MONITORING & METERING

WHAT’S DRIVING THE MODE FOR METER MAINTENANCE?

Steve Morris, Head of Maintenance, Insite Energy

We’ve recently seen an upsurge of interest among energy managers in finding and fixing equipment faults across their heat networks. More and more often, the topic of repairs is coming up in conversation with clients. The exact reasons for this maintenance boom are unclear, but we can identify several common themes.

Firstly, the heat network sector is now reaching a level of maturity whereby the first wave of equipment and infrastructure at many sites is nearing the end of its natural life, resulting in more maintenance issues occurring.

There is also a growing awareness among housing associations and local authorities of the legal responsibilities associated with managing communal heating systems, as well as a sense that, when Ofgem steps into the newly created role of heat network regulator in the next couple of years, oversight and enforcement are likely to become even more intense and thorough. Many housing providers are seeking to put their house in order now, to avoid potential penalties in future.

As well as this, the spiralling cost of energy is causing residents to scrutinise their bills more closely than ever before, uncovering anomalies and inefficiencies that might have previously slipped under the radar. We’re seeing evidence of this in our own contact centre, where the number of tariff-related queries is the greatest it’s ever been – 2022 figures are currently five- to six-times higher than last year – with investigations sometimes resulting in the discovery of faults or system errors. Meanwhile, energy managers themselves, mindful of the financial pressures tenants are under, are keen to avoid any unnecessary excess costs caused by inefficient or poorly maintained systems.

As we’ve been saying for some time, the sooner housing providers address the ongoing maintenance of heating systems, the greater the benefits for everyone. It’s gratifying to see that the message is sinking in. Of course, it tends to be the large corporates, with easier access to funds and well-resourced governance systems in place, that lead the charge, while smaller organisations follow in their wake. And there is always a minority who don’t plan ahead or take action until they are legally compelled to do so. With increased regulations on the horizon, we will continue to advocate for immediate action.

METERS NEED MOST MAINTENANCE

Most commonly, the issues energy managers are looking to rectify relate to meters; where they may not be working or are not easily accessible, making it near impossible to tell if they’re working or not. In a surprisingly large number of cases – 10-15% – poor installation means they have never actually functioned properly in the first place. Often, the problem has been ignored, sometimes for years.

Other faults occur due to damage by customers or because of a straightforward mechanical failure. Lower-cost meters usually have a lifespan of five to six years, and, when they break, managers sometimes feel it’s not worth the expense of fixing them immediately because they’re so cheap to replace.

Investing in quality from the outset is always a good idea. However, even high-end models that last up to 16 years need periodic recalibration for accuracy and will, at the least, run out of power after 10 or 12 years, requiring a systematic battery-replacement programme. Even if a meter is functioning well, there may be an issue with the connection to it that has either never worked or has developed a fault. Sometimes it may even be something as simple as incorrect labelling, meaning it’s unclear what the meter’s data refers to.

TAKE EARLY ACTION

The problems causing meter failure may not be complicated but resolving them usually requires maintenance teams to access properties, with all the cost, hassle and inconvenience to tenants that entails. So, it’s easy to see how many malfunctions can be left unfixed for some time.

However, the knock-on effects of avoiding repairs can be huge. Following the last update to the Heat Network (Metering & Billing) Regulations (2014), individual meters for final customers that provide accurate, detailed and transparent usage data became a legal requirement in most cases. Regulations also state that bills must not be estimated for more than three periods in a row.

Failure to comply can risk civil or even criminal penalties and, with tariffs skyrocketing, residents are likely to complain to Ofgem pretty quickly if charges are persistently inaccurate or if landlords are non-compliant. It’s always much better to take proactive action than to wait until you’re prosecuted! Investing in improving the metering portfolio sooner rather than later can save a lot of pain and expense further down the line. Crudely designed systems and poor-quality hardware, while appearing to save money, can ultimately end up costing more in energy use and maintenance.

Energy managers can enlist the support of experts to evaluate the metering solutions they have in place and take advice on how to make improvements to avoid pricey mistakes.

FEWER FAULTS

It’s worth considering including maintenance in metering and billing contracts. Regular meter servicing enshrined in a service level agreement can significantly lower the number of faults that occur – in our experience, we’d estimate the reduction to be around 20-30%, compared to in-house maintenance regimes. Third-party suppliers can take a more holistic approach as part of delivering a complete metering and billing service. They are best placed to identify meter faults straight away, and then repair them quickly, as well as working proactively to prevent them happening in the first place. It’s hard to dedicate the same level of internal resources to meter maintenance.

Furthermore, these types of full-service contracts should help to smooth out the cost spikes of unpredictable repairs while also ensuring good service for residents. A small, fixed annual fee is paid per unit for scheduled maintenance and then any unscheduled repair visits are charged at a much lower call-out rate and within an agreed timeframe. Admin costs are reduced too, as there is no need to coordinate a maintenance programme internally.

A systematic approach to maintenance is another means of reducing the number of physical visits needed to a given site. Through analysis of billing data, the billing provider can quickly identify and precisely locate faults and inefficiencies, so that repair visits only happen when and where they’re needed, lowering overall costs.

When including maintenance in a metering and billing contract, make sure that the fees charged by the service provider are transparent and based on actual costs. Additionally, assess contract length to avoid ending up being shackled indefinitely to high prices or poor service. Whether maintenance activities are outsourced or not, energy managers cannot afford to neglect their meter portfolio. Ofgem’s installation as heat network regulator may not happen until 2024, but it is coming. Don’t leave it too late to complete all the property visits that may be needed to get your house in order. Your tenants will not thank you if you do. https://insite-energy.co.uk

IMPROVING OUR OWN ENERGY EFFICIENCY – PART 2

In the previous issue of Energy Manager Magazine, we described the beginning of a journey to improving the energy efficiency, and so reduce the consumption, of the Chauvin Arnoux UK offices. Following that initial logging session, and the subsequent changes that were made, more logging was performed using a PEL104 Power and Energy logger. This second part looks at the resulting data, and reveals the effects that the initial changes had on our consumption.

When we started this process, the suspended ceilings in the ground floor rooms had been fitted with a total of 48 units, each containing 4 x 1200mm 36-Watt florescent tubes, but those had now been replaced by 1200X600 46W LED panels.

Comparing the old and new energy logs for the lighting circuit, shown here together, it can be seen that prior to replacement, the fluorescent lighting consumed approximately 18.405A during the normal working day. And having now replaced them with LED panels, this was reduced to 13.350A.

A little maths reveals that with a measured voltage of 243.6V and power factor of 0.905PF, we were consuming 4,058W. Following replacement with LED units the second log showed that this has gone down to 2,943W, essentially reducing our energy use for office lighting by 25%.

Accepting that we are a small, and mostly administrative business in the UK, and so that 25% only equates to 1kW which, with average unit price for business electricity in 2022 currently at 17.73 pence per kWh, will save us £354 per year. While not huge, that will repay the cost of the LED units in a few years, or sooner at the current rate of acceleration of energy costs. Of course, larger businesses with much more fluorescent lighting that are planning the move to LED could see a similar 25% saving adding up to much more monetarily speaking.

A similar 25% saving was obtained by changing the 100W fluorescent tubes lighting the rest of the building, to 36W T8 8ft LED direct replacements.

One of the other items of improvement that we have made since we started looking at our energy efficiency concerns an electric water heater located in the ground floor kitchen area.

Out of sight and out of mind was very much the case with this water heater as nobody particularly thought about it, or even realised it was there, and it was only discovered when our original logging results had identified a mysterious load that switched on for several minutes every couple of hours, day and night, 7 days a week.

Only after some hunting around did we find the 10-year-old water heater hiding in an under-sink unit complete with 10-litre tank, feeding not only the kitchen sink but 2 wash basins in adjacent bathrooms.

Based on its age alone this appliance would have been well behind modern water heating units with regards to efficiency rating, and analysis of our hot water usage in the 3 sinks concluded that our water usage was very small and not requiring of 10 litres of ready to use hot water anyway. Accordingly, it has now been replaced by an 8.8KW instant hot water unit. This type of heater also eliminates any out of hours usage, either overnight or over entire weekends, as it only consumes energy when the hot tap is run.

In terms of energy consumption, zooming into the 1 second sample logs it could be seen that the old heater came on for approximately 3 minutes every 140 minutes as it strove to keep the water inside at the set temperature. During these 3-minute periods it drew 2,192W and this occurred 10 times per 24-hour period. A total of 30 minutes per day at 2,192W equalling 1,096Wh, essentially 1KWh.

Discovering unknown appliances and out of hour use is another good reason to log actual energy use rather than assuming knowledge of the loads present in an installation. There is also good argument to say that any decent sized business should then continuously measure its energy usage with a permanently installed system. It can then chart consumption over time, identifying out of hours and seasonal usage, and monitor Power Factor degradation and Power Quality parameters such as harmonics.

Thankfully nowadays you can get a PEL to perform whatever logging you need around the installation, and then semi-permanently and non-intrusively install it in the distribution cabinet for continuous monitoring. Modern PELs are designed to be so slim that they can be magnetically stuck to the inside of the cabinet door, or another convenient space, and left semi-permanently installed, while being safely locked away.

Rogowski coil current sensors, and magnetic voltage probes that can simply be stuck onto MCB screw heads, or permanently wired if preferred, enable an entirely non-intrusive connection to the supply. There’s no need for a competent trained electrician to have to switch off the facilities power while the PEL is being installed. These PELs can be selfpowered from the installation to which they are connected, and plugged into the computer network for remote monitoring. Or just interrogated regularly through a tablet or smartphone.

Quite simply, you could deploy a PEL around the site when you want to monitor certain pieces of equipment or departments, and then literally stick it in back in the distribution cabinet afterwards, and monitor on an ongoing basis. As and when you want to use it somewhere else, you can move it, use it, put it back again, and so on. Probably the most cost-effective way to obtain a temporary and permanent logging solution to reduce your energy use.

With regards to our own energy logging and efficiency improvement project we will continue monitoring over the coming months and see what happens as the weather gets colder and the wall mounted panel heaters get switched on. www.chauvin-arnoux.co.uk

PROACTIVE AM&T MONITORING – REDUCING COSTS & CARBON ON THE ROAD TO NET ZERO

Peter Chappell, Optimised

In early September, I attended the Association of University Engineers Conference at the University of Stirling. Upon speaking to engineers and representatives from Universities across the UK, I was surprised to hear an alarming number of Universities were using outdated aM&T platforms, and were not using them proactively.

Furthermore, while I was pleased to hear numerous Universities had engaged external consultants to develop their Net Zero plans, I was concerned to see that these appeared to be relatively high level, and offered little substance or real strategy on how Net Zero was to be achieved in practice.

This inspired me to write this article, on not just the benefit of upgrading to a modern aM&T platform, but how proactively using it could pay for itself, while also making some mileage towards net zero.

AUTOMATED MONITORING & TARGETING – WHAT IS IT?

Automatic monitoring & targeting (aM&T) uses metering and submetering systems, connected to an aM&T software platform to help users save energy, by measuring energy consumption & identifying energy wastage. Electricity, gas, water, oil & heat meters can all be measured, quantified and visualised on an aM&T system.

The sub-metering systems contain equipment components that measure, record, transmit, analyse, report & communicate the energy management information required for a business to better manage its energy use.

WHY SHOULD YOU BE PROACTIVELY MONITORING ENERGY USAGE?

An unmanaged aM&T platform is quite simply a lost opportunity and ultimately will prove costly for building owners. Proactive monitoring of aM&T systems is essential in today’s energy market, where the stakes are much higher than ever before.

Building managers need to have a clear visualisation of all of their utility usage, across every building in their portfolio, and furthermore a firm understanding of what ‘normal’ utility use should be at any given time. Modern, market leading, cloud- based aM&T platforms (SaaS) have a number of powerful on-board tools, that when utilised correctly by analysts/engineers, allow building users to develop a highly informed, data led understanding of their portfolio energy usage.

A proactive approach also ensures that the data quality is managed. Once energy profiles are established, appropriate alerting levels are applied, allowing data to be logged at 15 minute intervals, making it much easier to spot corrupt data. Metering issues can be identified and rectified much quicker using this managed approach.

Proactive energy management involves using historical utility data to benchmark buildings and understand building base loads, including any seasonal variances. Data normalisation techniques, IPMVP baselining and portfolio wide analysis ensure a robust hierarchy of usage alerts can be implemented, as well as bespoke and informative periodic reporting, which can be emailed out automatically to all relevant stakeholders.

At a time of rising energy prices, increased regulations, and complex tariffs, building owners and operators need a simple, financially-focused tool to help them reduce costs, minimise environmental impact and meet energy regulations. As all organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental side effects of doing business, customers often feel the pressure to deliver on financial, corporate and social goals, but are not sure how to achieve them – a proactively managed aM&T system will go a long way, in providing building users with valuable insights, in a timely manner, that enables actions to be taken quickly; reducing consumption, cost and carbon, while enabling our Clients’ to focus on their core business.

HOW CAN OPTIMISED HELP?

We’re already seeing the benefits of proactive aM&T usage across various Public Sector bodies. We’ve recently worked with Lancaster University to “optimise” (if you’ll excuse the pun) more than 1,500 meters, across their vast building portfolio.

We’ve also been working with Leicestershire County Council in recent months, and have projected an annual energy saving of £72,000 from just 3 months’ worth of aM&T data, which is a 41% electricity usage reduction. For more information visit: www.optimised.net Peter Chappell is Head of Client Services – Public Sector at Optimised, who are a sustainability consultant, offering a one stop shop of energy solutions, from reducing the amount you pay, to reducing how much you use, while improving your carbon footprint, aligned to a Net Zero strategy.

Meet me at the Public Sector Sustainability Event at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, on Stand A22.