to reducing climate change impacts when it displaces coal in power generation and heating, with some 40% less CO2 emitted. Gas also significantly reduces local air pollution from small particulates and from sulphur dioxide, relative to coal burning and also relative to diesel fuels in transport.

Nevertheless methane is emitted during the production of gas. Methane as a greenhouse gas is 28–36 times more potent than CO2 over 100 years. The International Energy Agenda (IEA), in its World Energy Outlook 2017, has assessed that much more could technically be done during production and distribution of natural gas to reduce leakage of methane. It found that it is possible to avoid 75% of current methane emissions in the natural gas supply chain, and that 40–50% of these emissions could be avoided at no net cost.

The Future of Gas report can be found at: https://knowledge.energyinst.org/ collections/future-of-gas ​

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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NEWS STORY COVER

CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT ENERGY Op

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In many ways, energy is like air: you can’t see it, you never really think about it and you don’t fully appreciate it until it isn’t there. In business, if there’s ever an unexpected energy outage, things quickly grind to a halt and everyone is reminded that energy isn’t just a grudged cost, it’s a precious asset.

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n recent years, across the whole SSE group we’ve been closely monitoring attitudes to energy and it’s very clear that they’re changing fast. From governments to ordinary consumers, we’re witnessing a definite shift towards a sustainable approach to our planet’s finite resources.

How are businesses responding to these new expectations? Well, those that are leading the way are taking positive steps by employing innovative energy management strategies that deliver a lot more for a lot less.

ENERGY IS AN ASSET Until now, energy has largely been seen as a cost. Most finance directors probably view it as ‘a necessary evil’ on the wrong side of their profit and loss accounts. Increasingly, though, that’s too simplistic a viewpoint. Energy is the lifeblood of industry. It’s an essential part of a complex ecosystem.

Undervaluing it would be a big mistake.

Easy access to electricity and gas drives your business. It allows your employees to work efficiently. It ensures the comfort of staff and customers.

It’s fundamental to your profitability.

FUELLING THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Access to energy is also key to our collective future. The advent of the digital era and the ‘fourth industrial revolution’

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ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

has radically increased demand for energy. The proliferation of a staggering array of ‘always on’ devices and the emerging technologies that will define our times (artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, nanotechnology, energy storage, quantum computing, and much more) all share a heavy reliance on easy access to energy.

LESS IS MORE Faced with the inescapable reality of rising demand, we’ve made it our mission to help our customers take control of their energy consumption with active solutions that radically reduce the amount of energy they use.

Intuitively, you’d think it’s impossible to cut consumption when you’re faced with an increase in demand. It’s perhaps ironic though that the answer to meeting the power demands of the emerging technologies can be found through the clever application of those technologies themselves.

ENERGY INTELLIGENCE As pioneers in this field, we’re leading the shift away from the mechanical, hardware-driven solutions of oldfashioned Building Energy Management to a new world where analytical software is king. The SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions team has combined its deep knowledge of how buildings work with the latest data capture and analysis technologies.

COVER STORY NEWS The result is a compelling proposition that combines state-of-the-art science with human expertise and intuition to develop a detailed and accurate understanding of how energy is consumed within even the most complex built environment.

Knowledge, of course, is power.

By installing a wide range of measurement systems, performance data can be collected and analysed. From constantly measuring things like ambient temperature to gathering data on mechanical performance, a detailed picture can be built up that accurately describes how energy is being consumed in any building.

Once you have the data, it can be interrogated using both artificial and natural intelligence to make adjustments that ensure you use less energy.

REMOTE OPTIMAL Perhaps the biggest breakthrough in the world of energy management is the ability to remotely monitor equipment – and make subtle changes and adjustments.

It’s a fundamental shift. Experts in SSE’s Energy Management Centre work with data from more than 2,500 different sites and HVAC systems across the UK every day. Many thousands of data points are fed into auditing and reporting systems and complex interventions and adjustments are made remotely based on a unique combination of automation and human intervention.

Our Remote Optimal system isn’t just capable of identifying and fixing faults remotely (usually before anyone actually realises there’s a fault). It also allows us to constantly fine-tune essential systems like heating and ventilation so that comfort is constant while energy use is optimised.

These advanced and continuously evolving technologies are being applied in all kinds of places from single buildings to the most complex estates. They’re present in retail parks, manufacturing units, offices, schools, universities, courts, hospitals and many more walks of life. Every building has the potential to be set up to ensure it never uses energy excessively, never falls below critical levels and is always maintained at the optimum output to make the built environment perfectly comfortable.

whether you’re creating happy staff or contented customers, delivering an efficiently comfortable environment pays dividends.

Imperceptibly SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions measures infinitesimal environmental changes and makes equally subtle adjustments that, counted over hours, days and weeks, can add up to considerable financial savings. At the same time, this level of scrutiny leads to less machine downtime, longer machine lifecycles and the ability to identify (and prevent) potential catastrophic failure.

All of that makes your whole business more efficient while potentially making a significant contribution to your bottom line.

PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING As well as mechanical efficiency, user satisfaction and cost savings, there’s another direct benefit that can be leveraged by businesses that employ our Remote Optimal solutions. Taking an actively sustainable approach to energy is a public demonstration of your commitment to the environment. People are increasingly critical of businesses that needlessly waste energy and a strong responsible approach helps to build brand image and ensure compliance with increasing government regulation.

GENERATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE By changing attitudes to energy, we’re turning it into an asset that generates real value for all the stakeholders in a business.

By doing everything we can to reduce energy consumption, we can cut our customers’ bills. By optimising their built environments, we improve the experience of the people who use their buildings. By monitoring machinery and identifying faults, we improve efficiency and increase life expectancy. All of these energy-related

activities create tangible value for every stakeholder associated with the business – as well as improving our planet’s ecosystem for us all.

WHAT’S NEXT? For SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions and our Remote Optimal platform, it’s just the beginning. Our energy optimisation expertise and the scalability of our service-led proposition is rapidly developing to meet both customer demand and the possibilities that new technologies bring.

We can already call upon an array of energy experts around the country, who can meet the needs of any firm no matter how large or small, compact or disparate.

From the power of Remote Optimal to up-to-the-minute reporting, we’re making new technologies ever more accessible to UK business and we’re placing the most sophisticated and versatile energy intelligence tools on the market today at your disposal.

We’re changing the way people think about energy while giving them access to business efficiencies that go way beyond simply reducing their energy bills.

To us, an exciting future lies ahead.

The converging technologies that have redefined what’s possible are no longer the preserve of the chosen few. They’re business essentials that every business can access and, going forward, no business can afford to be without.

Optimised environments benefit staff, customers and the bottom line.

Start your journey towards the new world of Remote Optimal today. sseenergyoptimisation.co.uk 0345 072 9529

MORE THAN JUST ENERGY-SAVING Although energy efficiency is our aim, Remote Optimal has other distinct advantages. Perhaps most importantly, it establishes and maintains standards within a building. For example, if you want the temperature set at 19ºC, it can be maintained at all times. That could mean heating it when it’s cold outside and cooling it during warm periods. Whatever’s required it can be managed automatically.

The benefits of this approach to the building’s users are obvious. To a business,

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NEWS FEATURE

SAUDI ARABIA’S NEW LEADERSHIP IS WEENING THE COUNTRY OFF ITS OIL DEPENDENCY Vicente López-Ibor Mayor Co-Founder of Lightsource BP and Chairman of the Lightsource Foundation. He is also Chairman of solar storage company Ampere and is former Director of Spain’s National Energy Commission.

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ast week’s visit by Prince Mohammad bin Salam to the UK was billed as a huge trade opportunity for both nations, with the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister saying the visit could lead to up to $100 billion worth of bilateral trade. Energy will almost certainly be a part of Britain’s trade nexus with Saudi Arabia.

After all, for the best part of a century, Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has predominantly been about one thing: oil. It is fossil fuel that has propelled Saudi towards a steep development curve, regional leadership, and global indispensability.

But nothing lasts forever – and Saudi’s ruling class know that. Just like the UAE, Saudi Arabia’s new young leadership appreciates that oil dependency is not a sustainable future path for any 21st century economy.

One report by JP Morgan suggested that oil could begin drying

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up as early as 2030. That is almost certainly a severe exaggeration – renewables will not replace entirely fossil fuels any time soon, not in Saudi Arabia nor anywhere else.

But the whole world is going to have to face, in the coming generation, an energy sector that is clearly less focused on oil.

Increasing competitiveness and technological advances in solar energy, not to mention the high cost of domestic oil consumption, has made fossil fuel divestment a very real phenomenon in the Kingdom.

Changing energy sources will have significant economic, social and even political consequences for every citizen worldwide. But the effects – for better or for worse – will be felt even more acutely in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East.

If the Kingdom cannot or will not adjust to the new phase, it could send the Arab world into a downward spiral of catastrophic decline and turmoil. Saudi and its oil is not only essential to political stability in the Gulf, and the benefits to global security and intelligence sharing that go along with that.

Saudi Arabia is also a key economic driver for poorer countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Guest worker remittances sent home from Saudi are a lifeline for economies around the world. And Saudi Arabia’s role in supporting other Arab countries going through difficult transitional stages (such as Egypt, which the Prince visited en route to London) is essential.

The good news is that the millennial Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman understands this and wants to make his State a centre of global solar power. This is not a PR

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stunt - they are investing $50 billion dollars in renewable energy in the next five years (the same amount the UK invests). As part of the Prince’s grand Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabi aims for renewables to account for as much as 10 percent of all power generation in Saudi Arabia by 2023 – more than almost anywhere else in the world.

And at the same time as diversifying his nation’s energy sources, Prince Salman is liberalizing his economy. Many of the areas where he will need external partnerships are domains of British expertise – technical competencies that post-Brexit Britain will be free to share with its friends, whether they happen to be located in Europe or the Middle East.

British renewable energy companies have excelled in the scaling of industrial solar PV and storage solutions. If they can work with Saudi Arabia to grow their renewable energy capacities, they can make a worldchanging impact on global warming and climate change. And as a bonus, they can support Britain’s most important friend in the Arab world and revitalise post-Brexit Britain’s economy.

Indeed, the intersection between what Saudi Arabia needs and what the UK can offer is very fortuitous. The leaders of both countries are seeking economic diversification – Theresa May to strengthen a diverse post-Brexit British economy and Prince Salman to realise his ambitious domestic reforms.

It is ironic that some of the countries that have historically been most excited about solar power have had the coldest weather: Germany, the UK, Denmark. Saudi Arabia’s sun is as plentiful as its oil – and unlike fossil fuels, it is not going anywhere.

OPINION

DILBERT © 2018 Scott Adams. Used By permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.

THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL

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ll energy managers have come across this issue, different people within the same space perceive the temperature differently and it becomes impossible to satisfy them all. Now some of this is due to the position of the people within the space, they may have solar gain from windows, air movement from the ventilation system or draughts from doors opening perhaps, but there can be definite differences between individuals subjected to the same environment. This can be due to gender issues as in the cartoon but the age, personal health and even the ethnicity of the occupants can be a factor.

Before we had sophisticated heating systems and large open plan offices, the solution was relatively simple the person who feels hot moves away from the heat source and the cold person moves nearer to it. Unfortunately, that longer works, and I have seen heating systems “adjusted” to a ridiculous degree with adjacent fan coils set to be heating and cooling at maximum!

That is not exactly energy efficient and still doesn’t satisfy the occupants.

Philosophically, the desire to change one’s personal environment reflects the powerlessness many people feel about their lives. So if we are to gain their assistance in controlling energy wastage and their acceptance of realistic internal conditions we need to give them the belief that they are in control to some degree. We’ve all also experienced the “Thermostat wars” where individuals competitively adjust and readjust the settings to their own desires – if that involves both Air-Conditioning and heating you’re looking at a substantial increase in consumption.

The reaction of many has been to completely remove user controls from the work space. As any Facility Manager will tell you that just resulted in them receiving many complaints about the temperature – often conflicting!

One thing that has been done when systems are upgraded is to leave the existing “user” controls in place in place; disconnected they can be adjusted to the occupants wishes and make absolutely no difference!

My ex-MOD colleague Roger Low (who shares a lot of post-nominal letters with me including UKAEE and FEMA) has even gone so far as to deliberately install dummy controls for the benefit of the fiddlers – amused by people arguing over non-functional switches!

I myself developed a nice technique with thermostats of setting them then “accidentally” disconnecting the dial from the mechanism rendering them “fixed” and I once fitted a complete set of dummy controls to a heat treatment furnace – but that is a whole other tale.

So it appears one of the skills an Energy Manager needs owes more to Paul Daniels than Engineering – am I glad that I picked up Marketing skills in the past! Email: andycenergy@gmail.com

DILBERT © 2018 Scott Adams. Used By permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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ENERGY MANAGEMENT

A HOLISTIC APPROACH – THE KEY TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN EDUCATION Across the industry, there is a growing recognition of the benefits of implementing a well-rounded approach to energy efficiency, instigating long term plans and schemes, rather than focusing on quick wins.

Jack Saunders, Client Support Officer at Salix Finance working in the School and Academies Programme explores the significant factors to the success of energy initiatives and how the sector can benefit from a holistic approach to energy efficiency.

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t a time when the education sector is faced with rising costs, reducing energy consumption creates a key opportunity for schools as they look to minimise their spend and environmental impact.

Over the past 14 years we have gained a wealth of experience working with schools on energy efficiency projects across Britain.

As local authorities and the education sector look to contribute towards national carbon reduction, addressing energy concerns holistically is an effective approach. We have found that a holistic approach to energy saving can maximise the potential for energy and carbon savings.

Effective holistic projects involve the installation of a wide range of energy efficiency technologies as well as adopting behavioural changes to streamline energy usage. For example, many schools begin addressing their energy usage by installing LED lighting. This is an excellent technology for school energy efficiency however, a school taking a holistic approach could also consider whether they could install new insulation, boilers, energy management systems and solar PV within the same project to maximise energy savings.

The benefits of taking a holistic approach are extensive. Organisations can observe a greater reduction in their energy use and subsequent energy bills compared to a single technology approach.

Additionally, they will also see the full benefit of these savings immediately rather than over time. Furthermore, schools can also benefit from the ‘economies of scale’ factor, saving money on design, installation and labour costs by combining projects together. Disruption to a site will also be minimised if all projects are installed at once, rather than over a period of years, with the additional benefit of economies of scale and being able to make energy savings sooner. Holistic schemes help reduce energy consumption to the lowest possible level and can help to maximise reductions in energy consumption and carbon footprint whilst also significantly improving the learning environment.

As well as installing new technologies, updating energy control systems and implementing smarter monitoring of energy usage to identify where energy is lost, are also key ways of reducing energy waste.

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New smarter technologies allow for more precise control, especially if combined with an energy management system. These systems can give schools the ability to quickly, easily and often automatically adjust their energy systems to adapt to their needs and the external environment in real time.

From our experience, we have found that in order to maximise the benefits of holistic projects, educators should consider ways to inspire and influence staff and students to be more mindful of the energy they use. This includes encouraging everyone to take an active role in reducing energy consumption. The ultimate goal is to empower individuals to implement small daily behavioural changes, such as turning off lights when they’re not being used.

Establishing environmental awareness clubs, providing training to identify energy saving opportunities, and running ‘switch off’ campaigns to ensure equipment is off when not in use, are all effective methods of instigating these behavioural changes. Strategies like these encourage individuals to take ownership and pride in energy management, motivating them to sustain initiatives and look out for new ways to improve efficiency.

For many organisations within the education sector, there can be obstacles to executing such wide scale projects.

However, working with funding providers like Salix, can make the implementation of holistic programmes easily achievable.

We established the Switching to Low Energy Scheme to help schools achieve the maximum possible energy savings. Under the scheme applicant schools receive a full site survey identifying all the measures they can install to reduce their energy consumption to the lowest possible level as well as advice on the behavioural changes they could implement to further maximise savings. Advice and support through this scheme has helped participant schools save thousands on their energy bills.

Applying a holistic approach to energy management will not only help you to set realistic goals and achieve clear results, but it will also ensure you inspire the campus-wide culture of energy saving critical to successful energy management.

For more information on the funding available from Salix, please see: www.salixfinance.co.uk

ENERGY STORAGE

AS COST DECLINES AND REGULATORY SUPPORT BOOST DEMAND FOR BATTERY STORAGE, PROJECT FINANCE EMERGES AS A VIABLE FINANCING OPTION

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oody’s Investors Service has released an assessment of the current status of battery technology as it relates to large-scale grid application.

According to the report, energy storage is increasingly emerging as a viable project finance opportunity.

“While the developing technology presents some unique challenges, especially regarding operating risks, we view the financing approach of a battery storage project to be broadly akin to many of the risks associated with financing a conventional power project,” says Rick Donner, a vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s.

The growth of renewable energy from solar and wind technology has led to a proliferation of intermittent generation entering the grid. Emerging battery storage technology is credit positive for grid operators, as it will become a key element in managing stability.

Battery storage can help integrate renewables into the grid, and can also support natural gas “peaking” facilities, which take longer to power up fully.

Due to their emission efficiency and scalability, lithium ion batteries have become the technology of choice for the energy storage sector, and developers have seen significant cost reductions over the past decade. If current trends continue, lithium ion battery costs will drop to around $100 per kilowatt hour by 2020-2022 from around $200 per kilowatt hour today.

In addition to falling costs, regulatory support is driving volume growth in the energy storage market, which is projected to show a nine-fold increase from 2017 to 2022. The California Public Utility Commission, for example, has adopted the nation’s most ambitious storage procurement mandate of 1,325 megawatts of storage by 2020 for the

state’s three investor-owned utilities.

“Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon and Nevada have also adopted storage mandates and regulations,” says Donner. “At the federal level, the 30% Investment Tax Credit remains available for energy storage, provided it is coupled with renewable generation.”

While some battery storage installations have been sponsored and financed by utility companies or grid operators on their balance sheets, others have been financed on a project finance basis, sometimes in conjunction with the financing of another generation source like a natural gas plant or solar installation.

Much like other power projects, a primary determinant for using the project finance model for battery storage is the visibility and predictability of the revenue stream. >From a credit perspective, using a contracted revenue model is the least risky approach for a battery storage project, whether standalone or built in conjunction with other technology. The merchant revenue model, in which the market determines revenues, brings volatility and regulatory risk to a project. A combined contracted and merchant revenue model allows battery storage projects to make extra money by providing ancillary services outside its contract, but implies greater cash flow uncertainty and increases a project’s operating risk profile. www.moodys.com

KEY POINTS: • Battery storage technology is credit positive for owners of intermittent power generation and for grid operators. Battery storage is emerging as a tool to boost electric grid reliability. The technology can help to integrate renewable energy resources into the grid and make them more like base-load generation, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Lithium ion has become the technology of choice for grid-scale energy storage. Lithium ion battery prices continue to decline, making the technology more price competitive than others. Technical advantages include a fast response time, a long cycle life and minimum energy loss in charging and discharging the battery.

• Regulatory support and declining prices are driving volume growth.

Regulatory support takes the form of energy storage mandates in several states, including California, Massachusetts, New York and Hawaii, which will help drive nine-fold growth

in energy storage from 2017 to 2022, according to projections.

• Lithium ion technology is proven, but alignment of operating design and operating profile is key to meeting expectations. The key technological and operational issue for battery storage is whether the system is actually operated in accordance with the way it was designed to operate.

• Differing revenue models pose different credit risks for battery storage projects. A contracted model is the most credit positive revenue model for a project, followed by one that combines contracted and merchant elements, or “value stacking.” The weakest from a credit perspective is a pure merchant model.

• Opportunities for financing battery storage on a project basis are growing. Although some features of battery storage are unique, we view the risks and financing approach of a battery storage project to be broadly akin to many of the risks associated.

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HVAC

FIVE STEPS TO KEEP COOLING COSTS LOW The potential energy and cost savings achievable through the accurate specification of ambient cooling technology is well documented, but understanding exactly how to achieve it within the parameters of a school, hospital, factory or other building isn’t always as straight forward.

Dedicated to supporting customers through the process of applicationspecific technology selection, Tim Bound, Director for Transtherm Cooling Industries, explores five steps to keeping cooling costs low.

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ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

DECIDE HOW YOU WANT YOUR MONEY TO WORK Understanding how a cooler will be used will assist any specifier in setting an appropriate purchasing budget. The usage of cooling equipment can be crudely split into two categories; plant which is used less frequently, for ‘as and when’ work, and equipment which is to run continuously. Let’s take a look at those options in more detail:

LOW COST, LITTLE USE Projects which require cooling in emergency, or backup, situations only, such as an air blast cooler fitted to a diesel backup generating set for example, would only be relied upon in rare circumstances when the mains supply fails.

In terms of an appropriate purchase cost, a cooling requirement of this nature would not need a substantial upfront investment, with lower cost alternatives providing adequate heat dissipation for emergency or short-term back up operations.

HIGHER COST, HARDER WORK For coolers in continuous operation,

HVAC

always consider increasing your upfront investment to specify plant which delivers high Energy Efficiency Ratios (EER) and lower Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) readings. Cooling technology for highly demanding, around the clock applications benefit from value adding features such as EC variable speed fans and PLC based control systems.

CLEAN COOLERS DRIVE EFFICIENCIES A simple, yet often overlooked way to keep costs low is to ensure cooling equipment is kept clean and free from debris. A clogged heat exchange coil can put extra strain on fans and reduce the performance capability and efficiency as a result.

All sites differ and cleaning timeframes will need to be adjusted accordingly but options such as air inlet filters and recent improvements in third party non-caustic coil cleaning solutions can help to reduce maintenance frequency and prolong equipment life.

SPECIFY WITH SPACE IN MIND Ambient coolers work more efficiently if they have clear space around them,

which increases the amount of cool air around the air inlet. Specifying and locating a cooler with space in mind will drive running costs down for the duration of its lifetime. If boxed in, the fans may have to work harder to overcome the additional air side pressure drop and the warm air re-circulation where the heated exhaust air is dragged back into the cool air stream.

If space is an issue, there are flexible design options to consider, such as specifying a cooler with a smaller footprint to increase the surrounding space, or using extended legs to lift the unit high enough to increase the air inlet envelope.

MAKE USE OF FREE COOLING The UK’s colder climate is ideal for free cooling, meaning the cooler could deliver free cooling in the winter months when the outside air is used to chill water instead of using energy consuming chillers.

This option works well for much of the year, when spring and autumn ambient air temperatures can still be particularly cool. Payback on a system of this nature can be as short as four to six months with substantial cost savings after that.

MANAGE GLYCOL CONCENTRATION LEVELS FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY It is important to remember that maintaining the correct levels of glycol concentration within an ambient cooler is essential to maximise efficiencies and cost reductions.

Too much anti-freeze can in fact have an adverse reaction on efficiency, so read the manufacturer’s guidelines and implement a procedure which will monitor and manage the levels accordingly.

For air blast coolers for example, using plain water as a coolant has a specific heat value of 4.19 KJ/kg/K but using 40% ethylene glycol gives a value of approximately 3.6 KJ/ Kg/K (dependant of coolant temperature).

This is a difference of 16% and the effect on cooling efficiency is effectively the same.

Working closely with a trusted efficiency and performance focused manufacturer throughout the market research, specification and installation process will help optimise the energy efficiency of any cooling technology. The key lies in utilising data, onsite analysis and operational criteria to specify cooling equipment which will deliver the best efficiencies for your specific application. www.transtherm.co.uk

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MONITORING & METERING

IMPROVING BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING There are a variety of environmental parameters that should be checked when considering the overall health and operation of a typical office building or industrial facility where people spend a large part of their day. However, keeping these parameters in a safe range not only provides for the health of the workers, but also the efficiency and cost of running the operation.

Julian Grant, General Manager for Chauvin Arnoux UK looks at how the amount of energy consumed in a building is greatly influenced by the indoor environmental conditions.

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emperature, ventilation and the lighting environment are key parameters effecting health, productivity and the comfort of the occupants, and studies have shown that the financial impact of a poor indoor environment for the employer, the building proprietor, and for occupants, are frequently substantially higher than the cost of the energy used to run the building. It has also been proven that proper indoor ecological quality can improve overall work performance as well as reducing absenteeism.

Apart from good environmental parameters contributing to lower energy costs and employee wellbeing, there are, of course, standards and guidance such as The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, HSE Thermal Comfort guidance, EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits, and the CIBSE SLL Code for Lighting, which, among other things, discuss temperature, humidity, air flow,

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carbon dioxide (CO2) and lighting levels.

The ability to measure and now record these parameters has improved significantly over the years, but along with this, the monitoring requirements have changed. For example, in the past measuring natural, incandescent, and florescent lighting levels was probably all that the average facility manager required, but today, with the increasing use of LED lighting, due to its improved energy efficiency and lifespan, we also need to be able to monitor those.

Figures show that LED lighting can reduce lighting energy costs by up to 90%, and with those costs estimated as often accounting for up to 40% of a facilities electricity bill, that is a significant saving. Compared with a regular halogen bulb, LEDs can also last 25 times longer, with a typical lifespan of up to 50,000 hours, which is another major driver in the shift toward their use. Thankfully, modern light meters offer the capability

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to select the type of lighting they are monitoring, with built in spectral and incidence correction, and display the measurement in Lux, as well as providing mapping functionality to ensure adequate lighting coverage throughout the facility.

From an energy efficiency point of view, light level mapping is also important to ensure no particular area is over lit.

Another valuable measurement capability is the ability to track the minimum, maximum and average lighting of a given area over a period of time, a normal work day for example, and data logging light meters are available to do this, with associated PC software to assist in the production of reports and provision of accurate record storage. Most meters also offer fixed and removable light sensors to assist in the proper location for monitoring.

Temperature and Humidity are two other very common measurements taken in a normal work environment, and typically, these two parameters can be found in a single meter called a thermo-hygrometer. With temperature display in Centigrade simultaneous to the measurement and display of relative humidity as a percentage, and some also offering the added capability to display dew point temperature.

Test instruments of this type employ multiple line displays, perhaps showing all three measurements or the ability to scroll through them, and as with modern light meters, the ability to track minimum, maximum and average values, as well as record them over time, is a helpful feature. This enables parameters

MONITORING & METERING

to be accurately monitored during periods when staff are present and not, for example, ensuring HVAC systems are set to adjust temperature up and down accordingly to maximize energy efficiency. 46% of SME energy use was recently reported as being out of hours in a survey of 6000 British Gas Smart meters, much of which would have been attributed to unnecessary heat and light during periods when no staff were present.

Air flow measurement provided by a meter called an anemometer is a valuable tool to monitor the effectiveness of the building’s HVAC system. Most modern anemometers also incorporate temperature measurement as well as air flow and wind speed. To accurately measure the flow from a typical air vent or grill, an accessory to the anemometer called an air flow hood, which controls the measurement area for the anemometer, is also used.

Usually both intake and output air flow measurements are taken to profile the flow and the balance of the system.

As much as 70% of the problems associated with HVAC efficiency are due to improper air flow, and again mapping would be an almost necessary function when choosing an anemometer today. This allows the operator to take measurements at each and every air vent, storing the minimum, maximum and average readings for each particular vent. At the completion of the measurement process this information can then be downloaded and a “map” of the system graphically presented. This is a great tool to assist the technician in properly balancing the system.

Another measurement to consider is that of air quality inside a building, which depends on the concentrations of contaminants, such as gases and particles, and how much fresh air is brought in through its ventilation system thus diluting and removing them. A main gas to monitor is Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which is obviously produced as part of any combustion processes, but also when people breathe. Each exhaled breath by an average adult contains 35,000 or more parts per million (ppm) of CO2 – 100 times higher than is typically found in outside air. The CO2 levels in the air outside a building are usually 350 to 450 ppm.

The CO2 concentration in an occupied indoor area indicates if the building’s air handling and balance is appropriate – that is, if the optimal amount of outside air is being mixed with air that has been circulating in the building. Thankfully, several cost-effective CO2 meter/ loggers are now available to monitor this gas, along with temperature and humidity. Additional capability found in some of these meters is the ability to set alarm levels to warn occupants when CO2 levels exceed safe levels.

In conclusion, environmental testing is clearly required for a variety of reasons, including its ability to highlight inefficiencies, save money, and reduce a facilities carbon footprint. Thankfully, there are a variety of instruments available today to help the facility manager achieve this goal.

Email: jgrant@chauvin-arnoux.co.uk www.chauvin-arnoux.co.uk

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LIGHTING

CONTROL YOUR LIGHTING, WITHOUT THE DISRUPTION, COST AND MAINTENANCE OF HARD-WIRED INSTALLATION Wireless LED lighting control gives you all the benefits of energy monitoring and reduction. A new solution, Light Brain™, makes it easier to create digital networks, where luminaires communicate wirelessly, controlled by an Android app or web interface. Simple software is available to design, optimise and extend the network.

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utomated lighting networks can radically reduce energy consumption whilst delivering optimal lighting performance, where it is needed. Typical savings, when combined with Goodlight® LED luminaires are between 60-95%, depending on its application – ranging from commercial to industrial, education to healthcare and even hospitality!

A wirelessly connected system eliminates the disruption, cost and maintenance burden associated with hard-wired installations, whilst still allowing full control of the lighting system. The resulting system is at heart simple - yet infinitely scalable to the needs of the installation. From a single light

fixture to thousands, within the same system, there is no upper limit.

New solutions like Light Brain™ make lighting networks a breeze to design as well as install and maintain. Software enables users to upload their floorplan – existing or proposed – for quick lighting layout creation, via easy-to-use ‘drag and drop’ tools. Once installed, Light Brain™ creates a digital network, where luminaires communicate wirelessly, controlled by Android app

LIGHTING

or web interface, with simple software.

Setting or adjusting the lighting can be achieved without any wiring changes. Luminaires can be added or replaced, and re-configured at the touch of a button – ideal when refurbishing or adapting internal layouts – and without any expensive re-commissioning.

LIGHT STATUS MONITORING & MAINTENANCE An extensive status monitoring dashboard provides on-demand reports of the ‘health’ of LED sources and drivers, highlighting any critical failure points that need attention.

For those involved in providing lighting support to sites, for example facility managers, the solution caters for ‘active’ maintenance support, in addition to delivering ‘reactive’ lighting maintenance solutions fast and effectively. Neither of these functions require maintenance teams to carry out surveys or make visits to the relevant site.

In addition to its routine maintenance capabilities, Light Brain™ provides automation of routine emergency light testing and maintenance requirements, for example with self-test features for emergency lighting. Without the need to attend site and test individual light fittings, users are alerted to faults as and when they occur. With logging and fault recording functionality, it eliminates the need for manual recording.

MEASURING SUCCESS AND PROGRESS Reporting on the energy consumption of all connected lighting fixtures allows analysis and measurement of a single site, or all the sites being managed. This makes the Light Brain ideal for reviewing the energy performance of multi-site portfolios. Energy and facility managers can log in to review data from any site location as little or as often as needed.

A major advance of this integrated solution is that it can be applied to new builds, retrofits, old and new lighting.

Light Brain modules are connected during the LED lighting upgrade, saving the time and costs of an additional lighting control installation. Because the technology is retrofittable – any luminaire and even individual lamps can be replaced with new LED and wirelessenabled luminaires. Integrate with nonLED luminaires, to make them smart too!

All data can be monitored via the Android App (or remotely via web interface) or downloaded for easy analysis.

The savings can be substantial.

Operating your lighting where it is needed – rather than at 100% brightness constantly – not only minimises energy consumption, but also extends lighting lifecycles and reduces maintenance

costs. Example cost savings for a distribution centre fitted with LED lighting and Light Brain are around 87% with a payback of less than two years.

What is more, Light Brain™ qualifies for government schemes such as the Carbon Trust Green Business Fund.

By claiming 100% first year capital allowance, through the Enhanced Capital Allowances Scheme (ECA), installers can offset the cost of Light Brain, and LED luminaires, and their installation. www.lightbrain.co.uk Tel: +44 01276 691 230 Email: sales@lightbrain.co.uk

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LIGHTING

SEE POTENTIAL ENERGY & COST SAVINGS WITH THE NEW ROI TOOL

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ith the need to reduce energy consumption in all commercial buildings, upgrading the lighting is an easy and effective way to achieve this. Sylvania, one of the world’s leading lighting specialist, has launched an interactive tool designed to help end-users calculate those savings when used in conjunction with its innovative finance solution, LOGIC. The new LOGIC ROI Tool enables users to calculate the potential energy and cost savings they can achieve by financing their lighting upgrade project with LOGIC, in a matter of minutes.

Users can simply state their industry, size of premises, burn hours, energy costs and type of lighting, and adjust their desired finance term to reveal an annual cost and energy saving. However, upon receiving their calculation, users can discuss alternative financing models for their projects with Sylvania.

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Nick Clark, Global Strategic Development Director at Sylvania, says: “Lighting accounts for 39% of a commercial building’s total energy consumption. However, 50% of lighting is deemed highly inefficient and with energy bills expected to increase by as much as 30% by 2030 businesses need to take action now. Firms running inefficient lighting can save, on average, 20% of their total energy bill simply switching over to less power-hungry LED sources and realise significant reductions in energy consumption to meet carbon reduction and energy saving targets.

“However, the upfront expenditure can be prohibitive for some companies, as can uncertainty with regards to both return on investment and performance.

Sylvania’s unique approach to financing the purchase and installation of stateof-the-art lighting systems, LOGIC, helps companies to see even higher savings thanks to no upfront capital investment,

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

attractive terms and a speedy payback period. With competitive financing, costs are broken down into manageable monthly payments, freeing up cash flow for companies to invest in new projects.

“We’ve designed the new interactive tool to provide a speedy, hassle-free platform to showcase the benefits of new lighting technology for companies and the resulting energy savings they can potentially enjoy, to turn lighting from an energy drain into a cash cow.”

Upon request, Sylvania will conduct an on-site energy audit in order to create a bespoke lighting solution for your building. The package can then cover the supply, installation and commissioning of the new energy efficiency lighting systems as well offering a maintenance programme.

For more information visit: www.sylvania-lighting.com.

LIGHTING

HOW HUMAN-CENTRIC LIGHTING CAN HELP SHIFT WORKERS

Greenlite Group’s MD Bob Hall explains how we can support night staff and boost productivity by providing the right lighting solution

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s you turn out the light and huddle down in bed tonight, spare a thought for the three million plus night workers, beavering away across Britain. Whilst we slip gently into sleep, they are wide-awake. From A&E medics saving lives, to midwives birthing babies, night cleaners and the drivers who keep our transport network up and running, a massive one in eight employees now works between 9pm and 6am.

THE COST OF NIGHT SHIFTS But, while shift work brings the advantage of flexibility and often better pay, research increasingly shows that regularly working nights can come at a price. It leads to a disjointed lifestyle, which heaps pressure on our already hectic family lives and can cause tension within our relationships; so much so that shift workers are thought to have higher divorce rates.

The impact is physical too. Wideranging studies have linked shift work to heart disease, obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and insomnia. The World Health Organisation has even classed it as a possible carcinogen, because of the disruptive effect it has on our Circadian rhythm, the 24 hour internal clock that tells our bodies when to be alert, when to eat and when to sleep.

LIGHTING SUPPORT Nevertheless, society and our economy needs shift workers to keep it ticking over 24/7. So, how can we use the advances in lighting to support employees who work unnatural hours,

help them work efficiently and ensure they remain as healthy as possible?

Greenlite Group suggests installing human-centric lighting, which uses a broad colour spectrum and range of intensity to support people’s natural rhythms. Used wisely, humancentric lighting may aid our body clocks, helping us feel alert when we need to, and improving our mood and productivity in the process.

In comparison with traditional incandescent bulbs, human-centric LED lighting offers a more flexible, bespoke solution. The light intensity and colour can be finely tuned and adjusted across a far broader range throughout a 24 period, to suit the specific needs of the staff. This makes it ideal for a shift work setting, which involves the need for people to be wide awake when their bodies would naturally crave sleep.

For example, staff clocking on for a night shift can benefit from more intense light in a cooler colour, which suppresses the production of melatonin and helps stimulate their brains and bodies. The solution will vary according to the situation – staff

working regular night shifts will benefit from a different lighting pattern to those who are only nocturnal on occasion.

IMPROVED SAFETY AND PRODUCTIVITY A well-lit work environment will help staff be more alert and productive, not to mention happier and less likely to make mistakes or suffer accidents.

It also stands to reason that if a night worker is stimulated into an alert state during the night shift, their body will then be ready to wind down into much-needed sleep during the day.

This restorative ‘off duty’ sleep is vital for any employee’s mental and physical wellbeing, plus it creates a happy circle, because they’ll function efficiently and safely when they clock back onto work.

Put simply, by exposing shift workers to the right lighting at the right time, we can help them develop a pattern of wakefulness and sleep that supports their working schedule. Human-centric lighting systems can help staff perform efficiently and safely, improving productivity in the process. www.greenlitegroup.co.uk

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE •APRIL 2018

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

THE NEW ENERGY GENERATION

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ccording to Apple, the large green spaces, wellness centre and 805,000 square-feet of solar panels at its second campus makes it the best office in the world. Here, Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director at obsolete industrial parts supplier, EU Automation, explains how large businesses can benefit from renewable energy.

Apple Campus Two, also known as the Spaceship, generates all of the energy required to power the 175-acre campus with renewable sources. The company is one of many that wants to invest in renewable energy technologies to operate more cleanly and become self-sufficient in energy generation.

Over one hundred companies, including IKEA, AstraZeneca and Google, have signed up to RE100 – an initiative where businesses commit to self-generating 100 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources. But, how can they achieve this?

MICROGENERATION Larger businesses can choose to part from the National Grid – the network that distributes power across the UK – and generate the electricity needed for their facility themselves.

Building a micro grid can help businesses reduce fossil fuel usage and utility bills because of the increased control of the grid. The cost of the equipment needed to power a micro grid are also reducing rapidly, improving the availability of these technologies.

The UK Government also designed a scheme

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to encourage more businesses to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Anyone that installs and generates a certain rate of renewable energy is given a payment or Feed-in tariffs (FITs).

Other countries are also incentivising the uptake of renewable energy. In France, the tax credit for energy transition provides 30 per cent credit on infrastructure bought to improve energy efficiency in a facility. The US tax code offers taxpayers a production tax credit or a 30 per cent investment tax credit if they install renewable energy technologies.

In Singapore, they are both encouraging renewable technology and discouraging the use of fossil fuels. In its 2017 budget, the Government of Singapore set out its plan to introduce a carbon tax to reduce emissions, targeting larger power stations and emitters.

PROBLEMS WITH RENEWABLE There are many incentives to invest in renewable energy technologies but there are some misconceptions about the reliability of these energy sources. While some sources depend on certain weather conditions to generate the highest return on investment in energy, it is unlikely that solar panels or wind turbines will cause blackouts if it’s not sunny or windy at the time. The more sun or wind there is, the more solar or wind power is generated, but this energy is also stored so it can be used when needed.

Changing or extreme weather can cause fluctuations that disrupt electricity flow in

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

larger facilities. In particular, windy weather can cause surges that the grid cannot handle. On the other hand, still days may not provide the required amount of energy to power a facility.

The best way to control these fluctuations is to distribute the generation of power.

By distributing the renewable energy to a large space in smaller units rather than one large unit, any fluctuation will remain in one small unit, minimising the impact.

SUSTAINABILITY As the capabilities of renewable energy technologies grow, more businesses and homeowners are seeing the benefits of self-generation. Before choosing to generate their own renewable energy, businesses need to be aware of any problems with installation as well as generation quality.

Large businesses may have the resources to build the infrastructure needed for microgeneration but need to consider how best to introduce renewable energy to the facility. Cost, availability, urban planning and power quality are some of the many factors that will determine the success of self-generation.

Moving to self-generation might not build a work space as innovative as Apple’s doughnutshaped spaceship campus. However, changing from fossil fuels to renewable energy can help businesses to reduce carbon emissions, reduce utility bills and support the growing renewable energy industry. www.euautomation.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY

HOW TO KEEP HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER UNDER CONTROL By tapping into gravity and the water cycle, humans have long taken advantage of one of Earth’s most efficient and naturally occurring energy sources, water. Today, technology is helping to better manage the process of hydroelectric power production.

Here, Jürgen Resch, energy industry manager at COPA-DATA explains how intelligent technology can keep hydro-electric power under control.

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enerating around 24 per cent of the world’s total energy, hydroelectric is one of the most efficient energy generation methods.

Britain has benefitted from this form of renewable power for over a century.

However, according to a study by the World Atlas of Hydropower and Dams, the country has the potential to reap further rewards from investments in hydro-electric plants.

Government incentives, like the Renewables Obligation and the Feed-in Tariff have prompted Britain to commit to increasing its renewable energy generation to 15 per cent by 2020.

But, what are the advantages of hydro-electric power over other renewable sources?

HIGHS AND LOWS OF HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER Hydro-electric power is widely regarded as one of the cleanest energy sources available, as it does not emit any carbon dioxide during the process. However, the initial investments of time, materials and resources can be extremely high.

The civil engineering required for plant construction can be incredibly complicated. Rerouting rivers, housing underground power units and taking careful consideration of the aquatic and environmental impact of construction are all potential roadblocks. Regardless of these complications, the rewards of investing in hydro-electric power are unrivalled.

Hydro-electric power can be as volatile as other renewable sources, but as it is available during the night, it is considered more consistent than solar. It also provides energy

companies with a greater level of control than some other renewables.

Rather than relying on battery storage, hydro-electric plants can use pump storage to better control when energy is generated. This method of storage entails pumping water back into the dam when there is no need to generate electrical power, or if the prices for energy are particularly low at that time.

Several European countries and regions are already heavily reliant on hydro-electric generation, including Switzerland, Southern Germany, Austria and areas of France.

In comparison, Britain is inexperienced in hydro-electric power generation. So, what can Britain we learn from these countries that have already created successful hydro-electric power plants and how can new technology assist in the process?

TAKE CONTROL WITH MONITORING SOFTWARE As with any energy generating operation, control and monitoring software is an essential way to keep plants under control.

However, due to the size of most hydroelectric operations, investing in intelligent control software is even more critical.

Control and monitoring software for hydro-electric plants can acquire an array of data – the systems can be used as a local Human Machine Interface (HMI) for the components of a power station, collecting data from numerous components, such as turbines, generators and converters. For individual power plants, the software can be used for project configuration and reporting or can be scaled upwards to manage a number of plants in a higher-level system. But, how does this data improve operations?

Consider maintenance as an example.

Generally speaking, machinery in a hydro-electric power plant will need to be revised and repaired every few years. However, without the necessary data to accurately predict when a machine might need maintenance, making investments in repair and maintenance is purely based on guess work.

Intelligent monitoring software, like COPADATA’s zenon, can collect the necessary data to help maintenance personnel make more informed decisions – reducing the likelihood of wasting cash on unnecessary maintenance.

By archiving data from the plant’s operation, the software can identify any problems with machinery or equipment in the plant. For those familiar with control software for energy and infrastructure, understanding the data can be an art form. Thankfully, modern software can collate this information into an easy-to-understand

report – helping maintenance personnel identify exactly where the machine breakdown is likely to occur, if the plant is spread over several sites.

REACT TO ALERTS IN REAL-TIME Collecting and archiving data can also be advantageous when reacting to problems at the plant. Due to their size, many hydroelectric power plants have unmanned control rooms, which can lead to slow reactions in the event of a problem. Rather than waiting for the problem to escalate, most modern control systems will also provide alerts to operators by means of SMS, e-mail or a call.

Using this method, operators can react and identify what has gone wrong.

In these circumstances, it is often necessary to reconstruct the past events of the plant’s operation to work out exactly where in the process the error has occurred. Again, software can help.

COPA-DATA’s zenon, for example, has a dedicated Process Recorder module.

This feature can pull operational data from the archive and replay the operation of the plant at any given time. This provides operators with a playback of what has gone wrong, enabling quicker identification of the problem and in turn, decreased downtime.

This method of data archiving also means that events are recorded and are available for subsequent analysis. This can enable plant managers to make more informed decisions and improve the plant’s efficiency even further.

Hydro-electric power may be one of the most efficient of renewable sources, but that does not mean its methods of generation cannot be improved. Using control and monitoring technology, energy companies in Central Europe are already benefitting from the carbon-free power of hydro-electric energy.

Britain has been using hydro-electric power for centuries, but with increasing pressure to meet its renewable energy targets, perhaps it is time that Britain takes its use of hydro-electric power to the next level.

Email: press@copadata.co.uk www.copadata.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

RENEWABLE ENERGY IS IMPORTANT TO 84% OF UK, BUT THE MAJORITY DON’T HAVE A VERY GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT MEANS More than half (52%) of UK consumers expect a renewable electricity supplier to send energy direct from wind and solar farms into their homes.

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esearch commissioned

by Good Energy has shed light on the confusion over what constitutes ‘renewable’ when it comes to energy.

The findings of a survey conducted by YouGov* found that whilst over 8 in 10 (84%) of the UK consider ‘renewable energy’ to be important to them, 58% do not have a very good understanding of what it actually means.

The most common misconception is that a renewable energy supplier should provide electricity from renewable sources direct to people’s homes. The notion, held by 52% of consumers, indicates a fundamental and widespread lack of understanding of how the National Grid works.

In contrast, 48% believe that a renewable energy supplier should be encouraging more renewable energy sources contributing to the National Grid, something which some renewable suppliers do not do at all,

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whilst others only do to a degree.

The research paints a picture of confusion in a market in which there are a growing number of renewable energy providers, indicating that many are failing to be fully transparent with consumers.

Ofgem’s Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) scheme provides certificates for each unit of electricity generated by a renewable source. However, these certificates can be purchased without the energy they are associated with, essentially independent of their origin, at very low cost, which several suppliers are taking advantage of in order to offer low cost ‘renewable’ tariffs which do not encourage any additional renewable energy generation. This is leading to a perception that you no longer need to pay more for 100% renewable electricity, yet customers are unaware of how their energy bills go back into funding renewable generation.

Good Energy conducted some

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

industry research asking suppliers which provide a ‘100% renewable’ electricity tariff how they do so, and found the following: •

Company A: Owns and operates its own wind and solar farms, from which it sources around a third of its energy. The rest is from the National Grid, with cheap REGO certificates purchased separately in order to call it ‘renewable’.

•

Company B: Purchases 20% directly from renewable generators, with the REGOs to show for it. But the remainder is REGO only.

•

Company C: Offers a ‘100% renewable electricity’ tariff

RENEWABLE ENERGY

with a £5 a month (£60 a year) premium, promising to buy the REGO certificates to account for your usage. Purchasing the REGO certificates to cover an average household’s annual usage costs about 47p.

•

Company D: Focuses on a digital strategy to drive costs down for customers, and offers ‘100% renewable electricity’ as an additional benefit. But admits 100% of its electricity is covered by REGO certificates purchased independently of the energy, stating ‘we’re a retailer, not a generator’.

Juliet Davenport, founder and CEO of Good Energy, said “There are some

positives to take out of our research, not least how many people value the importance renewable energy. We’ve seen a big surge of interest in the market in the last two to three years, which is great, but it’s also why it’s so important that people know what they’re buying and investing in.

“You choose a renewable energy provider because you want to make a difference in combatting climate change. We don’t believe customers would be happy if they knew that their ‘100% renewable’ tariff was making effectively zero impact on renewable energy generation, and by extension any efforts to move towards a cleaner, greener future.

“This is also against a backdrop of

reduced government support, which is translating into a huge drop off in renewable investment with figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance showing a massive de-cline of 56% in the UK in 2017. Consumer demand is growing for renewable energy, but that’s not going to drive clean energy growth if the ‘renewable’ tariffs they’re buying are simply allocating their use against what’s already on the grid.

Good Energy is committed to providing 100% renewable electricity to customers by buying the equivalent amount they use from a network of over 1,400 generators across the UK using power purchase agreements (PPA), actively investing in and supporting the growth of the UK renewable energy market. www.goodenergy.co.uk

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

DISPLACING COAL WITH WOOD FOR POWER GENERATION WILL WORSEN CLIMATE CHANGE SAY MIT, UMASS LOWELL AND CLIMATE INTERACTIVE RESEARCHERS New research challenges European Union policy that wood bioenergy is carbon neutral.

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ood is increasingly being used to replace coal as a source of electricity generation in many regions such as the European Union, where policymakers have declared it “carbon neutral.”

However, new research from researchers at MIT, Climate Interactive, and UMass Lowell reveals that displacing coal with wood for power generation can make climate change worse for many decades or more.

In the new study, Does replacing coal with wood lower CO2 emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy, the researchers – John Sterman, the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management at MIT Sloan School of Management;Juliette Rooney-Varga, Director of the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative; and Lori Siegel, PhD, Senior Modeler for Climate Interactive – examine the climate impact of replacing coal power generation in the EU and UK with wood pellets sourced from forests in the Southern United States. The research is slated for publication on Friday, January 19, 2018 in the academic journal, Environmental Research Letters. The paper can be accessed online at http://iopscience.iop. org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaa512/pdf The researchers found that wood pellets burned in European and UK power plants, such as the Drax facility in North Yorkshire – which has transitioned some of its coal power generation capacity to wood pellets with the support of UK government subsidies – actually emit more CO2 per kilowatt hour than that generated by coal.

This is because wood is both less efficient at the point of combustion and has larger processing and supply chain emissions than coal. Their research shows that using wood instead of coal in power generation increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, worsening climate change until – and only if – the harvested forests regrow.

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US forests are a main source for EU wood pellet imports, which have been rising as demand has grown. These forests grow back slowly, so it takes a long time to repay the initial “carbon debt” incurred by burning wood instead of coal. For forests in the central and eastern US, which supply much of the wood used in UK power plants, the payback time for this carbon debt ranges from 44 to 104 years, depending on forest type – and assuming the land remains forest. If the land is developed, or converted to agricultural use, then the carbon debt is never repaid and grows over time as the harvested land emits additional carbon from soils.

The research was conducted with the use of a system dynamics model, based on the award-winning Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support (C-ROADS) simulator. Launched in 2008, the model was reviewed by an external scientific review committee, chaired by Sir Robert Watson, former Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The researchers also explored an increasingly common scenario in which hardwood forests harvested for bioenergy are replaced with faster-growing loblolly pine plantations. Surprisingly, replanting with fast-growing pine plantations worsens the CO2 impact of wood because managed plantations do not sequester as much carbon as natural forests.

They found that continued growth in wood use, as many predict, will worsen climate change throughout the rest of this century, or longer. This is because the first impact of substituting wood for coal in power generation is an increase in CO2 emissions. Even if the forests eventually regrow, notes Prof. Sterman, each year the new carbon debt from increased harvest and combustion outweighs the regrowth, just as borrowing more on a credit card each month than one is able to pay back will steadily increase what he or she owes. For countries using wood bioenergy as a component of their climate policies this could take

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

them backwards. Indeed, bioenergy from wood made up 44% of the EU’s renewable energy production in 2015.

“A molecule of CO2 emitted today has the same impact on the climate whether it comes from coal or biomass,” says Prof. John Sterman. “Declaring that biofuels are carbon neutral, as the EU, UK and others have done, erroneously assumes forest regrowth happens quickly and fully offsets the emissions from biofuel production and combustion. One way to address the challenges raised in this study would be to count emissions where they occur, for example, at a power plant, and monitor and count carbon removed from the atmosphere by regrowth on the harvested land.”

Critically, the analysis doesn’t support continued coal use as it is the most carbon intensive fuel and a major contributor to climate change. The researchers stress energy efficiency, solar, wind and storage as the cheapest, safest, and quickest ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions while meeting energy needs.

The model behind the research is available for scientists and policymakers to design their own scenarios for bioenergy, conduct sensitivity analysis, and get immediate feedback showing the full dynamics, including both short and long run impacts.

The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu The UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative brings faculty, students, and communities together to address climate change through research, education, and developing solutions to transition to a more sustainable and resilient society. Learn more at www.uml. edu/Research/Climate-Change/.

Climate Interactive is a US-based not-for-profit think tank that helps people see what works to address the biggest challenges facing our lives on Earth.

Learn more at climateinteractive.org

WATER MANAGEMENT

THE KEY TO OPTIMISING PUBLIC SECTOR WATER SAVINGS IS TO TAP INTO A WATER AUDIT SERVICES EXPERT

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ublic sector water savings will not be optimised just by switching water supplier alone, a very small saving may be achieved by going out to tender for a lower price.

Despite industry rumour and speculation water self-supply is way down the order of priority as any savings will be swallowed up in ongoing consultancy fees and other fees such as licence applications and other regulatory on going fees.

A water self-supply licence for the public sector in England is really just buying a seat at a water industry table, there is very little margin to play with.

Public sector organisations in Scotland however would surely benefit dependant on water and waste water bill spend.

Employ the services of a water audit expert to run a simple set of numbers comparing water self-supply and the straight forward water retail option.

You may be pleasantly surprised by cutting out the Scottish water retail margin water procurement savings will be optimised.

The prime public sector organisations that would likely benefit from water selfsupply in Scotland would be: – Scottish Prison Services, Universities, Hospitals and some of the largest local authorities.

But do run the numbers through an independent water audit expert and not a water retail company, remember they are retailers not water wholesalers!

In order to optimise savings on water

and waste water bills and to ensure all water company overcharges historically have been identified and refunds repaid in full a water audit services expert with several year’s water industry experience is absolutely key to ensuring the very best results are achieved in the most cost effective way.

• Water strategy • Water audit • Water procurement In that order!

Jumping straight to water procurement with promises of “added value services” is very likely to cost you thousands in losses in terms of savings and refunds due to historical overcharging.

Let’s face it the water companies have been given decades to get the charges right so why pay them to charge you correctly? Surely they have a statutory responsibility to charge you correctly in the first place?

Not so according to many water companies, it is for you the customer to ensure the water bills are correct before paying them, you knew that already right?

Before considering switching water supplier you should appoint your water audit services expert being careful on the due diligence.

By checking out the water consultant’s website, how long they have been in business, the longer the better no substitute for experience!

Check out the client references usually published on the website, does the firm publish news, views and advise via their own news blog or professional networks such as LinkedIn? All in all thorough research will ensure you work with the best water audit expert.

Lastly, try and keep away from share of savings going forwards, you will end up paying more to achieve your savings, a share of refunds is fine as it is a one off payment.

WATER BILL VALIDATION, BUREAU SERVICE – WATER AND WASTE WATER COST REDUCTION PROJECT SPECIFICATION. Centralise the water billing data, gather all your water bills so they are all coming into one place, compile a water and waste water database inputting the key data.

Complete a water audit and identify any historical water company overcharging, claim back overcharges reducing costs going forwards.

Water management – Benchmark all sites, complete site surveys where needed, drive down water consumption by implementing cost savings resulting from site survey recommendations.

Going forwards, carry on water bill validation and bureau service.

FUTURE WATER STRATEGY Now your appointed Water Audit Expert can go out to the Water Retail Market and get you the very best value deal an expert will have the “Inside Track Knowledge” on margins which is a distinct advantage in addition years of water industry expertise.

Consider all options of water and waste water supply services – retail – wholesale – self-supply – alternative water supplier – on going water flow monitoring.

Water saving could on average be 30% at least. This will be derived from water leak detection and repairs – internal water losses due to faulty or inefficient water fittings – incorrect tariffs – incorrect charges – smart water supply procurement – to include alternative water suppliers form natural underground water sources.

Tel: 0845 658 09485 www.h2obuildingservices.co.uk Email: info@ h2obuildingservices.co.uk

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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WATER MANAGEMENT

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE UNITES LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES TO DETERMINE FUTURE OF CITIES AND WATER

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ow cities will prepare for the future was the pressing question at the forefront of the International Conference of Local and Regional Authorities for Water.

The conference, held 21-22 March during the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia, brought together hundreds of local and regional authorities to share their experience, achievements and solutions in relation to water issues. Co-organized by the World Water Council, UN Habitat through its Global Water Operators Partnerships Alliance, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Secretariat for Federative Affairs of the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil, United Cities and Local Governments, and the Confederação Nacional de Municípios, the conference emphasized the importance of sustainable water management to pave the way towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030.

Cooperation on improved water and sanitation services and multi-level governance on water is essential to securing water and sustaining a new urban future. In light of the need for immediate action on water-related issues to reduce widespread water crises, the

World Water Council has released a guide, Start with Water: Putting water on local action agendas to support global change. This guide seeks to provide strategies and support to help cities make concrete contributions to global agendas. Presented as a set of eight recommendations, which detail water management, decentralizing finances, and urban risk planning, among others, in addition to incorporating concrete examples from around the world, the first-of-its-kind guide was launched during the International Conference of Local and Regional Authorities for Water.

During a panel with global mayors following the LRA conference, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, Rajendra Singh, explained the importance of caring for water, “If we respect the local community and local government and teach them to take responsibility, they will understand prosperity must begin with love, affection and respect. I learnt by working with my community that change becomes possible.

I can say today there is reverse migration, millions of people are returning to rural areas, returning to agriculture, and enjoying life with happiness. I don’t know what impact I had on the local GDP, but I know what the impact on

my community’s happiness has been. Water creates happiness, peace and prosperity within a community. But for this, water needs to be treated with love and affection and respect.”

Promoting water’s vital role in the wellbeing and survival of our communities is paramount. Convening mayors and local authorities during the 8th World Water Forum, igniting discussions and providing guides, plays an essential role in placing water at the top of agendas and improving global water security.

Founded by the World Water Council, the World Water Forum represents an international meeting point to discuss waterrelated problems and find solutions for the world’s most pressing water issues, including for Local and Regional Authorities. The World Water Council welcomes those from every corner of the globe to join the world’s biggest water-related event, bringing together heads of state, ministers, high-level decision makers, water experts and professionals, local authorities and academics. The World Water Forum places water firmly at the heart of global development and calls on citizens to act to ensure a sustainable future. communication@worldwatercouncil.org

TRICKLE OF COMPETITION SET TO BECOME A FLOOD IN THE WATER MARKET

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TC, the UK’s largest independent utility network provider to the new-build market, hailed the imminent arrival of genuine competition in the provision of new water connections for housing developments in England and Wales. From April 2018, measures introduced by Ofwat will sweep away barriers to competition and, for the first time, give house builders and developers a real choice of providers for new water and wastewater connections. This opening up of the water market, described by Ofwat as “a significant change from the past”, is expected to bring developers of all sizes significant benefits including lower prices, better customer service and innovative supply solutions.

Following an investigation into how the water market was operating, Ofwat is introducing changes that will make it easier for developers and competing water companies to establish what an incumbent water company will charge to connect a new development to their existing water network. The charges will also be fairer, with new connections not

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paying for pre-existing network issues. In addition, Ofwat has undertaken to streamline the lengthy licensing process required to appoint alternative network providers.

Competing water companies, referred to as NAVs – ‘New Appointment and Variation’ – are licensed by Ofwat on a per site basis.

Under the previous regulatory arrangements, it was only financially viable for NAVs to provide networks on large developments.

GTC, for example, is already responsible for more than 8,000 live water and wastewater new connections to a number of major developments across the UK including King’s Cross and Greenwich Millennium Village in London, Priors Hall in Corby and Berryfields in Aylesbury. GTC is also contracted to build out thousands more connections on sites from Newcastle to Weston-superMare. With these market changes, however, hundreds of new NAV licences are now expected for developments of all sizes.

Until now, in England and Wales, the default option for housebuilders was simply to

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

obtain water and wastewater connections from the local, incumbent water company either directly or via self-lay utility companies installing on their behalf. This was a very different market environment from the already liberalised electricity and gas markets where the majority of new connections are now carried out by independent network providers such as GTC. John Marsh, GTC’s Water Director, is delighted that the water market is following the lead provided by gas and electricity. “This is a watershed moment. A real game-changer.

We have been held back from offering the whole house building sector the choice to benefit from our different approach to network provision. As the trusted utility provider to many of the UK’s top house builders over many years, we are looking forward to being able to support many more of them with the full range of utility network connections. Adopting a truly multi-utility approach, sourcing all utilities from a single network provider, is now a realistic option for all house builders and developers.”

Visit www.gtc-uk.co.uk

WATER MANAGEMENT

WATER REUSE AND FLOOD RESILIENCE IN ONE: NEW TECHNOLOGY SET TO TAKE WATER SECTOR BY STORM

Waterscan is delighted to unveil Intellistorm® – the future of water reuse and flood resilience.

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ntellistorm® uniquely combines rainwater harvesting, attenuation and intelligent data gathering into one system. Where deployed, it is expected to drastically reduce site water consumption and discharge to drain.

Responding to live weather forecast data, Intellistorm® enables a site to maximise water reuse and reduce discharge to drain by intelligently storing and using collected rainwater for non-potable applications such as toilet flushing, irrigation, vehicle washing and cooling systems. Highly secure and customisable to control both the quality of water for discharge, and water for reuse, the possible applications for this system are extensive.

“Designed to enhance flood resilience while reducing water consumption, this

patented, attitude-changing technology is a major step forward in alleviating issues surrounding the widespread uptake of water re-use systems,” says Barry Millar, Operations Director at Waterscan, whose team developed the technology. “The concept was arrived at to mitigate the need for separate rainwater harvesting and attenuation systems. By combining two systems and using intelligent data, we can now offer developers considerable cost savings during construction, clients ongoing cost savings through water reuse, and wider environmental and social benefits by boosting flood resilience.”

The overloading of drainage infrastructure in urban areas continues to present a significant flood risk, especially in the case of new developments.

Current sustainable urban drainage

recommendations set limits on the discharge of water from developments to assist in mitigating this impact but more action is needed. That’s why Intellistorm® has been designed in line with best practice sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) principles and ensures full compliance with stringent local planning and discharge requirements. Unlike traditional attenuation systems – which temporarily attenuate storm water and allow a continuous controlled discharge of any collected surface water – Intellistorm® actively empties attenuation in accordance with weather forecast data, providing only sufficient space to receive incoming rainwater.

Requiring no additional civil excavation or equipment footprint, when compared with traditional attenuation systems, Intellistorm® reduces the cost of integrating water re-use to a new build facility by approximately £100,000. Further savings are achieved as a result of using 40% less build materials and onsite labour costs.

For more information, email info@waterscan.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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WATER MANAGEMENT

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES WITH VEOLIA

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eolia Water Technologies (Veolia) offers a variety of solutions that can help companies to cope with interruptions in mains water supplies, as well as effective reuse and recycling technologies to reduce overall demand.

A continuous supply of water is essential for many industries, and disruptions to water supplies, for example through burst pipes or drought, can significantly harm productivity or in some cases completely stop production. Veolia can help customers to evaluate how they use water and provide recommendations to make operations more efficient, helping to lower overall water demands and insulate businesses against water shortages.

If municipal water supplies are interrupted for business, Veolia offers a variety of technologies to help make

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the most of alternative water sources.

For example, rainwater or water from boreholes can be used in boilers or cooling towers with minimal treatment and the company’s product range includes a number of solutions to enable rapid and cost-effective harvesting of rainwater and surface run-off which, once installed, can provide a supply of ‘free’ water. For higher purity water demands, Veolia can provide a wide range of systems – including clarifiers, RO systems and deionisers, which offer effective treatment of river or reservoir water, helping to ensure a secure alternative supply.

Reusing and recycling wastewater can also help to reduce reliance on mains water supplies. Water recovery systems involving filtration, RO and clarification steps can be used to help reuse and recycle water on site, preventing hundreds of thousands

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

of litres of wastewater entering the sewage system, reducing overall consumption and potentially offering significant financial savings.

Kalpesh Shah, Industrial Sales Manager at Veolia Water Technologies, commented: “As the burst water mains and leaks caused by the ‘big thaw’ continue to disrupt UK water supplies, it is important to consider how complementary water sources can be used to safeguard your business operations against water shortages.

Veolia has invested significantly in the development of efficient and robust technologies to help our customers exploit these alternative sources, as well as to reuse and recycle effluent to reduce their reliance on municipal water supplies.”

Visit www.veoliawatertechnologies. co.uk for more information.

WATER MANAGEMENT

STARK GLOBAL WATER REPORT TRIGGERS NEW COLLABORATION AMONG GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS In the face of profound global water challenges, on World Water Day five global multi-stakeholder partner-ships representing business, governments, intergovernmental organizations, academia, and civil society organizations announced a new collaboration effort designed to accelerate progress toward ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation around the world.

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he partnership was catalysed by the discussions at the 8th World Water Forum in Brasilia, including the Citizens Forum and Sustainability Focus Group, and the High-Level Panel on Water report, “Making Every Drop Count”. The report says if the world continues on its current path, it may face a 40 percent shortfall in water availability by 2030. Health, food security, energy sustainability, jobs, cities, and ecosystems are increasingly at risk due to exacerbating natural variability of the water cycle and growing water stress.

The World Bank Water Global Practice, 2030 Water Resources Group, Global Water Partnership, World Water Council, and UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate commit to coordinate a set of actions toward increased water security. Water security underpins economic growth, social development and environmental sustainability.

The Making Every Drop Count report also finds: •

40 percent of the world’s population is affected by water scarcity

•

As many as 700 million people could be displaced by 2030 in search for water

•

More than 2 billion people are compelled to drink unsafe water

•

4.5 billion people do not have access to safely managed sanitation

Aiming to find collaborative solutions to better manage and value water, the global multi-stakeholder partner-ships will explore how to more effectively coordinate and align their efforts toward the urgent goal of water

security, in line with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

On World Water Day 2018, the organizations agreed to: •

Take into account the outcomes of the 8th World Water Forum, proposed by the various political, thematic, regional, citizen, and sustainability processes

•

Endorse the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on Water (HLPW) “Making Every Drop Count”

•

Recognize the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 17) that promotes partnerships as a key means of implementation of the 2030 development agenda – in particular for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals calling for a Water Secure World (SDG6)

•

•

Commit to convene a series of discussions between the leaders of the organizations, starting in August 2018 Explore and agree on pathways towards improving global coordination and collaboration among these and other organizations, in view of accelerating progress towards a water-secure world

“Through this partnership, the World Bank Group aims to build an alliance of committed stakeholders to catalyse change and implement the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on Water. The goal of global water security requires an urgent coordinated response amongst dedicated

international development organizations.”

Guangzhe Chen, Senior Director, World Bank Water Global Practice “The Global Water Partnership is prepared to offer its on-the-ground multistakeholder networks to advance better water governance. It is time for policy makers to make SDG6 implementation a top priority.” Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren, Chair, Global Water Partnership “2030 WRG is committed to this global framework. Contributing to sustainable implementation models at scale, we will leverage our country partners, particularly private sector, as key collaborators in this effort.” Karin Krchnak, Program Manager, 2030 Water Resources Group/World Bank Group “Water challenges pose critical risks to businesses, governments, and communities alike. The only way we can tackle them is by deepening our collaboration within the water sector.” Jason Morrison, Head, CEO Water Mandate “The World Water Council is pleased to offer its expertise in gathering stakeholders from every horizon to mobilize political will and catalyse positive action for the cause of water. We are stronger together than we are individually, and joining our voices gives new inspiration and opportunity to accelerate and enforce our efforts towards an integrated agenda at the global, regional and local levels.” Benedito Braga, President, World Water Council.

Email: communication@ worldwatercouncil.org www.worldwatercouncil.org

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

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PRODUCT SHOWCASE

RINNAI HOT WATER – INSTANT, CONTINUOUS, LIMITLESS AND SENSIBLY ECONOMIC

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innai’s Infinity range of ErP A-rated continuous flow gas fired water heaters now includes many models specifically designed for all light commercial and larger domestic sites. The Rinnai units guarantee the highest efficiencies and lowest running costs at consistent temperatures 24/7 compared to any method of hot water delivery in lighter commercial sites.

The Rinnai Infinity range of continuous flow – sometimes referred to as ‘tankless’ water heating units are being specified and installed in domestic properties, cafes, pubs, restaurants, offices, shops, hairdressers, commercial units, caravan parks and leisure facilities as installers and end users become aware of their energy & cost saving benefits.

The reason for the increase in uptake is that continuous flow heater systems are proven to be more energy efficient than conventional storage systems and are now experts’ preferred method of hot water provision. Rinnai units easily cater for any size projects that need high volumes of water at intermittent times of day delivered at accurate Rinnai’s Infinity multipoint

16i water heater, for example, eliminates the problem of sudden changes in water temperature, resulting in cold showers or scalding hot baths – the water temperature you set is the water temperature you get.

So, if somebody is happily showering at 42°C and a tap is turned on to draw a bath elsewhere in the property, the temperature does not vary, and there is no chance of either user running out of hot water.

The Rinnai Infinity 16i interior model measures 675 x 370 x 139mm and weighs in at 18kg - a one-man lift. The room sealed unit has a temperature range of 35°C to 60°C with direct electronic ignition. Gas consumption ranges between 4.7kW-6.5kW for Natural Gas and 4.9kW-36.8kW when using propane. Hot water delivery flow is an impressive 16ltr max flow. Nominal operation pressure is 1-7 bar and it uses a 230V AC 50Hz 1ph power supply with an electrical consumption of 68W. Meanwhile, where an external installation is required, the Rinnai Infinity 17e external multipoint water heater offers greater flexibility at the design stage and

offers a viable solution where flue runs are problematic or internal space is not available.

Capable of flow rates of up to 510 litres per hour at a 50°C rise, the 17e is suitable for multiple applications and can be specified for use with Natural Gas or propane.

The 17e has full frost protection and is available with a range of external ancillary items, including pipe cover box – and security cage where necessary.

The Infinity 11i interior unit differs from the 16i as it weighs 2kg less at 16kg and consumes 6.10kW-21.60kW of Natural Gas and has an 11-metre maximum flow.

For more information on the RINNAI product range visit www.rinnaiuk.com

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

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innai has recently completed an installation of 20 HDC 1500i units on shower blocks at an MoD barracks.

LPG is the onsite fuel for all the Rinnai systems. Rinnai designed the systems in close co-operation with the local contractor who installed all the units – and the on-site facilities management company.

Rinnai continuous flow condensing units were specified based on previously completed projects on many army camps spread throughout the country.

The end-user, the facilities provider and the installing contractor were all agreed on the excellence of Rinnai product performance, energy savings on fuel, product reliability & durability.

Comprehensive site surveys were completed between Rinnai and the services provider and designs for the systems were based on using two of what was the then plant rooms which housed two extremely large calorifiers. Each plant room was re-engineered with the installation of 10 high performance, high efficiency Rinnai HDC1500i (59.5kW) continuous flow, instantaneous water heaters per plant room.

Each plant room of 10 units were installed in ‘banks’ of five units and set with the Rinnai (MECS) Manifold Electronic Controls. This intelligent energy optimising system brings additional water levels into operation only when required, meaning

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energy is only used when needed.

The MECS system also ensures system longevity as it ensures that each water heater in the bank is used for the same period of time over its life cycle guaranteeing unnecessary wear and even usage.

Each of the ‘banks’ of five units were also designed and supplied with a common header flue system which provides a compact, neat installation, as well as minimising plant room terminations and offering a quicker, easier installation and a more efficient maintenance programme.

Rinnai’s HDC1500, also known as the Infinity Plus Cascade, is an awardwinning range of units. The range was developed to guarantee the maximum amount of affordable, ecologically friendly safe-temperature controlled hot water on demand at any one time by even the heaviest commercial user, even at peak times. In this case an army barracks. The Rinnai 1500i is engineered to the highest standard and is technologically advanced with a host of features giving added value.

Both Rinnai HDC1500 internal and external models turn in an impressive energy performance of 105% net efficiency.

Each Infinity Plus Cascade module comprises a minimum of two HDC1500 units and as any number of modules can be manifolded, the capacity for never ending ‘cascading’ hot water is infinite. Installation is

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018

straightforward and simple – each Rinnai HDC 1500i Infinity Plus Cascade comes with its own precision engineered rack, so there is no need to fabricate one or get involved with major re-jigging of pipe work or excessive flueing, the rack eliminates these time-consuming procedures, streamlining installation and helping keep remedial costs to a minimum.

The benefits for the end user are big savings on fuel over other forms of water heating solutions, with the added advantage that there is no need to give up valuable space to install a cylinder. And there are no standing losses to account for as occur with traditional stored hot water systems. The Rinnai system produces useable hot water on demand, at the turn of a tap or the push of a shower button. The relatively compact footprint of the units also means they can be housed in tight spaces and still be easily accessible for maintenance and servicing.

For more information on the RINNAI product range visit www.rinnaiuk.com

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