Power Quality Issues – Part 5 –PowerPowerReactiveandFactor deliversRinnai hot water CareScarboroughatHome 23 CleanSystemsHeatingCommercialKeeping 24 andLightingthe NHS 20 MitigatinginplanningEnergyacrisis: scenarioworst-casea SectortheDecarbonisingPublicEstate 28 www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme: Here’s what you need to know about Phase 3B See page 26 SEPTEMBER 2022 INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
GET PREPARED TO BENEFIT FROM THE PUBLIC SECTOR DECARBONISATION SCHEME Book a one-to-one feasibility report with Kensa’s experts to discuss project eligibility Ground source heat pumps can heat and cool all kinds of non-domestic buildings, such as: Leisure centres Nurseries, schools and colleges Libraries Museums MOD estate Emergency services Local authorities Government departments PSDS funding is specifically designed for public sector buildings. Phase 3b of the funding, with £635m available, is opening in September. There will be a further phase in 12 months. Ground source heat pumps offer heat decarbonisation and so are eligible for the funding. They are an efficient and effective way to decarbonise with the lowest carbon emissions, lowest running costs and lowest life cycle cost. The timescales to submit bids are short so the time to act is now. Book your feasibility study today. KENSA CAN HELP WITH YOUR 3B AND 3C APPLICATIONS. For more information scan the QR code or visit: https://kensa.group/EM-PSDS
SEPTEMBER 2022 PUBLISHER: Ralph energymanagermagazine.co.ukScrivensralph@ PRODUCTION: Sarah energymanagermagazine.co.ukDavinersarah@ ACCOUNTS: energymanagermagazine.co.ukaccounts@ PRINT: Mixam Print is published 10 times a year by Energy Manager. www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk 42 Wymington Park, Rushden, Northants, NN10 9JP Tel: 01933 316931 Email: mail@energymanagermagazine.co.uk REGISTRATION: Qualifying readers receive Energy Manager free of charge. The annual subscription rate is £80 in the UK, £95 for mainland Europe and £115 for the rest of the world. Single copies £10. Some manufacturers and suppliers have made a contribution toward the cost of reproducing some photographs in Energy Manager. 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 Alladvertisements.contents©Energy Manager Magazine 2022 ISSN 2057-5912 (Print) ISSN 2057-5920 (Online) ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE INSIDE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 3 The Public DecarbonisationSectorScheme: Here’s what you need to know about Phase 3B FRONT COVER STORY: See page 26 4 News 6 Opinion 8 SystemsSteam 10 EnergyRenewable 12 ManagementEnergy 16 StorageEnergy 18 Lighting 23 Monitoring & Metering 26 SectortheDecarbonisingPublicEstate 34 Training 36 ProcurementEnergy 38 FinanceEnergy 39 HVAC 40 ManagementWater
“The cheapest unit of energy is the unit we do not consume. In the current climate it would only take a very small percentage reduction in energy usage to yield healthy financial savings.”
Grover states, “Feasibility studies on solar, wind, battery storage, CHP, Voltage Optimisation and more can see which energy technologies could help your business become greener. Starting from desktop audits, various energy management products and services are now an option for more businesses, regardless of your size and level of energy consumption.”
Soaring energy prices continue to dominate the headlines. The increasingly prolonged conflict in Ukraine is having a knock-on effect on global prices including oil, gas and power. Similarly, a fire at the U.S. Freeport LNG terminal couldn’t have come at a worse time. Now, the UK and Europe are more heavily reliant on LNG imports from the U.S. and elsewhere, with this having been the case even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With Freeport accounting for around 15% of the total U.S. exports, it was enough to cause a knee-jerk reaction in EU and UK markets. This is in addition to inflation being at a 40 year high within the UK, with the Bank of England hinting that a gradual increase in interest rates will be required to combat the rise. Other factors include the damage from the Covid pandemic and the fallout from brexit. Unsurprisingly, these issues continue to be a cause for concern for businesses across the country. In a new report, experts at commercial energy broker and utilities consultancy Advantage Utilities have revealed the key strategies and targets businesses can put in place to help manage the soaring energy costs, outside of the traditional energy supply
Energy technologies are becoming increasingly more affordable, with a variety of funding options available and return on investment times being reduced. Larger scale projects may also qualify for Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) funding which allows organisations to benefit from the technology without any capital outlay, risk or ongoing maintenance responsibility.
ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS 4
THERE ARE SOLUTIONS TO RISING COSTS
This is in addition to helping achieve any net zero aspirations.
Commentingagreement.onthereport, Andrew Grover, Chief Executive Officer at Advantage Utilities, said, “Timing and/ or the way we purchase energy - such as flexible contracts - can help mitigate cost increases; however, a wider, more robust energy plan, intertwined with a net zero target will likely prove key to controlling long term costs.” He continues: “The geopolitical climate, as well as the prevailing warm weather of late, are perhaps a timely reminder of the need for Europe and the UK to expedite the implementation of more homegrown renewable, cleaner energy generation such as solar and wind, whilst moving away from the reliance on Russian gas and LNG imports.”
Additional solutions, guidance and advice on energy management can be found within the latest report by Advantage Utilities.
NEW REPORT REVEALS ROBUST ENERGY STRATEGY INTERTWINED WITH NET ZERO TARGET WILL BE KEY IN MANAGING BUSINESS ENERGY COSTS
Negative energy crisis reports seem to dominate the news, but Grover is confident businesses can put in place strategies to help mitigate the unprecedented spikes and increases seen over the last 9 months.
It’s difficult to predict the future course of energy prices amidst the backdrop of the ongoing geopolitical issues and uncertainty, but a robust energy plan, including the changing way we procure energy, can significantly help mitigate cost increases and effectively control energy expenditure.
quarterly-market-reporthttps://www.advantageutilities.com/
SSE were recently selected to work as the strategic energy partner to the University of Surrey and is currently working in collaboration with the university to remove approximately 5000 tonnes of carbon per year from their total annual emissions in addition to increasing their on-site renewable energy generation at the same time. Read more about SSE’s strategic collaboration with AUDE here: membership/business-partners/https://www.aude.ac.uk/ sse-energy-solutions/
SSE DELIVERS DECARBONISATION SUPPORT TO UNIVERSITY ESTATE DIRECTORS
ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 NEWS 5 UrbanChain.co.uk Renewable assets 100% matched with corporate demands 0161 307 1311 SSE Energy Solutions has partnered with The Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE) to inform Universities on the best practices to go green and decarbonise. Energy professionals from SSE have provided certified Continuing Professional Development training across UK campuses, on the topic of decarbonisation. The sessions, led by subject matter experts, set out to provide a better understanding of how to achieve net zero goals within enforced time frames, and what considerations are necessary to achieve them. Materials produced for the training were developed by SSE Energy Solutions, in collaboration with AUDE, which demonstrated a “whole system approach.” They included aspects from policy, legislation, procurement, contracting, investment, solution development, and examples from academia and industry. The face-to-face courses have taken place across the UK and Ireland including sessions delivered in Bath, Birmingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Dublin, and Edinburgh. Participants received CPD points from AUDE, as the authorising body which certifies the training.
Avi Baidya, Head of Universities & Higher Education Client Development at SSE Energy, said: “Decarbonising estates is a priority for universities across the country, not just so they can meet their own net zero goals, but because more students are factoring in where a university falls on the green league tables when choosing where to go. “It’s vital for Directors of these estates to have reliable information on decarbonisation, which is why our CPD training has no commercial obligations attached to it; it’s an entirely educational proposition. There are many challenges to creating greener, more sustainable university campuses and through this engagement with AUDE members, we can help prepare key decision-makers to overcome them successfully. “We hope to engage with many universities across the UK to help deliver their decarbonisation goals and to create more sustainable, green energy solutions in the process.”
The global smart building market is projected to grow from circa £67 billion in 2022 to over £270 billion by 2029 (Mordor Intelligence). The worldwide issue of global warming and concerns over energy consumption is fuelling the market for more energy efficient solutions and technologies.
• Autonomous Building: where a building will have the ability to interrogate itself, analyse, diagnose, and take proactive actions to resolve problems. The building will be capable of endto-end interaction – as planned preventative maintenance including scheduling, booking, enabling access and commissioning of replaced components then selfreconfiguration using digital twin models which are held within cloud-based servers
Using the latest data analytic algorithms such as data patterns, operational discrepancies can be identified and alerted before they become a problem. Thus, maintaining a continuous healthy working environment and limiting the possibility of wasted energy.
Arguably the most important commodity a business has is their workforce. As we migrate back to higher office occupancy following the pandemic, analytical data can provide real time understanding of potentially overcrowded zones and guide staff to less populated areas to maintain air quality. Occupancy sensors for desk and meeting rooms can inform cleaning regimes as well as providing control to connected services, such as lighting and cooling. The smart building is designed to increase user comfort and deliver enhanced wellbeing through productive working environments.
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Ultimately cost is still a consideration, but every smart building solution is intended to be flexible and tailored to suit ongoing improvements to a building services and operational efficiencies.
We have seen the unprecedented rise in wholesale energy prices in 2022. Factors include geopolitical unrest following the invasion of Ukraine, supply issues with LNG (liquid natural gas) and unseasonably high temperatures.
ARE SMART BUILDINGS COST EFFICIENT?
Smart buildings range from Connected to Autonomous:
All this to say that there is a responsibility on businesses, building owners, managers, and the construction industry to reduce their energy by retrofitting existing building stock while ensuring new builds utilise low carbon materials and smart technologies.
In conjunction with the direct savings on emissions, smart buildings incorporate sensor data to ofperformancemonitorcritical plant. The system can alert relevant staff to when machinery falls outside of its expected parameters, allowing issues to be addressed in a timely manner, improving asset longevity and sustainability metrics. With assets being monitored remotely, maintenance can be managed more effectively, or remote resolution can be implemented which reduces scope 3 carbon emissions from a business’s supply chain. The building uptime is increased, and the lifecycle costs reduced significantly just by harnessing the available data.
Having connected smart systems within a building will inevitably provide a higher degree of control and efficiency for HVAC and lighting systems (which affect more than 70% of a buildings energy use) and deliver cost savings. Data is a key component to a smart building. The smart building can automatically adjust to the changes in environment in a dynamic way by using sensors to measure and monitor key variable data. Examples include occupancy, air quality, outside air temperature and lighting levels. A smart building provides a higher degree of opportunities to enhance, optimise the control building.
www.sauterautomation.co.uk
A smart building is made up of connected advanced controls system that regulates the buildings key operations such as; heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, smart shading, room booking systems lifts, utilising a multitude of sensors and actuators. All systems are connected via cloud servers collecting and storing data to provide an optimal environment whilst meeting desired energy and carbon consumption. The optimal environment will be different for all building types and industries.
• Connected: refers to traditional building automation “head end” hosted on SCADA servers connecting the individual controllers, sensors, actuators and other devices.
As technology moves forward quickly, there are an abundance of IoT (Internet of Things) wireless sensors and IoT smart devices that can integrate and work harmoniously together within the smart building space. Wireless technology simplifies and reduces installation time and costs by not requiring the same amount of physical hardware.
Charlie Hilton, Head of Sauter Energy, Sauter Automation Ltd
WHAT IS A “SMART BUILDING”?
In 2015, the world saw the inception of the Paris Agreement whereby 196 parties agreed upon a global long-term temperature goal to 1.5⁰C above pre-industrial levels. In April 2021, the UK Government set one of the world’s most ambitious climate change targets and committed the country to cutting emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. Legislation and carbon reporting is becoming more prevalent. Landlords, tenants, real estate investors across all sectors and industries have had to become acutely aware of their scope 1-3 carbon emissions. Back in 2019, the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) was implemented which affects companies, LLPS and groups that exceed two of three threshold criteria; • Annual turnover of £36m • Total balance sheet of £18m • At least 250 employees As of January 2022 it is now a mandatory requirement to include Climate-related Financial Disclosure within SECR, including details of how climate-related risks are identified and subsequently managed. These risks are expected to be analysed and key performance indicators (KPIs) put in place to mitigate these to be reported on FY 2023.
ARE SMART BUILDINGS COST EFFICIENT?
efore we tackle the question “Are Smart Buildings Cost Efficient?” we need to frame the situation as it currently stands: buildings account for nearly 40% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 70% comes from building operations with the remainder from construction.
8 ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Steam has a temperature that is relative to the pressure and maintains a constant temperature as it gives up its energy and changes state from a gas back to a liquid (unlike water that starts to lose temperature immediately as it gives up energy). This allows steam to maintain uniform temperature during heat exchange. In comparison, water would see a temperature drop as soon as it starts to exchange energy.
Most steam applications use the same cycle as the earth’s natural water cycle (Hydrologic Cycle), so we may see an industrial process, but it is also a very natural process. There are however exceptions such as direct injection.
3. INFRASTRUCTURESMALLER
Steam has a high energy density enabling effective transfer of large quantities of energy. If we circulate water with a flow and return temperature of 71 – 82°C (160 – 180°F), then each litre (or kg) of water has the ability to deliver 46 kj/kg. If we circulate water with a flow and return temperature of 60 – 80°C (140 – 176°F), then each litre (or kg) of water has the ability to deliver 84 kj/kg. In comparison, if we take steam at 1 bar g, we have the ability to deliver 2201 kj/kg. If the application allowed for subcooling of the condensate to 10°C (a drop of 110.42°C), then the additional energy available is 464 kj/kg. By adding this to the enthalpy of evaporation we can achieve a total of 2665 kj/kg. Per kg, steam Hfg has 26 times more useful energy than water at delta 20°C, or 48 x more than water at delta 11°C.
Steam is an inherently natural medium and is something familiar that we can all understand on its simplest level – it is just the boiling of water, but with some totally unique properties. This is why it has been adopted as the preferred method of delivering thermal energy and motive energy throughout our industrial history. Distributing steam around a system, a building or a process can be done safe in the knowledge that is just water, but with far higher thermal qualities. As technology advances, the methods of steam generation will continue to become: increasingly sustainable capitalising on renewable sources • optimised through digital advances Our ability to produce it, harness it and control it makes it an incredible medium with a vast range of applications and uses including electrical power generation, sterilisation, cooking and cleaning. As renewable generation solutions and digital controls evolve, steam will be a vital part of our sustainable future as we transition to greener technology. As sustainability agendas accelerate and organisations look to invest correctly in green technology, the availability of renewable power is on the rise, which fits well with advances in the electrification of steam. So why is steam the ideal choice for thermal energy transfer?
STEAM SYSTEMS
Steam moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure without the need for pumps. This eliminates high electrical loads and maintenance associated with circulation pumps. In addition to this, a plant will only consume the steam it requires when needed, when compared to wet systems that continually circulate. If electric condensate return pumps are used, the electrical load is far less than that of a water system, due to steam’s high energy density.
Steam can be used directly onto products e.g. equipment sterilisation in healthcare, cooking produce in food and beverage or even indirectly via heat exchangers. Steam is a fantastic heat transfer medium. When using an indirect heating surface (heat exchangers), the heat transfer coefficient when using steam is much greater than other heating mediums.
emissions, improve sustainability and even fully decarbonise steam production. But there is also huge investment in emerging technologies to help decarbonise steam production in other ways including green hydrogen, advanced electrification and thermal battery technology. The first step on the road to a green future is to ensure all systems are working correctly and fully optimised – often the quickest wins too. There should be ongoing activities to look at how systems are currently operating and to make sure they are operating effectively and efficiently including:
• Addressing areas of energy loss by implementing heat recovery Maintaining steam quality to maximise process effectiveness Measuring of utilities to trend and optimise performance
2. PRECISE CONTROLTEMPERATURE
Thermal heating is commonly reliant on the burning of fossil fuels and industry is increasingly looking at how to generate steam in a carbon-free way. The transition to greener technology can start today through system optimisation, digitalisation, electrification, biofuels and zero emission steam to name just a few. Technology is currently available to reduce carbon
• Reducing demand through improved plant management and preventative maintenance
• Adopting steam system best practice to minimise plant consumption
7. CENTRAL TO THE TRANSITION TO GREENER TECHNOLOGIES
Even when considering significant plant changes to address sustainability and energy, it is important to understand the starting point for your plant, the base-line energy consumption.
NEXT STEPS
STEAM IS TOO SMALL A WORD FOR IT… THIS IS TECHNOLOGY
1. HIGH ENERGY DENSITY
4. FLOWS NATURALLY
6. NATURAL WATER CYCLE
When steam pressure increases, the volume decreases. So if we distribute at a higher pressure, steam pipes are smaller, minimising valuable process space, lowering costs and minimising radiated losses.
5. EFFICIENT HEAT TRANSFER
NATURAL
Benefit from the power and capabilities of steam while decarbonising and working towards net zero. Expertise from Spirax Sarco is your gateway to tailored solutions that deliver twenty-first-century steam powered operational efficiency, helping you to meet your sustainability targets and solve multiple business challenges. Spirax Sarco can work with you to give your business a clear forward vision whilst harnessing the power of steam today and in the future. Make the most of steam in your sustainable future at www.spiraxsarco.com/global/en-GB
Discover
Steam – this extraordinary, energy dense, fluid which is irreplaceable in all kinds of industries to heat, power and sterilize – leaving nothing but water behind. And with advancing steam generation solutions, steam is part of our sustainable future. This is Natural Technology. You see steam. We see... Natural Technology at natural-technology.com
Our energy team is available to help identify the necessary processes and products for you. The team works collaboratively, exploring how new and existing developments can be maximised and by reaching out to our suppliers to create innovative solutions.
FOUR WAYS TO TAP INTO THE SUN’S ENERGY 1. GROUND MOUNTED AND ROOFTOP SOLAR PV PANELS
4. SOLAR STREETPOWEREDFURNITURE
HERE TO HELP CCS can support your decarbonisation journey, helping you realise your energy security ambitions. As the nation’s largest public sector procurement organisation, we continuously develop innovative solutions to enable you to achieve your net zero goals.
SUPPORTING YOUR NET ZERO PROJECTS Crown Commercial Service (CCS) can help fund your net zero projects, including solar panels, EV charging equipment, and zero emissions buses. We can go a step further by helping you consider the sources of energy, whether you want to buy “green” electricity or introduce your own renewable solutions such as solar and wind.
Our industry leading twin-agreement solution consists of a framework (RM6146) for accessing specialist Asset Finance advisors and a separate funding platform through the Leasing and Loans Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). The solution provides direct access to lenders, offering a range of leasing arrangements and loans. The two solutions can be used independently or jointly to achieve significant commercial benefit through tailored competitive finance.
Our agreements and asset finance solutions can help accelerate the UK’s investment in renewable energy generation, including solar. For example:
Steve Sopp, Senior Category Lead –Transport Technology Services
2. ZERO EMISSION TRANSPORT Zero emissions buses offer a low carbon, cost-effective, clean way to get around. The market for these buses is developing quickly. New suppliers are entering the market and existing suppliers are expanding their capabilities to encompass fuel cell and battery electric technologies. Innovative suppliers are looking at how solar panels can help to top up batteries or to power ancillaries, extending the range of these vehicles.
10 RENEWABLE ENERGY ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
1 HELGA is designed to help the public sector find the right suppliers for solar panels, wind turbines, heat networks, battery storage and more.
FUNDINGINNOVATIVEOPTIONS
, or download the 3 step energy guide at Zero-Infographic_Interactive_v6.pdfwp-content/uploads/CCS-Carbon-Net-assets.crowncommercial.gov.uk/https://
3. SOLAR ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE
• Our supply of energy agreements offers green tariffs, ensuring energy is linked to a renewable energy asset. Our HELGA agreement covers renewable energy generation, demand management, and sustainability1
The DPS offers a range of purchase and lease options for electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment, including hire purchase, finance and operating lease, secured loans, and sales and
Solar energy is emerging as one of the most popular forms of energy generation with 80% support from the public. Crown Commercial Service can help your investment in renewable energy generation, including solar. Solar energy is one of the most popular forms of energy generation with 80% support from the public. The UK is on track to double its solar capacity by 2030. However, even though solar panels are being installed faster than any other European country, the UK needs to treble capacity to meet the 2050 net zero target.
• Our technology and associated services agreements now support sustainable transport technologies, including Clean Air Zone and CNZ initiatives, environmental monitoring equipment, and EV charging solutions.
So get in touch, visit supply/carbon-net-zerocrowncommercial.gov.uk/buy-and-https://www.
Solar PV panels offer an economic alternative to generating electricity, from public and residential buildings to park and ride buses. The cost of solar PV has significantly reduced over the past 15 years with the payback period on the initial investment decreasing too. Solar projects can support electricity demand across your estate and provide potential income generation if exporting back to the grid through your energy supplier. The new Demand Management and Renewables Dynamic Purchasing System (RM6313) and traditional Framework (RM6314) will provide effective routes to market for varying solar projects that can support public sector decarbonisation strategies. These agreements are replacing the existing heat networks and electricity generation agreement (HELGA). You can expect the new DPS to be live by November 2022 with the Framework launching in early 2023.
Solar energy can power electric vehicle charging points using solar panels on top to allow them to capture renewable energy directly. The solar panels typically recharge a ‘battery energy storage system’ during the day and allow vehicles to charge when parked overnight. Charging stations offering faster charging solutions can be connected to a network of solar and wind farms, providing 100% renewable energy. These sites use a large (6MWh) energy storage battery to regulate the supply.
IS IT TIME TO RETHINK SOLAR ENERGY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR?
Solar panels attached to street furniture can support ancillary power for Wifi or Internet of Things (IoT) connections or provide lighting at a site. Solar power can also be used to illuminate pavements, paths and cycle routes.
leasebacks. Existing grant funding can be supplemented by funding secured through the Asset Finance solution.
No matter where you are on your carbon net zero journey, we have several solutions that can help.
Find out more at crowncommercial.gov.uk
The Crown Commercial Service’s Leasing and Loan Finance Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) a range of financing options make securing solar panels for your project simple and achievable. Whether you are looking for a hire purchase, a finance lease, and operating lease or an asset secured loan, you can find the finance solution that will work for you.
Solar energy the smart way
Solar panels are an effective way of improving the energy efficiency of a project. But this can be costly, with large up-front payments often limiting their use.
With energy prices at record levels, knowing how and where energy is being used is key. Without data to highlight energy waste, it’s very difficult to reduce spending. Introducing our in-building energy analytics platform, MY ZeERO, has allowed organisations of all sizes – from primary schools to waste disposal plants – to break an energy bill down into simple items and better understand where energy waste occurs. Equipped with this data, we have already invested £50 million in energy efficiency projects throughout the UK, creating immediate savings in cash and carbon for our clients.
With prices skyrocketing, urgent solutions are required. If the new prime minister is serious about the energy crisis, they should immediately reduce red tape for the public sector, making it easier for readily available commercial finance to help address the UK’s two greatest challenges – energy costs and climate change. https://eenergyplc.com/
The EaaS model enables organisations of all kinds to make proactive decisions to reduce energy waste immediately, without needing to rely on support from the government or their capital. Most can easily reduce total spending by 50% where the operators can retain 1/3 of the savings for free without the need for capital investment. That, combined with on-site generation through a PPA, can deliver typically a 30% reduction against grid energy.
Despite ballooning prices, most buildings in the UK still waste 30% of their energy which needlessly strains budgets and threatens our Net Zero commitments. EaaS allows organisations to significantly reduce their energy consumption virtually overnight, without any upfront capital costs.
eEnergy manages 4.5 terawatt hours of energy for 2,500 organisations throughout the UK, half of which are public sector organisations. Having been established as one of the very first ‘Light-as-a-Service’ businesses more than a decade ago, we now provide a breadth of Net Zero services, including energy procurement, on-site solar generation, EV chargers, and in-building energy analytics that visualise energy waste.
Several NHS trusts who we already work with are up to £12 million better off this year than they would have been, had they remained on the traditional frameworks for the same period.
THE ENERGY CRISIS HAS LEFT THE PUBLIC SECTOR FEELING POWERLESS, YET MANY ORGANISATIONS COULD SAVE 50% ON THEIR BILLS WITHIN WEEKS
All this positive action could be well underway within weeks of the new prime minister walking through the famous black door. This matters because, despite its best intentions, the government cannot afford a nationwide bailout, and it doesn’t need to, as private sector partners are ready to offer zero capital solutions that could save the public sector money from day one. It’s not right that the current patchwork of regulations allows some to benefit from EaaS, while others are locked into outdated and cripplingly expensive energy contracts.
Yet, despite growing calls for a nationwide government bailout scheme, most cannot and should not wait to see what meaningful action the new prime minister takes if any. Time is of the essence, and we believe the solution is ‘Energy-as-a-Service’ (EaaS).
– FOR FREE Harvey Sinclair, eEnergy CEO
There are now several new entrants in this space serving the public sector, with a burgeoning market helping to reduce the historical reliance on the big lumbering energy groups. It is a tried and tested model; people just don’t know about it yet.
Some schools are already reducing teaching hours or considering letting staff go, while many hospitals have seen energy costs soar to become their highest expenditure this year.
12 ENERGY MANAGEMENT ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 F
ollowing years of budget cuts and the stresses of Covid-19, energy costs are pushing many public sector organisations to the brink. With the country in a state of limbo, the daunting prospect of gas and electricity prices potentially doubling again this winter has left budgets impossibly tight.
Net Zero starts with energy waste www.energiraven.com “Squandering scarce renewables on energy wasteful buildings is not tenable. Net Zero begins with closing the energy performance gap of buildings. We are already helping over 8,000 buildings close this gap.”
When we go back to the initial outbreak of Covid, fuel supply was no issue and demand, as people stayed at home during lockdown, was low. But as the pandemic began to ease this was flipped on its head. Consumption rose and cool weather leading into the spring saw an extended period of demand which resulted in fuel stocks being unable to be replenished. A cold winter then saw further pressure placed on fuel reserves.
The issues outlined above present sizable challenges for businesses across the world in terms of their expenditure on energy, and there are some changes on the supplier side of gas which are presenting further complications. For example, some suppliers have huge standing charges but lower p/kWh charges, and it’s important to look at both costs together, not just the pence per kWh. Another point to note are the changes to Triads and the fixed charge that may be added to a standing charge, seeing them rise even further.
For any organisation which is looking at lowering its gas consumption against the backdrop of increasing prices, Pilot Group can help them make sense of their data and highlight a clear path towards meeting the challenge of rising energy costs head on. In these uncertain times, it could be worth a conversation to see what you could save.
THE CHALLENGE FOR BUSINESSES
Averaging a 40 percent reduction in consumption from gas and heating, Pilot Group’s Energy Management System can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to cut costs wherever they can.
14 ENERGY MANAGEMENT ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
The energy market and fuel prices are currently in one of its most volatile states ever, with costs rising to extreme levels. But what exactly has caused this? It seems to have been brought about by a ‘perfect storm’ of issues which, if occurring solely by themselves, would cause significant problems. But when they come along one after the other, they exacerbate each other.
THE PERFECT STORM –THE RISE & RISE OF ENERGY MARKET PRICES
HOW PILOT GROUP CAN HELP Pilot Group specialises in this field, helping organisations across a variety of industries streamline their operations. Its easy-to-use Energy Manager 2.0 is designed to control and monitor energy systems for businesses ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, with its smart sensors and self-learning algorithm enabling heating systems to work more efficiently to reduce waste. Meanwhile its user-friendly portal can be accessed remotely from any location or device with an internet connection, empowering users to monitor multiple sites and make significant money and carbon savings.
Josh Kirk is a Group Marketing Manager for Pilot Group Ltd, who support organisations meet carbon reduction targets using technologies and lead the way in smart, safe and sustainable infrastructure solutions.
Josh Kirk, Pilot Group
THE
For more information visit: www.thepilotgroup.co.uk
All of these problems together saw carbon prices increase in line with the demand for fossil fuels. Meanwhile, storage levels for European gas only managed to reach 78 percent capacity, which is 10 to 15 percent lower than the normal levels they would expect at the start of the winter. This resulted in higher prices in the summer, and everyone across the global energy market delayed buying or signing new contracts in the hope costs would come down. But the opposite occurred with everyone rushing to buy last minute, which further sent a shockwave through the already simmering market.
As prices eventually began to cool, Russia then invaded Ukraine. The ensuing sanctions from nations worldwide and Europe distancing itself away from a dependence on Russian oil saw prices rise once more. And now there is little certainty that the global issues which have destabilised the market can resolve themselves. There could be further issues ahead with new rules requiring European countries to bring storage levels to 85 percent, and then 90 percent next year, which is a big ask when considering levels in May sat at 43 percent across Europe.
chains may get used to the current climate and begin to calm prices but any escalation on the aforementioned issues could have further impact. It’s therefore vital for businesses across all industries to assess in fine detail their energy outputs and where they can make savings.
As energy costs soar, energy management and monitoring has never been so important. SMEs have faced an average gas bill hike of more than 250 percent in the last year alone. And this is expected to rise in October where forecasts predict that energy prices will increase further by 51 percent.1 Supply 1 businesses-facing-250-increase-in-gas-bills/https://www.cornwall-insight.com/press/
Coinciding with increased demand, Asia then outbid Europe for a proportion of the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) supply and the issues didn’t stop there. Two major hurricanes hit the Gulf, low rainfall caused energy levels generated from hydro to drop, and France saw its nuclear facilities pushed offline with the UK exporting some of its fuel reserves across the Channel in a bid to support them.
THEDESTABILISINGISSUESMARKET
For over 20 years we’ve been helping our customers manage and procure energy, cut waste, save money and reduce carbon with no upfront cost. Contact us today to see how we can reduce your energy costs by up to 30%. 020 3813 1550 eenergy.com Take yourcontrolbackofenergy.
The Energy Trilemma will be globally problematic for the foreseeable future. At a time when energy costs are the most pressing issue facing UK business, the case for investment in BESS is compelling, to address affordability and security of supply while helping support resilient economic survival in a turbulent climate.
For more information contact: info@powerstar.comwww.powerstar.com T: 0333 230 1327
Similarly, where companies generate their own power on site, for example through solar, any excess can be stored and sold under the same mechanism.
Another compelling advantage for BESS users in the current climate is the potential to generate income through storage by engaging with the UK’s Capacity Market, generating new revenue while helping the grid to manage supply and demand. Firm Frequency Response (FFR) contracts can offer relatively high income potential but, for a company to engage successfully with this scheme, a battery system is critical, due to the fast response times that are contractually required. Where Demand Side Response (DSR) contracts can be put in place, battery storage technology enables ends users to fulfil such contracts by turning up, turning down or offsetting demand in real-time and helping the grid to smooth out peaks and troughs in overall demand across the UK. A business that invests in BESS as part of its energy management strategy can also capitalise on the price fluctuations that are so significant in a volatile energy market through storing power and then selling surplus power when demand is greatest – and prices are highest.
plans to minimise exposure to the wholesale gas market, highlight this lack of logic. Continued linking of power supply to gas prices, as our energy sector continues progress towards full decarbonisation, is impractical and untenable. Decoupling the two – the most significant proposal tabled in the Review – would be a huge shake-up to the UK’s energy market. For businesses already taking a proactive approach to managing their energy resilience through investment in BESS, such as shift in policy presents opportunities. In the short- to medium-term, the National Grid is looking to incentivise end users who can adapt and manage electricity demands with flexibility, for example by minimising demand during peak times, and this is reflected in proposals from BEIS to offer lower cost electricity when demand is low and when renewable generation is good, fostering a flexible approach and a focus on cheaper, greener energy.
Nearly 80% of UK businesses currently consider rising energy prices to be their biggest concern yet they are still, at the time of writing, without any detail on governmental support packages, ahead of a bleak winter. In terms of the Trilemma, energy affordability is one of the most pressing issues facing the UK economy, so it is unsurprising that businesses are taking matters into their own hands – with investment in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) a case in point. Natural gas prices are currently responsible for about 80 percent of the massive increases in the wholesale electricity prices. While the UK is still overly reliant on gas generation –particularly so, if we are looking to Net Zero targets for full decarbonising of our energy supply – in 2020 gas accounted for less than 40 percent of our total power generation. In this context, the dramatic rise in wholesale electricity prices doesn’t make sense, and the UK’s Review of Electricity Markets Arrangements proposals, which outline Security, affordability, and sustainability of supply. The Energy Trilemma is much commented on and highly topical. As Chief Commercial Officer for Powerstar, who design and deliver resilient energy solutions,managementAlastairMorris offers a perspective on the current climate and highlights some of the technology helping companies to manage energy insecurity in a time of soaring prices.
The successful decoupling of electricity and gas prices will require focused flexibility, in overarching policy and strategy terms – and, for businesses looking to their own energy management, flexibility is perhaps the greatest attribute of a BESS. While renewables are inherently inflexible, the continued shift to greener energy may well see short term variance in electricity costs, even when decoupled from gas prices. BESS technology allows companies to mitigate this volatility, by purchasing and storing electricity when prices are lower to then use at peak times, helping to manage budgets when costs are fluctuating, as well as maintaining a power reserve to protect the site during instances of disruption to supply.
16 ENERGY STORAGE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
ENERGY PLANNING IN A CRISIS: MITIGATING A WORST-CASE SCENARIO FOR UK BUSINESS
Allowing heat boost, but reverting to setback temperatures after pre-set times and, reducing heat input when rooms are empty or if windows are open, are just some of the features that lead to Irus and ecostat2 typically saving 30%-40% on energy costs.
Visit our website to find out more about how we cleverly, but simply, control energy use.
PrefectControls.com 1997 - 2022 Central control Local control
Our heating controls are always striving to use less energy, while keeping rooms at a comfortable temperature.
18 LIGHTING ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 network. However, wireless is much more versatile and can help you transform your building into an ultra-smart one.
Traditional control systems have worked by having local PIRs wired to luminaires or a centrally programmed hard-wired system throughout a building to control DALI or 1-10v luminaires. The major downside to both options is that they require additional wiring or if used in a new build the owner is then restricted to the hard-wired control layout installed unless they pay for a specialist engineer to recommission the system. Our future-proof system requires no additional wiring, with wireless
How easy is it to bolt these additional smart building solutions into the network?
Can you explain what a ‘wireless infrastructure’ is and tell us a bit more about lighting controls?
A wireless control infrastructure provides robust radio-agnostic protocols that enable smart nodes to communicate on wireless frequencies including Bluetooth (2.4GHz) and 868 MHz, enabling them to function as a centrally controlled network but with no singular point of failure. Wireless control for lighting control has been implemented over the years since lights are always present in every building and provide enough devices to create a strong network, whether that be a mesh or direct communication with transceivers, so they make for the perfect
TAKING CONTROL OF THE CONTROLSLIGHTINGINDUSTRY As Prime approachesLightits 30th birthday, we talk to Ben controlsinfrastructureandlightingthewhoatControlsBrunton,DirectorPrimeControls,tellsusaboutfutureofcontrolsitswirelesssystem.
Emergency lighting is also a high priority for companies with multiple premises. Our self-testing wireless emergency system can automatically test, report and schedule emergency lighting with any identified failures being flagged within one hour, including location and cause of the fault. This not only eliminates the requirement for an onsite manual test but also guarantees compliance.
What insight can you give us into the future of lighting controls?
With ever-increasing energy prices in the UK, it’s becoming increasingly important for large organisations to analyse ways in which they can reduce their energy spending, and none are easier than LED lighting and associated controls. We’re seeing more companies approach us with concerns relating to energy bills, even after installing LED, and how they can make further savings. Wireless lighting controls are perfect for this as they can be easily retrofitted & offer further savings based on presence detection, daylight control & scheduled dimming in certain areas (such as out-of-hours stocking within retail).
To add to existing regulations, it was announced on 15th June 2022 that new requirements of Building Regulations Part L will come into effect in England. These changes will affect all parties involved with building assets, including consultants, contractors, and lighting engineers. This new change will apply to new universities, new schools, new government buildings, and any type of non-domestic development, so it’s critical to prepare now to guarantee compliance. With increasing cybercrime, isn’t security a big concern when it comes to lighting controls and smart building networks? As security is a major concern for our customers, our controls solution and secure protocol have been designed with security in mind as well as preventative measures in place for cyber-attacks. Every device can pass its data onto the next one, to pass it back to a gateway that sends information to a Web Server, so no information is ever held on-site. Our security keys change 10 times every second, supplying bank-style security that is incredibly secure and reliable.
The possibilities are endless with smart building tech. Lighting Controls give you the backbone to turn your building into a truly smart and efficient one, from HVAC integration allowing adjustment of heating based on occupancy to a selfload managed property where lighting can reduce its load within limits to allow other devices to keep the overall building electrical consumption as low as possible.
What trends are you currently seeing in terms of customer demands for lighting controls?
Smart Buildings are not only becoming more popular, but they are also becoming commonplace within large sectors like councils, healthcare, and housing; due to regulations, compliance, and the need to work towards a net-zero goal. When you put a lighting control system in, then you can improve the intelligence of your building in so many other ways. You’ll not only have an efficient lighting network, but you can then add in elements like air quality sensors, leak detection, CO2 level monitoring, daylight harvesting, automatic blinds, and much more. There are so many devices being brought to market that will be compatible with these networks, therefore future opportunities are limitless. Essentially if you’ve got a sensor and you can give us a signal, we can put it on our network however that evolves in the future.
controls you simply connect the new sensor to the existing network and drag it onto the system using a tablet. The infrastructure’s already there, so you already have an existing ‘readyto-go’ network in the building.
For me, the main benefit to a building manager or owner is having peace of mind. To know that your building is compliant, to be able to remotely visualise the activities of your building, and to see that the risk levels are lower – these are all hugely beneficial and in turn, can save you a lot of energy in the long run.
And what are the overall benefits of smart building tech?
In summary, wireless controls offer the end user a lower overall cost solution that offers more flexibility, control, and the potential for enhanced saving due to the flexibility and the ease of making changes when the environment is changed.
Prime Light +44 (0)20 8968 Bb@primecontrols.co.ukwww.primecontrols.co.uk2000
19ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 LIGHTING
NHS Trusts spend an estimated £500m on energy per year, a figure which is soon likely to be dwarfed due to rapidly rising energy prices. This can only add to the pressures on organisations which are already managing some of the most challenging estates, working to create safe, functional and supportive environments for the staff who work in them and the service users who rely on them, within seriously constrained budgets. Lighting might not provide a ‘silver bullet’ when the enormity of the financial pressure is considered as a whole. However, where trusts can find funding for capital improvements, smart lighting can present very real opportunities to make impactful savings. What is more, it can create spaces which play a subtle but essential role in supporting the wellbeing of staff and patients. Installing a cloud-hosted smart lighting system, even on a large scale, does not require major infrastructure changes and causes minimal disruption, as there is no hub or wiring to be fitted and modern LED lamps are compatible with all the main voltage systems. They can be retrofitted even into outdated Victorian NHS buildings with relative simplicity.
This is of particular benefit to NHS staff working night shifts. Additionally, cooler colours, which help supress the production of melatonin (the hormone that encourages sleep) and promote a feeling of alertness, could be programmed for staff areas at nighttime, while motion sensors would allow for a seamless transition between these areas and dimmed patient rooms.
Natural light plays a vital role in keeping the circadian rhythm, or ‘body clock’ balanced. A smart lighting control system, with RGB and tunable white LED lights offering millions of different colour settings, can be programmed to mimic natural light over the course of the day, supporting the circadian rhythm.
James Foster, OCTO National Sales Manager at Ansell Lighting, looks at the role lighting plays in the healthcare sector, and explains how NHS Trusts can begin to transform the energy efficiency of their estate, to the benefit of both service users and staff.
LEDs turn roughly 70% of their energy into light. In a domestic setting, the Energy Saving Trust has calculated that replacing bulbs low energy LEDs would save around £40 a year on electricity bills so it is easy to imagine the potential savings if that is scaled up to a hospital. Maintenance is also low-cost as LEDs last for around 30,000 hours without overheating or developing faults.
Smart sensors offer multiple ways in which energy use can be reduced, all highly applicable to hospitals and other healthcare settings. The Carbon Trust estimates that automatic sensors alone can cut electricity use by up to 40%.
A smart LED lamp sells for only a couple of pounds more than a standard LED lamp, but offers much more in terms of features and functionality.
Motion sensors are programmed to detect when somebody enters a room, triggering the luminaires to provide light as long as the room is in use. The minute the person (or people) leaves the room, the lights automatically switch off. This intelligent use of light would also ensure that NHS Trusts could evidence a sustainable, as well as costefficient, approach to energy use.
DAYLIGHT HARVESTING Daylight harvesting employs smart sensors which measure the amount of natural light available and supply just enough electrical light to obtain the required uniform illuminance in a space, optimising energy use. The levels of artificial light provided will vary greatly between a modern ward with large windows, where LEDs can be dimmed, and smaller consulting rooms where natural lighting is either reduced or non-existent.
ENERGY SAVINGS
The creation of spaces that promote wellbeing, and the ease with which smart lighting can be retrofitted, scaled up and flexibly controlled, make it an investment worth investigating, but never more so than when energy costs are set to place an unprecedented burden on NHS Trust budgets.
ABSENCE PRESENCEANDDETECTORS
https://anselluk.com/
The corridor function offers extreme flexibility for thoroughfares which are vital to providing a safe and well-lit connection between healthcare departments, and where hospital trusts are required to provide lighting at all times. Lights along the length of a corridor can be programmed to be dimmed or switched off when nobody is detected in the space, but will instantly provide illumination throughout its length when a person enters one end of the corridor, for the duration of their transit.
LIGHTING AND THE NHS
A lighting control system such as Octo, used in conjunction with smart LED lamps and sensors, offers a number of functions ideally suited to NHS environments, which have a fluctuating movement of people in multiple diverse areas, all requiring different levels of illumination across a 24-hour period.
LIGHTING FOR WELLBEING
FUNCTIONALITYCORRIDOR
NHS Digital provisionally calculated overall NHS sickness absence rates in January 2022 at 6.7% – costing dearly both in monetary terms and the impact on service delivery – so the health benefits of smart lighting are also worth considering.
20 LIGHTING ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Using sustainable principles of product design, led by circularity, Whitecroft has completed a large scale lighting upgrade of Manchester’s historic Town Hall that included a regeneration programme of bespoke raft luminaires.
21ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 LIGHTING
This then enabled Whitecroft to work in harmony with existing materials, and where possible, custom design lighting around existing installations in order to minimise the use of new materials.
As well as being part of the six year refurbishment of Manchester Town Hall, Whitecroft will also work to decarbonise the Council’s wider estate.
The project, guided by energy consultants Ameresco, placed an emphasis on lighting quality and aesthetics, as well as carbon reduction through minimising the use of materials and energy, and increasing ongoing operational efficiency.
The aesthetics of the raft were then improved by cleaning each one individually, and then reattaching clips and various accessories to produce a more visually uniform lighting system.
Finally, to ensure the light in the Town Hall was of the desired quality, Whitecroft worked in partnership with the Council’s Health & Safety Executive to set up a number of trial areas where people could work and give feedback on the environment.
This reduced project waste by 70%, and the lowered energy output from 134kW to 75kW, with additional energy savings made through improved lighting controls.
“As a Greater Manchester based manufacturer with over 77 years’ experience in the lighting industry, we were proud to play our part in helping to bring this beautiful, historic building back to life and upgrade all the various other sites across the city.”
The first stop in achieving this aim was to undertaking a detailed survey the building in order to understand the existing lighting infrastructure.
“This project highlighted our circular products to include reusable and replaceable modules, which significantly reduces waste over time, and extends the useful life of the materials included.”
Andy Turton, Account Director in Client Energy Services at Whitecroft Lighting said: “Whitecroft has been embracing the business principles of circularity for a number of years now, meaning that we prioritise repair, reuse, and refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling, minimising waste and the use of virgin materials.
Andy continues: “This approach reduces the whole life carbon impact of our products, and helps clients to lower Scope Three emissions, by reducing the embodied carbon from the sourcing of materials and the manufacturing process.
Andy concludes: “As we all know, Manchester was the very vanguard of industrial innovation, and I think it’s fitting that it’s Whitecroft Lighting, an innovative Manchester company, that’s helping the City Council tackle the challenge of climate change, and push towards its ambitious net-zero carbon targets.”
https://www.whitecroftlighting.com/
WHITECROFT DECARBONISEMANCHESTERHELPSCITYCOUNCILKEYBUILDINGS
Other elements of the project included replacing high ceiling lighting with Whitecroft’s Oculus pendant LED luminaire, complete with integral Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR), which was used to complement the existing architectural fluorescent pendant solution, and generating in excess of 70% energy savings.
In total, the work on Manchester Town Hall is projected to make energy savings in excess of 44%, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 38 tonnes CO2/year, whilst also extending the luminaire lifecycle and facilitating future energy savings.
Leading UK
targetahead2038,neutraltoitsCityassistinghasWhitecroftmanufacturerlightingLightingplayedapartinManchesterCouncilachieveambitiousplansbecomecarboncitybyafull12yearsoftheUKof2050.
Whitecroft then upgraded rather than replaced the raft T5 Fluorescent lighting systems, taking a modular approach, and fitting circular designed LED Gear Trays into the raft, and upgrading 2,350 gear trays in the process.
Commenting on the launch, Gerben Achterberg, Global Product Manager of Emergency Lighting in ABB Electrification’s Smart Buildings division said: “Lighting is critical to evacuating buildings safely in the event of an emergency and our customers are under pressure to reduce waste while improving efficiency. With Movion®, we’ve developed a clever solution that will reduce installation times and total cost, while enhancing, rather than compromising on, performance.”
For installations where there is a need to optimize the number of luminaires, ABB has developed a hybrid Movion® version, which combines escape route signalization and lighting into one product. The solution can be used to provide one lux as escape route lighting and five lux on safety equipment. For these specific applications, different lenses are available, and both are supplied with the product. On site, the lens can be rotated to adjust to the actual situation, or the escape route lighting lens can be replaced by the lens designed for illuminating safety equipment. Movion® delivers impressive lighting performance with bright escape route signalization equal 500 cd/m2 distribution on the pictogram. The new lighting range also offers good spacing performances, for both escape routes and open areas. https://global.abb/
T
ABB LAUNCHES MOVION® –THE INNOVATIVE, MODULAR SOLUTION FOR FAST AND FLEXIBLE as offices and retail, as well as andNetherlands,Belgium,ishotels.restaurants,schools,andTherangeavailableinGermany,theUK.
his comprehensive new escape route signalization and lighting line features a clever modular design suitable for a variety of applications, including recessed and surface mounting, as well as walls and ceilings. In addition, the exit signage can switch from ceiling to wall mount by simply changing the position of the electronics box 90 degrees. Impressive lighting performance is delivered with bright escape route signalization equal 500 cd/m2 distribution on the pictogram and good spacing performance. The range provides better cable access and terminal connections for quick and easy installation, while offering a new track mounting option using a 3C interface for mounting to any type of track adapter available on the market, making it highly flexible and adaptable. The batteries are also simple to replace which again reduces maintenance time.
applicationstoand–range,emergencyinstallandtheABBLIGHTINGEMERGENCYINSTALLATIONislaunchinginnovativeeasy-to-modularlightingMovion®bringingtimecostsavingscommercialsuch
22 LIGHTING ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
CHAUVIN ARNOUX UK Ltd | 125 YEARS IN BUSINESS | 30 YEARS IN THE UK 1 Flagship Square | Shaw Cross Business Park | Dewsbury WF12 7TH | T: 01924 460494 | E: info@chauvin-arnoux.co.uk Contact us to learn more The key to a reduced carbon footprint & improved energy e iciency. Our future energy needs are changing and businesses need to improve their energy e iciency. You can reduce required power generation, save money and increase productivity. Gain a competitive advantage now with the PEL 103. Measure and monitor power usage. Identify ine iciencies and out of hours use. Discover power factor, phase balance and harmonic issues. Bridge the energy gap between today and tomorrow. Increase energy e iciency and reduce your costs. PEL 103 Power & Energy Logger
Simply calculated, the 48 fittings totalling 6,912W, and 15 x 100W tubes in the warehouse, should give us a power consumption of 8,412W downstairs, with another 5,700W upstairs. Thus, with all the lights switched on, our theoretical total lighting power consumption would be 14,112W or 14.1KW.
Using a PEL104 Power and Energy Logger we measured and recorded the electrical consumption of our facility over a 6-day period, which included the weekend. And we did this on a variety of circuits so that we could identify exactly what electrical equipment was responsible for the various sets of
IMPROVING OUR OWN ENERGY EFFICIENCY
While some of the items to be changed in pursuit of improved energy efficiency were glaringly obvious, like swapping out the fluorescent lights for LED replacements, measurements of the energy consumed before and after changes will indicate the actual savings made, and may often be required as part of the financial justification.
H
aving written extensively about energy efficiency over the last 6 years it was always obvious that we ought to look at getting our own premises in order. However, the Chauvin Arnoux UK facility is on a long-term rental agreement, and getting permission to make improvements to the electrical infrastructure turned out to be a much more laborious process than that of understanding and logging our electrical usage, and making the subsequent improvements. But with landlord negotiations now well behind us, the interesting part of the journey has begun, and over the coming few months, details of the process, measurements, conclusions, and improvements will be serialised here in Energy Manager Magazine. Chauvin Arnoux UK operates from a 2-floor concrete block and steel constructed unit on an industrial estate in Yorkshire, typical of many around the UK. A quick visual survey, always the best place to start, revealed that the lighting was all by way of fluorescent tubes, with other electrical loads consisting of 20 PCs with LED monitors and an array of printers, one colour photocopier, and a water cooler, in our ground floor offices. Also on the ground floor are a kitchen with a water heater, fridge, and microwave oven, and the warehouse with one PC and a banding machine.
Bearing in mind, also, that statistically UK businesses waste 46% of their electrical energy “out of hours”, and more than 20% on inefficient equipment, we were intrigued to see what else our energy logging results would reveal.
24 MONITORING & METERING ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Upstairs, apart from the aforementioned florescent lights, we have our server cabinet and the whole of the rest of the floor is an open plan video studio and training facility with a selection of occasionally used audio and video equipment. What will probably turn out to be the biggest consumers of electrical energy in our facility, although they are currently switched off due to the heatwave we are experiencing, are a selection of wall mounted panel heaters located throughout the building. 9 rated at 3KW, 6 at 2KW and another 6 rated at 750W.
The suspended ceilings in the ground floor rooms were fitted with a total of 48 units, each containing 4 x 1200mm 36-Watt florescent tubes, and the warehouse and entire upstairs floor lit by 72 standard 2387mm 100-Watt tubes. Specifically, there were 15 in the warehouse and 57 upstairs.
25ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 MONITORING & METERING
Having measured and logged the lighting consumption we set about replacing all of the fluorescent tubes with LED lighting. The 4 tube fittings in the office were all changed to 1200 X 600 46W LED panels and the 100W tubes in the rest of the building replaced with 36W T8 8ft LED Tubes. Interestingly one of the issues, which will have a significant effect on our energy consumption, is the relatively high mains voltage. During the 6-day log the average single-phase voltage was recorded at 243.6V, peaking at 247.3V, and never going below 244.1V.
In previous articles we have discussed in detail the relationship between Real Power, Apparent Power, Reactive Power, and Power Factor. Suffice to say here that Real Power (Watts) = Apparent Power (VA) × Power Factor. Accordingly, at 18.405A and 243.6V with 0.905PF we were consuming 4,058W or just over 4KW, as compared to the 8,412W we calculated would be consumed if all of the lights had been switched on. Other points to note in the 6-day current log, were the visible increase in consumption on the Thursday morning, which occurred when a conference room was used for a short while, and it was somewhat comforting to see our out of hours usage down a 0.908A, although it will be nice when we find out where that is going.
Interestingly, this “high” supply voltage is extremely common in the UK, and without getting into too much detail in this article, the utility could relatively easily reduce it. This could either be done at the local substation transformer by means of its incorporated tap changer, or at the higher transmission voltage level for a wider impact. Such action would both reduce the energy consumption (and bills) of their individual customers, and perhaps more importantly, reduce the total instantaneous energy demand on the grid. The latter being something that could help significantly in the current climate of impending potential energy shortages.
With regards to our own energy saving mission, having changed all of our fluorescent lighting for LED replacements, we have now started another power and energy logging session and will report back on the findings in the next part of this case study. www.chauvin-arnoux.co.uk
power and consumptionenergydata.
Obviously with the acceptable variation in mains supply voltage being 230 volts -6% +10%, this gives an allowed voltage range of 216.2 volts to 253.0 volts. And while it is true to say that our mains supply is within these tolerances, it is never the less, sitting in the upper region of the acceptable range. If we had a 10% reduction in supply voltage throughout the log, we would have had an average voltage of 233.6V and still have never dropped below 219.7V, 3.5V above the permissible minimum. This alone could reduce our lighting power consumption by 10%.
Looking first at the ground floor lighting circuit we logged a current consumption averaging 18.4A during office hours, indicated by the current at the cursor position. The log started on a Tuesday, and it is clear to see the increase in power used during office hours on the Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri, followed by a large gap over the weekend, and the beginning of the Monday’sfollowingenergy use. During these “office hours” the warehouse, which has no windows, had all its lights on, and the offices, which have many windows, had about a third of the lights switched on. Since the PEL104 was set to measure and record voltage, current, power factor and harmonics, we also discovered our average supply voltage was sitting at 243.6V phase-neutral, and 422.3V phase-phase. More on that later. We also recorded the average power factor on the downstairs lighting circuit of 0.905.
WHEN IS APPLICATIONTHE DEADLINE?
THE PUBLIC DECARBONISATIONSECTOR SCHEME: HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PHASE 3B
Heat contributes to 37% of the UK’s overall carbon footprint! And the majority of public sector buildings still rely on burning fossil fuels as a primary resource for their heating, hot water, and catering. In an effort to decarbonise, the Government have introduced PSDS to help organisations reduce their heating emissions and work toward the UK’s 2050 Net Zero goal.
26 DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Please note: Your business must state whether they intend to apply for a single year project or a multi-year project when applying.
WHOco.uk/P3bPSDS_GuidanceNotesISELIGIBLE?
We have over 20 years’ experience supporting public sector organisations just like yours. We help them manage and optimise their energy, and reduce their carbon footprint – we are the perfect partner to support you with your application. Get in touch today to speak to an energy expert about your business’ decarbonisation plans on 01772 689250 or email hello@inspiredenergy.co.uk.
Trusts and free schools • Nursery schools maintained by a local authority • NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts
APPLICATIONco.uk/P3bPSDS_Application_FormTYPES
Those seeking single year applications must complete their projects by 31st March 2024, whilst those applying for a multi-year applications (which are designed for projects that will take more than one financial year to complete) are required to complete by 31st March 2025. Salix has intended that any applicants that apply for funding at the Phase 3b application window for projects with spend in 2024/25 only, use 2023/24 as a planning year.
Phase 3b of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is due to open for applications in September. The PSDS provides public sector organisations with grants to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures. Phase 1 launched in September 2020, followed by Phase 2 in April 2021, and Phase 3a which closed to applicants in November 2021. Successful projects that received funding can be found here: phase-3sector-decarbonisation-scheme-government/publications/public-https://www.gov.uk/ , along with short summaries on how the funding was used to implement heat decarbonisation projects.
HOW THE UK’S LEADING ENERGY AND ADVISORSUSTAINABILITYCANHELP
WHY ARE GOVERNMENTTHE OFFERING THIS FUNDING?
The scheme is open to the following public sector bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Central government departments and their arm’s length bodies Emergency services Institutions of further and higher education • Local authorities • Schools within the state education system, including maintained schools, academies, Multi-Academy
WHAT DOES PHASE 3B COVER?
Phase 3b aims to help upgrade heating systems in public buildings to ones powered by cleaner, cheaper and renewable energy; helping to reduce fossil fuel reliance and provide lower energy costs to public sector organisations. Salix announced that they have allocated up to £635m of funding for public sector organisations which is to be spent in the financial years 2023/24 (up to £402m) for single year applications and 2024/25 (up to £233m) for multi-year applications. Download a copy of the guidance notes here: https://www.salixfinance.
The application process for Phase 3b opens in September, but the official date is still to be announced. As with previous rounds of funding, we expect that the window for applications will close very quickly so it’s important your application is ready as soon as the window opens. The PSDS is administered by Salix Finance and you can find the questions that will appear on the application form on their website. https://www.salixfinance.
27ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
With many years of experience, Kensa provides upfront support to clients to prepare for funding which is key to any successful bid. For public sector customers wanting to install ground source heat pumps, Kensa offers a free feasibility report that can be included within funding applications.
Where possible, start any pre-project processes now, such as planning, external efficiency measures and potential DNO upgrades. By having this ready ahead of your project being awarded funding, you have a huge advantage to ensuring the installation programme is delivered in line with the funding’s schedule.”
With the next round of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme Phase 3b due to open for applications mid-September 2022, there is still time to look at projects and make an application. For those just starting to review possible projects, Kensa can help you with the preparation for Phase 3c, which is due to open in 2023. It is never too early to get in contact.
To book a one-to-one feasibility study today with the dedicated Kensa PSDS team, please visit funding/public-sector-decarbonisation-scheme/https://www.kensaheatpumps.com/
The PSDS window for application, award to completion is 12-months. To ensure successful completion and project funding, Kensa’s top advice is to start early, Director of Sales, Non Domestic, Ian Goodchild, says: “In our experiences those acting early have the very best outcomes with the Fund.
Kensa has worked with many organisations across a variety of different projects – from leisure centres to schools to fire stations – and has completed and rolled out successful bids in all previous rounds of the funding stream. Projects eligible for PSDS funding now include those such as the retrofitting three Northumberland County Council Fire Stations, where electric heating was replaced with GSHPs with predicted savings in energy bills of nearly £200,000 over 20 years.
Kensa’s feasibility reports can include all the information required, from a fabric first approach to reducing total heat losses, through to the full deep retrofit of the entire heating system and controls overhaul. With full carbon saving and cost analysis provided, Kensa also issues full highlevel programmes and risk analysis for the projects.
GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS (GSHPS) - A SOLUTION FOR HEAT DECARBONISATION
The Kensa Evo in Belford Fire Station, Northumberland
DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is a fund dedicated to heat decarbonisation and capital energy efficiency projects in non-domestic public sector buildings across England, such as hospitals, schools, libraries, museums and the MOD estate. The funding is provided by BEIS and the scheme is delivered by Salix Finance.
Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) offer a solution for heat decarbonisation and the technology is eligible for the funding which could cover up to 88% of installation costs. GSHPs are the most efficient and effective way to decarbonise heating, the technology delivers heat with the lowest carbon emissions, lowest running costs and lowest lifecycle cost.
The next funding window, Phase 3b, opens this month with £635m available. Phase 3c will follow in 12 months’ time. All public sector bodies should look to use the scheme to initiate decarbonisation projects in their buildings. The funding is specifically designed to help with capital costs of decarbonisation projects; therefore, all public sector bodies should take advantage of the scheme to initiate these projects in their buildings.
28 DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
• 38% savings – identified during Heat Decarbonisation Options Appraisal – reducing capital and running costs of low-carbon technology
Decarbonising the Public Sector Estate is a massive challenge – there is no such thing as a silver bullet and every building requires a different combination of solutions. So the place to start is a technology-agnostic options appraisal to produce a comprehensive decarbonisation plan. It is very risky to cherry-pick favourite, or superficially “obvious”, projects without such a plan.
2. University of Leeds BMS case study BMS Health Check covered the buildingsmainfourteensystemsHVACincampusand opportunitiesidentified for major energy cost savings, such as: Thermal wheel heat recovery systems not working. Faulty or inaccurate temperature sensors. Heating and cooling systems fighting each other due to poor tuning of control loops.
A crucial aspect of a decarbonisation plan is identifying demand-reduction opportunities to reduce the capital and running costs of replacement plant. In a recent university campus decarbonisation plan, we identified 39% savings – a massive cost and carbon reduction without any new technologies!
Aside from building-inappropriate technologies, the two main causes of energy inefficiency are over-sized plant and poor control. I’m not talking about the odd 5 or 10% but 100s of percent over-sized – and it applies to all types of equipment from boilers to transformers. TGC found a brand new boiler in an FE college tower block that couldn’t be turned down enough to run efficiently in the coldest month of the year. We calculated that a university had 1400% of the required transformer capacity, leading to unnecessary losses and excessive voltages with the associated wasted energy. A BREEAM Excellent NHS tower block was ten-times overventilated – dominating electricity consumption and unnecessarily dumping 90% of the gas-heated air.
The Green Consultancy (TGC) reviewed thirteen CHP plant for a university – many of them were broken or had never worked – crucially, none of them were justified at the point of installation! Another university paid a 5-figure sum for a CHP feasibility study and asked us, when it was too late, to review it. It was immediately clear that the data to justify the CHP simply didn’t exist!
OVER-SIZED PLANT
• 60% gas saving on District Heating System – identified from DHS optimisation study then implemented via redesign and commissioning.
• 40% gas saving from BMS optimisation – implementation of BMS Health recommendationsCheckin all buildings 85% biomass saving from correcting District Heating design – opportunity identified by BMS Health Check and implemented via our redesign 30% gas saving from heating system redesign – identified from our design study and commissioned by us.
DEMAND REDUCTION
DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE
By John Treble, Client Services Director, The Green Consultancy (a division of JRP Solutions)
1. Demand examplesreduction
• Heating and cooling control valves passing when in closed position.
A very high percentage of large public buildings have obsolete BMS systems for which spare parts are not available – yet there is no budget to independently assess exactly what is needed to replace them, never mind the funding needed to install a system fit for the age of net zero carbon.
Are the design and control strategies fit for purpose?
THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Obsolete or not, the majority of BMS significantly under-perform. Even organisations that employ full time BMS engineers, or have BMS maintenance contracts, frequently have seriously dysfunctional systems. This results in the massive wastage of energy, increased costs and uncomfortable environments for building users. For example, a TGC BMS Health Checks identified that poor BMS control of a single air network or wireless; move from pulse to mBus or Modbus
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29ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
DECARBONISING ESTATE
POOR CONTROL
So over-sized plant is effectively about inadvertently over-investing due to bad M&E design. By contrast, poor control is largely about chronic under-investment in Building Management Systems (BMS), leading to massively underestimated energy wastage, often of the order of 40-60%. The best systems are wasting 10%. Our BMS Health Checks almost always lead to much more consultancy work to correct the horrors uncovered.
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A forensic review of the graphical head-end terminal of the BMS to determine the overall efficiency of the system including control strategy, set-points, time schedules, weather compensation, sensor accuracy, graphics accuracy and usability of the system, day to day operation and maintenance. A BMS manager does not usually have the knowledge or skills to carry out such a Health Check or to be able to identify the kind of issues mentioned above and should never be reluctant to seek expert advice. A well-managed and maintained system improves reporting and information management leading to quality, informed decision-making, better performance and a reduction in energy use, thereby saving money. handling unit was wasting £100,000 per year at current electricity rates.
• Whole process of data integration for all purposes (including maintenance) requires an end to silo thinking and data storage –and independent facilitation of all stakeholders to develop strategy. Start with one building and pilot the systems For more information contact: John Treble, Client Services Director, The Green Consultancy. Tel: 01761 419081; email: John@GreenConsultancy.com
POOR CANPERFORMANCEBMSBEDUETO: Inappropriate specification or control strategy Incorrect installation or commissioning • Sensors faulty, poorly installed or positioned • Settings not updated to suit changing patterns of building use etc • Inadequate training • Inadequate maintenance OBSOLETEREPLACINGBMS Digital Estate Management is needed, in particular: • Tridium Niagara N4 based BMS with AI machine learning to optimise energy use at five-minute intervals • BMS that can communicate and integrate with all systems that are critical to the environmental conditions (air quality of increased importance post-covid) Substantial increase in number of sensors connected via IP A wide group of people working across all areas of the Public Sector – to educate, train, support and connect as we work towards a more sustainable future. www.pssa.info Join us today
• Integration with room booking –visibility of real-time data for staff and students via a phone app
3. Is your BMS wasting energy?
4. What is A BMS Health Check?
Was it correctly installed and commissioned? Are sensors faulty, poorly installed or positioned? Are the settings suited to current building use? Have the users had adequate training? Is maintenance adequate? Does it interface with your room booking software and weather forecasts?
In the longer term, installing smart sensors and monitoring throughout the revamped buildings will reap huge benefits, ensuring energy is used as efficiently as possible, reducing carbon usage and expenditure.
uses its buildings. Intelligent, real-time energy monitoring and control, including the use of artificial intelligence, would contribute up to 2.3% of the total required reduction in carbon emissions.”
Typically, the technology consists of sensors and receivers, which can measure a range of different parameters including temperature, air quality, space utilisation or how much power is running through a piece of equipment.
Occupancy: PIR sensors or motion sensors can show you whether a room, desk or cubicle is being used to give an overview of peak usage or low-demand
The report states: “A range of socio-technical interventions will be required to optimise the way the NHS 1 a-net-zero-national-health-service.pdfcontent/uploads/sites/51/2020/10/delivering-https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/wp-
As the largest employer in Britain, the NHS has a huge role to play in reducing carbon emissions. Currently responsible for around 4% of England’s total carbon emissions1, the organisation has ambitious plans to become the first carbon neutral health system in the world. Setting out those plans in the Delivering a Net Zero NHS report, Simon Stevens, the then Chief Executive of the NHS, explained: “The climate emergency [..] is also a health emergency. Unabated it will disrupt care and affect patients and the public at every stage of our lives. “With poor environmental health contributing to major diseases, including cardiac problems, asthma and cancer, our efforts must be accelerated.”
Choosing wireless smart sensors avoids expensive retro-fitting costs, as sensors can simply be stuck to the walls or desks in areas, with no wiring needed.
Smart technology is the name for devices connected to the internet that can collect and transmit data to a centrally stored hub. This hub can be local to the organisation but, increasingly, will be part of the cloud – information stored on a secure area of the internet, without the need for external servers.
The NHS’ estate (its buildings) are responsible for 15% of the organisation’s total carbon emissions, and it is estimated that engineering solutions to upgrade those buildings could result in a reduction in emissions of more than 473 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (ktCO2e). The organisation will need to be clearer than ever on how its energy is being used and where it is being wasted. Which is where smart sensors will be vital, helping organisations to spot issues and make proactive changes. But making those changes will be no mean feat, many NHS trusts are housed in old buildings, which have often become dilapidated due to limited maintenance budgets. Transforming these into energy efficient buildings, fit for the future, will require significant investment, but smart monitoring at an early stage of the process can help to ensure the right areas are focused on, providing information on exactly how and where energy can be saved.
HOW SMART SENSORS WILL HELP THE NHS REACH ITS NET ZERO GOALS
WHAT SMARTARESENSORS?
While there are a number of new hospital buildings being planned for the coming decades, the vast majority of the work to reduce the carbon emissions from the NHS estate will focus on existing buildings.
WHAT CAN SMART SENSORS MEASURE?
Smart sensors can track a number of factors that will help to ensure the most efficient use of NHS buildings and equipment: Energy usage: CT clamps or current sensors are placed on cables and monitor how much power is running to and through them. They can measure energy consumption at a circuit, zone or machine level. This is useful for flagging up potential breakdowns before they occur as unusual consumption patterns could mean a piece of equipment is not working as efficiently as it should be.
Temperature: Temperature sensors can be placed within a room to ensure it is at a safe and comfortable temperature for occupants. The data from these can be fed into building management systems which are linked to HVAC systems, and will ensure areas are being kept at a consistent temperature and not over-heated.
ARE THEY DIFFICULT TO FIT IN OLD BUILDINGS?
30 DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
It’s flexible: Using cloud computing systems allows organisations to flex their capacity as needed. It means you can scale up and down as your needs change without having spent vast sums of money on expensive IT equipment.
Understandably, there are concerns about the security of smart sensors, particularly in an organisation like the NHS that handles such sensitive data. Facilities managers should look for smart sensors that do not feed into main IT systems and transmit their data via 4G.
If you’re part of an NHS trust looking to find out more about smart sensors and how they can help you with your carbon-reduction plans contact our expert team for advice.
https://www.pressac.com/contact/
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31ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE
Helps ensure a consistent, reliable power supply: By monitoring the energy flowing into and out of machinery you can spot potential issues before they arise, for example surges in demand at particular times, and put plans in place to change these. Reporting and planning becomes easier: Data produced by the systems means you can easily produce reports on energy usage for your organisation – something that will be crucial when being measured against the NHS’ ambitious energy-saving targets. Being able to monitor usage trends also means you can look at specific machinery, rooms or offices and develop action plans for energy reduction.
times, helping ensure that every part of a building is used as efficiently as possible. They may, for example, highlight buildings or rooms that could be closed, or areas where heating does not need to be on all the time.
HOW CAN THIS BENEFIT THE NHS? Monitoring energy usage across the organisation in this way has a number of benefits: Continuous monitoring in realtime: Using smart technology gives a continuous view of the energy use within a building. Data collected by the sensors is fed back to a central dashboard and, at any given point in time, you can see the energy usage picture across your buildings or organisation, meaning you always have a clear picture of your energy consumption. This is particularly useful for the NHS where individual trusts often have multiple buildings spread across numerous sites. Pressac’s energy sensor
IS IT SECURE?
Ability to make instant changes: You can react instantly to implement changes to reduce energy usage as you have an overview of areas of high energy usage. It helps to identify things like machines left running when they shouldn’t be or equipment that isn’t performing as efficiently as it should be and may need maintenance.
They’ve already been proven to work successfully in several NHS organisations including Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust who have been using Pressac’s occupancy sensors as part of a new space management system installed by intelligent workspace software provider UMA. The sensors have enabled the Trust to see how their spaces are being used and take a much more proactive response to managing them, creating nicer spaces for their staff but also making energy saving efficiencies in the process.
It helps with staff engagement: Being able to produce data which shows people exactly what impact changes are having is a useful tool in making sure everyone in the business plays their part in reducing energy use.
However, for a lot of clients that are not working on big infrastructure projects, systems-thinking is simply not part of the language. That needs to change if the industry is going to be able to rally round the
Nobody working in this area would deny the importance of systemsthinking in being able to make progress in the delivery of decarbonisation programmes at large-estate scale. Conceptually it makes sense, but the reality is that rolling it out is hard to do.
The decarbonisation of the built environment in order to meet net zero targets by 2050 is a challenge that the engineering and construction industry has to meet at a global level. But, due to the scale of the task, it is a challenge that can only realistically be achieved by taking a systems-thinking approach.
Shortly before a recent industry event where a team from Atkins discussed these issues, we ran a short straw poll on social media asking whether businesses felt they had access to the building performance data they need to start their decarbonisation journey.
While fully accepting the survey was the social media equivalent of a show of hands, nonetheless the results that came back do chime with what we know about the sector.
In part this is because there is a balance to be struck between making a quick start for the sake of making progress, while not compromising our ability to adopt a systemsthinking approach by making bad decisions early in the process.
One of the issues we face is having good quality data available (as well as the systems to analyse and visualise them) to develop the systems-thinking approach which can be applied across a large portfolio.
CAN DELIVERHELPSYSTEMS-THINKINGTOREDUCERISKANDDECARBONISATION?
Stuart atMarketTasker,Director,DecarbonomicsMcLaren,andSteveInfrastructureDirectorAtkinsGlobal
The value of systems-thinking is in enabling companies to go into spaces they may not have otherwise gone.
DATA AVAILABILITY
Our survey of 70 people found a third, 33%, said they did not have the resource to gather the necessary data, with 16% saying they actually had no data. Moreover, less than half, 39% said their systems were up to date.
If you’re essentially able to diversify your risk profile so you’re taking risk in certain areas and being safe in certain areas, you can then allow that to be written into your business case, so you’re operating in the realms of the organisation that can do the piloting and living lab environment piece of work.
32 DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
It’s true that we can’t wait for perfection and we need to develop a ‘fail fast’ environment so we can see what both good and bad looks like quickly. But at the same time, there is an inherent danger in making short-term decisions for near-term problems as you risk locking-in bad ideas at the start.
NOT PART OF THE LANGUAGE
Faced with the challenges presented by the 2050 targets for net zero, there is going to be heavy reliance on the data required to make a systems-thinking approach viable. This is very much the nub of the issue, as systems-thinking can be effective across a whole building portfolio estate if you have the data.
integrating people, data and technology to provide greater opportunities to embrace outcome-based commercial models which mutually incentivise delivery of net zero goals.
The investor community knows the granular level at which the business case has to be made for decarbonising programmes. Once again, systems thinking if done right, allows you to present a much clearer picture, through all the different lenses that those type of stakeholders are going to want to see.
To achieve effective decarbonisation in a cost-effective way is the ambition of all of us working in this sector. Therefore, establishing the conditions for effective collaborative partnerships between the client and their value chain will be key.
How we do this is by significantly improving data accuracy and maturity early in the process and by effectively
Of course, it’s not only at project level that removing risk is paramount, but it’s also the case in terms of finance and investment. When you look at the ESG agenda and what investors are looking to put their money into, often it’s multi-faceted. There’s a whole host of metrics they want to be able to report against, as well as have the sight and clarity to be able to talk back into that sector, in order to de-risk the funding and finance around projects. Quite often the problem we have is that while there are enough projects out there and plenty of desire
And so, bringing that approach to both the project management of the programme, as well as the financing and funding, could provide a way forward that not only reduces risk but also creates efficiencies in order to accelerate our journey to net zero.
DE-RISKING FINANCE
common goal of decarbonising more effectively. That means the onus is on the bigger infrastructure projects, the largest investment projects that UK PLC is spending on, to make sure that cascades down to the smaller projects.
RESOLVING COMPLEXITY
In many ways systems-thinking is part of the outcomes-based approach, which requires doing a lot more work at the front end. Systems-thinking is really a technique that suggests you start to design out the risk, design out things that have a propensity to change, by designing systems of work that resist change, or allow change at the appropriate time.
for projects, the blocker is trying to map money to projects as a lot of people simply can’t afford them.
33ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Another key benefit of the systemsthinking approach is that it helps to solve the issue of complexity. Given that we now have to think about time and cost, and social value, and all the lessons we need to learn from previous projects, productivity gains and PFI which are all in the mix, there is a real need to unpick all that complexity. Systems thinking allows us to deal with complexity in part because it allows us to break things down into a system of systems. If you can solve the complexity through systems-thinking you can start to manage your risk to a certain degree.
That has led us to develop the global SNC-Lavalin proposition Decarbonomics™. Founded on principles of systems-thinking, Decarbonomics™ brings together our broad expertise and knowledge of the whole life cycle of the built environment and buildings, in a way that enables us to make carbon visible at the portfolio level. By applying powerful data analytics and advanced algorithms we can empower our clients to make much more informed decisions about their investments in decarbonisation.
For the first time, Decarbonomics™ will provide clients with a complete picture of carbon performance across their entire building estate over the entire decarbonisation programme – whatever the size and scale, through accessible and easy-to-use interactive dashboards.
The fact is we don’t have the luxury of a theoretical net zero future, based on wishful thinking around behaviour change and new technologies. It needs to be grounded in certainty and driven by data to measure progress and effectiveness. With the scale of the challenge ahead, we have to deliver achievable, and cost-effective net zero plans for today, which is what Decarbonomics™ will do. http://www.atkinsglobal.com/
For those businesses which have sporadic datasets, or no access at all to building performance data, this is where Decarbonomics™ can help fill in those gaps.
DECARBONISING
The learning that comes from others has to be brought down to the level of the two classroom extension, for example, and that’s when it starts to help manage risk. Otherwise conceptually it’s too far away from most peoples’ experience.
The client’s decarbonisation program will be framed by a simple three-step approach of benchmarking, road mapping and delivery, making delivery much less opaque, building confidence and trust over the course of a decarbonisation programme.
Decarbonomics™ comes with flexibility and accuracy built-in and this enables organisations to accelerate their net zero plans in the most cost and programme effective way. At the same time it minimises risk and maximises investment and funding opportunities.
Change brings with it inherent risk and introducing change at the wrong time can kill a project. It may be that you have all the predicted gains at the outset, but then something happens which means the contractor takes twice as long as they should because things keep changing. By resolving the complexity and being able to resist change, we are able to be more productive as a result.
THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE
THE BIRTH DECARBONOMICS™OF
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34 TRAINING ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 The REI’s accredited Master in Renewable Energy Award is designed to enhance your career and boost your professional development.
The
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The Director of Finance and Corporate Services recognised the potential to drive significant savings and other benefits through a category management approach, enabling:
ADDING STRATEGIC VALUE THROUGH TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE TO PROCUREMENT AND PLANNING
• Supporting adoption of a higher level of change programme management, including skills, planning tools and structure. Developing a series of category initiatives to be run as pilots, with a longer term aim of process-design.
WHO WE WORKED WITH Aberystwyth University, a public research-focused university regularly recognised as a leader in research impact and learning and teaching quality.
“The success of our procurement transformation programme has given the Planning Office a voice across the organisation. We are now adopting the higher quality project methodology with other change work and seeing the benefits more widely. This skills transfer has been a central part of working with our consultant.”
WHAT HAPPENED
• Using the nationally recognised existing Procurement Maturity Assessment (PMA+) structure and experience to assess and introduce best procurement practice ideas and make recommendations for improvement.
Debbie Prysor, Senior Projects Officer
• Efficient, responsible procurement and change management • Improved cross-institutional relationships and collaboration Improved planning and commercial skills.
The University wanted to move from reactive, compliance-driven procurement activities to a proactive, strategic approach that added value to the institution as a whole. Programme and project management was also mostly reactive, with little time to standardise professional structures and processes to support successful delivery of change.
Analysing and displaying institutional spend data in ways that had not previously been used, such as by category spend rather than just traditional department spend Supporting the build of a business case for investment in procurement transformation. This included providing guidance in presenting to the senior team and demonstrating that the value added by procurement goes beyond cash-releasing savings to other quantifiable benefits.
The teams wanted guidance in the best ways to achieve this long-term sustainable transformation. They also needed to find support from consultants who understood the context of the Welsh Higher Education environment, including the need for bilingual communication.
36 ENERGY PROCUREMENT ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
The activities undertaken included:
The SUMS Group consultants worked with the teams at Aberystwyth on an ongoing basis, guiding them through a multi-phased approach. Their early involvement was more hands-on and over time they have been able to support from a distance, as required.
THE CHALLENGE
THE DIFFERENCE IT MADE Active support from the University Executive Board, and a willingness to learn and change from the Procurement team and Planning Office, has led to significant transformation.
Improved data use and analysis means there is a more proactive, planned approach to decisions and activities. New, improved pictures of institution wide spending have led to an increase in crossdepartment collaboration. Better use of procurement data has also had a knock-on effect on other areas, such as the University’s student data.
37ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 ENERGY PROCUREMENT
deal with renewables supplier Rebel Energy we are now together powering 3,000 domestic households across Britain. People living in the homes are now part of new local energy markets. And they are receiving 100% local British renewable energy at a fair price.
It’s a first for the UK, enabled by the technology we created. We believe that the future is already here for UK energy.It’s now a case of continuing with our mission. www.urbanchain.co.uk
The University is in a more resilient position to adapt and flex in changing circumstances, as in-house procurement and planning skills have increased. Some Procurement team members are now working towards CIPS qualifications. Undertaking change management qualifications has also proved beneficial to planning work. http://www.sums.org.uk/
• Mentoring the Procurement Enhancement Programme Manager and building his confidence to operate at a more strategic, less reactive level. Supporting the recruitment of category managers and upskilling existing team members to take on category management roles.
• Providing practical training, tools and templates.
DECISION-MAKINGDATA-INFORMED
SUSTAINABLE SKILLS TRANSFER
The Procurement team is more involved in the University’s business planning round and can build a forward-looking view of requirements. The team is developing a procurement pipeline to assist with planning. As the Welsh Government is encouraging procurement pipelines for public sector organisations, the University will hopefully be an early adopter of this approach.
And it’s clean, green and driven by artificial intelligence and blockchain, says UrbanChain founder Somayeh Taheri
The beauty is that – just like our clients in the private and public sectors – they are receiving clean and green energy that is hyper-local and traceable. Thousands of homes are being powered up in a new way.
The Covid-19 pandemic began in the middle of our work with the University. This necessitated adjustment of the potential savings plan and flexibility in deciding which new approaches to take forward and which to pause.
THE FUTURE OF UK ENERGY IS HERE...
ADDING VALUE TO PLANNING
Five years ago we set out on a journey, a mission. Alleviate fuel poverty and fix a broken inefficient UK energy market model. Our answer came through the creation of a unique energy market just for renewables. Where participants could buy and sell green energy amongst themselves. We called it the peerto-peer (P2P) exchange. It’s an artificial intelligence and blockchain platform - and the only one in the UK. It was a new form of energy provision where complexities were simplified. Private companies from multiple sectors, local authorities and housing associations all joined. And renewable energy generators too. WHY? Because corporate consumers could place an exact order for electricity and generators could meet it. The list of those joining UrbanChain’s alternative, safe and unique energy market continues to grow. Currently there are circa 28 million households in the UK that use Followingelectricity.agroundbreaking
n May and June 2022 the government held a call for evidence on a proposed update to the Green Finance Strategy. What questions does the government need answers to, and what can we expect from the new version of the strategy when it comes out later in 2022?
PILLARS OF THE ORIGINAL STRATEGY
The original Green Finance Strategy came out in 2019, setting out the government’s ambition to “transform our financial system for a greener future”. The plan is to seize the commercial potential of the UK’s green transition and use green finance to support the Clean Growth Strategy. There are three pillars to the strategy.
GREENING FINANCE: WHAT POLICY CHANGES SHOULD BUSINESSES PREPARE FOR?
Greening finance is about making climate a priority in the finance world. This means creating an environment with strong market signals to encourage action on emissions. The TCFD-aligned reporting which recently came in for certain businesses is in support of this goal.
Financing green is about improving access to finance for green investment and removing market barriers to encourage innovation. The launch of the UK Infrastructure Bank, one of Rishi Sunak’s biggest achievements in office, is one of the more significant moves in support of this goal. Capturing the opportunity is about positioning the UK as a “global hub for green finance” and a leader on green financial innovation.
We cannot predict exactly what will be in the new strategy, but we can expect a general raising of standards and a tightening of regulatory requirements, especially for large businesses. Following best practice in greenhouse gas reporting and setting a credible net zero target is the best way for businesses to prepare for whatever comes their way. projectnetzero.co.uk courtesy of Project Net Zero powered by BiU, projectnetzero.co.uk
WHAT TO EXPECT Since publishing the original Green Finance Strategy, the government has published its Net Zero Strategy (October 2021), the Environment Act (November 2021) and the Energy Security Strategy (April 2022). The updated version will have to support the existing published strategies and be in line with any new legislation.
WHAT THE CALL FOR EVIDENCE IS ASKING
38 ENERGYFINANCEMANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 I
The call for evidence asks 39 questions about how the UK can best achieve its green finance objectives. One key theme is private investment: how can it best be leveraged to support our climate goals, meet the objectives of the Energy Security Strategy and pay for climate change adaptation measures? Does the UK have the skills and capacity to attract “international green finance flows”? How do we remove the barriers to unlocking private finance? Related to this is transparency. The government is well aware that investors need detail and data to invest with confidence. The consultation asks how
Article
the UK can support “a robust investment data ecosystem” to provide them with that confidence. It also asks about the role of Scope 3 data: is it important for investors? Should the government be supporting businesses to make good quality Scope 3 disclosures? The consultation also poses questions on what a global centre for green finance looks like, since there is no existing model for this. How do we measure progress? How do we become a world leader? What are the key characteristics of a “netzero-aligned financial centre”? What should the government and regulators be doing to help build this vision?
Various bodies have responded to the call for evidence, and one key theme is the need for more clarity and data from government. The response from the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) emphasises the need for both a clear definition of net zero and for science-based criteria to support it. It said that plans for each sector of the economy should align with the need to keep global warming below 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels.
The response from the Open Data Institute echoes this, calling for an environment where everybody can be confident that the collection and reporting of data meets certain standards. The 2019 version of the Green Finance Strategy recognises “a need for further innovation and coordination in data availability, comparability and aggregation, as well as a better understanding of existing datasets and potential applications within the financial sector.” It is likely that the 2022 version will have much more detail on how this can be achieved and more datarelated requirements for businesses.
It is also likely that the updated strategy will include new regulatory measures to foster the kind of environment that not only encourages green investment, but discourages the kind of investments that would set back the UK’s climate goals.
Bruce Jackson, HVAC operations director at JLA, discusses the common myths and misconceptions when it comes to HVAC, and how these systems can be used in a more energy efficient way to save on overall business cost at a time when organisations are looking to reduce energy bills.
So, investing in a HVAC system is not as costly as you might first assume, with regular maintenance in place.
efficiency and identifying any issues, which can allow for quick repairs and fixes before problems worsen.
THE ONLY PUBLIC SECTORJOURNALENERGY To receive Energy Manager Magazine FREE of charge, please visit: energymanagermagazine.co.uk/subscribe www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk
SYSTEMS ARE EXPENSIVE Despite the initial HVAC system and installation being the most expensive part of the process, it is possible to recoup this investment by reducing energy usage once the system is in use. Installing a HVAC system allows for huge savings on energy bills and whilst regular maintenance does need to be carried out on HVAC systems to ensure they are running optimally; this maintenance doesn’t have to come at a great cost. Conducting regular checks ensures the system can run smoothly and prevents possible breakdowns that might otherwise come with hefty repair fees. For example, clogged air filters can also be a problem for HVAC systems and disrupt operation or even cause the systems to break down. By conducting
A popular misconception around HVAC, especially air conditioning, is that the system heavily consumes energy. In fact, air conditioning systems can be extremely energy efficient if they are used in a way that allows for optimum output. Often the way to do this is to not run the system continuously, and only use it when needed. It saves energy in the long term by shutting off the system when it’s not in use.
AIR PROVIDEINCANCONDITIONINGONLYBEUSEDTHESUMMERTOCOOLAIR.
MYTH: CONDITIONINGAIR
39ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 HVAC
Air conditioning can actually be used all year round, as units can heat rooms as well as cool them.
COMMON MYTHS MISCONCEPTIONSANDOFHVAC
Air conditioning units come fitted with a heat pump, effective at generating heat across multiple rooms just as a boiler would. By investing in a single cooling and heating system, businesses could again reduce energy costs and carbon outputs.
So, though investing in a HVAC system does involve an upfront cost commitment, it could actually reduce energy outputs and save on overall costs in the long run. With proper usage and maintenance, opting for such systems could prove to be a wise return on investment as organisations mitigate the costs of rising energy bills this year. https://jla.com/ quick checks and changing the filter regularly, you can make sure the system runs properly and avoid expensive replacements or fixes later down the line.
Digital technology, such as online apps that monitors energy efficiency can also be used to make sure systems are giving optimum output and running efficiently, which can help to save on bills. The technology monitors the HVAC system virtually, displaying energy Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are crucial components in the maintenance of good air quality, temperature regulation, and energy efficiency in industrial, commercial, and residential buildings. Just like any investment, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the use and maintenance of such equipment. More often than not, HVAC is thought of as expensive to run or energy inefficient. However, this doesn’t have to be the case when systems are used correctly. In fact, there are several ways your business can mitigate energy bills when it comes to HVAC – important to consider with energy prices soaring. With bills expected to rise exponentially, a continuation of the rising costs we’ve already seen throughout the year, choosing the right HVAC system is more vital than ever, as well as knowing how to maintain it well to reduce the risk of unexpected repair costs.
DO AIR OFSYSTEMSCONDITIONINGUSELOTSENERGY?
Much of the focus is on the loss of farmland to desertification and other such rural impacts, but it was recently found that loss and damage incidents caused by water shortages have now been seen in seven major cities in Asia.
Do you want to find out why water efficiency is so important? Get in touch with H2O Building Services today.
Finance is now being demanded by the countries for the losses and damages sustained as a result of emissions from rich countries.
The majority of London’s rain falls during autumn and winter, soaking into rocks lying beneath the city streets. This water is then extracted by water suppliers for use during the drier months, but as drought frequency and intensity are expected to increase in line with climate change, water availability could certainly decrease in turn.
Climate change and rising temperatures around the world are increasing the severity of drought in urban areas which, in turn, is having an impact on water availability, according to a new report published in August.
This is the reality known as loss and damage. To address this injustice, we not only need emissions cut but also to provide financial support for those losses which cannot be adapted to.”
London also has an ageing water pipe network and a growing population, so it is likely that increased drought will put system.pressuregrowingontheTheremay be waterinsufficientavailable to supply the city’s residents if a 4 degree C increase in global warming levels is seen, even if leaky pipes are fixed and household water consumption is reduced.
The concept of loss and damage has been pushed up the agenda at international climate talks, as it continues to affect the most vulnerable countries and communities, those that have contributed least to the climate emergency.
“It is a real danger. It threatens lives and livelihoods of some of the poorest people in the world. These are communities which have done the least to cause the climate crisis.
COP27 is to be hosted in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh between November 7th and 18th, marking the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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It is perhaps understandable for the UK to feel somewhat blase about the risk of drought, given its famously damp weather, but as the last few weeks and record temperatures have clearly demonstrated, this country will certainly not be immune to the impacts of climate change… and neither will its cities. Interestingly, London actually receives less rainfall than you might think, with just 260mm a year… approximately half of that which falls in New York City.
Conducted by Christian Aid, the study found that global water usage and consumption grew at more than twice the rate of population increase throughout the 20th century… despite the fact that just three per cent of global water supplies are actually suitable for drinking.
It is hoped that the legacy of this climate change conference will be the point where the whole world comes together to demonstrate that it does, indeed, have the political will to drive real, lasting and significant change and tackle the climate challenge through concerted, collaborative and impactful action.
CEO of the Environment Agency Sir James Bevan recently issued a stark warning that London and the south-east of England could run out of water within 25 years. Thames Water estimates that the cost of a severe drought to London’s economy would be £330 million per day, with the result being severe economic, social and environmental consequences. And the Environment Agency has also suggested that some rivers in England will see between 50 and 80 per cent less water during the summer by 2050.
And just last month, officials in Santiago were forced to implement water rationing measures, while in New Delhi, people have been queuing for water in such high temperatures that heatstroke is a risk even without any physical activity or exertion.
Of this freshwater, 70 per cent of it is locked in ice caps and glaciers, while less than 0.01 per cent of all freshwater in the world can be found in lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
The poorest in society are projected to feel the effects of water stress and scarcity, without action taken to cut emissions and manage freshwater resources more effectively. According to the UN, city residents on lower incomes can pay up to 50 times more for a litre of water than wealthier people, often because they have to buy from private vendors. Furthermore, cities in poorer nations are more vulnerable than their richer counterparts, because they have fewer resources available to adapt to shortages. Co-author of the report Nushrat Rahman Chowdhury said: “Drought is not new but its intensity and frequency have increased over the last 30 years due to global warming.
She went on to say that the organisation will be calling for a loss and damage finance facility to be set up as a major priority at the UN climate talks in Egypt later this year.
Off the back of this report, Christian Aid has issued a call for an international fund to pay for climate-related loss and damage. It also notes that, without urgent action now to address climate change itself, the danger of city droughts will only get worse in the future.
REPORT: CLIMATE CHANGE DRIVING CITYSCAPE WATER SCARCITY
The report – Scorched Earth: The Impact of Drought on 10 World Cities –features ten cities around the world that are perhaps the most at risk… Sydney, Harare, Sao Paulo, Phoenix, Beijing, Kabul, New Delhi, Cape Town, Cairo and London. Back in 2018, Cape Town very nearly became the first major city in the world to reach Day Zero and run out of water… a crisis that was narrowly averted by the introduction of emergency measures to slash the city’s water consumption by 50 per cent.
40 WATER MANAGEMENT ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
Businesses are becoming more aware of their water consumption1 and usage and how this is having an effect not only on their bills but also on the environment, as well. Companies all over the world are now recognising just how important water is to their operations and how a lack of access to quality water or sufficient quantities of it can have an impact.
One of the ways that companies can balance their water needs with those of the environment and the local community is through water stewardship, which will allow them to understand all the risks associated with water usage and consumption so they can bring in strategies to minimise these risks and ensure that their operations remain sustainable in the future.
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a strategic framework in place is also key, introducing new targets and metrics to help you track progress and performance so you can drive improvements where water risks are concerned.
Action within the company can then be taken to address the issue, putting plans and targets in place to ensure more sustainable use of water.
There are very real business benefits associated with water stewardship, including: good water quality, effective water governance that ensures all water users receive a fair allocation, andtheirreducingwhereofstewardshipWhereWATERsustainablewaterbalance.STEWARDSHIPEXPLAINEDbusinessesareconcerned,shouldbeviewedasawaycontinuingtomakeimprovementswaterusageisconcerned,whilethewater-relatedimpactsofoperations.
Becoming aware of the debates around water in terms of the economy and the environment is the first step towards stewardship, and companies will also need to gain a deeper understanding of their own individual water footprint2 and what dependencies they have on the resource right across their entire supply chain.
So what can the private sector do to help safeguard this resource for future generations and ensure that it can continue to do business as usual?
Companies in some industries could also use wastewater more effectively4, such as those in the agriculture sector. Effluent could be treated in such a way so as to allow it to be reused for irrigation, for example.
PRIVATE SECTOR WATER WeMANAGEMENTneedwaterto grow food, for manufacturing, for drinking water, for the generation of power… and, as such, it’s an essential resource to the running of any business, no matter what industry said business is in. Unfortunately, while it’s an essential resource it is also a limited one, and many places around the world are now experiencing issues related to water stress and scarcity.
THE AUDITWATEREXPERTS
Introducing smart meters on your site is an essential step towards being more responsible with water use across industry.
In addition, business risks related to water will be reduced through the minimising of economic, environmental and social impacts. Companies will also be able to prepare themselves properly for periods of drought, as well as making cost savings associated with water efficiency.
As demand for water increases, coupled with climate change and global warming, communities will feel the impact of water shortages –so prioritising the sustainable usage of water is a must.
WATER STEWARDSHIP
Automated meter reading works by continuously monitor water usage across your site3, allowing issues to be identified quickly and water-saving solutions adjusted as appropriate and in line with a business’s evolving Settingneeds.
Stewardship is also a company’s commitment to managing shared water resources sustainably through collaboration with governments, local communities, other businesses and non-government organisations.
www.prefectcontrols.com HEADING HOT WATER?
Without close surveillance of use it is impossible to develop a comprehensive water strategy that reduces water consumption and the energy to heat it.
At first glance their value may appear inconsequential but let’s look at a specific sector – Student Accommodation. There are approximately 500,000 toilet/shower facilities within the 1.6 million purposebuilt and HMO student rooms. Daily, a lot of water passes through this many showers, and it is estimated that approximately 8% of toilets leak. With this insight, the relevance of devices that change behaviour or flag up a problem becomes clear.
Changing behaviour is more complex than signalling problems. Studies have shown that providing people with information pertaining to water/energy use, and the habits of their peers, while simultaneously making them aware of the time they spend under the shower, naturally encourages a change in behaviour and a shortening of their ablution regime.
t’s not just the recent heatwaves and announcements of drought across the UK that has caused water to become the hot topic in the realms of energy management. But it is broadening attention for the concerns that some have had for many years. Fear of water scarcity has been cited as one of the biggest risks to the continuity and growth of businesses. Many organisations are anticipating physical threats in terms of quality and supply to materialise by as soon as 2025!
Monitoring the volume of water entering premises is easy. But what about when the water is in the system? How is it used? Can efficiencies be made? Is there any waste? – Leaks are a prime example – According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), Escape of Water (EoW) is costing UK insurers £2.5 million per day! “Prevention is better than cure” is so true when applied to leaks and the catastrophic damage they cause. But less dramatically, the waste of a precious commodity just ‘dripping’ away unnecessarily is becoming a real problem that can easily be prevented with devices that focus their attention at point of use.
Having experienced the enormous rise in wholesale gas prices recently and the subsequent increase in electricity costs, should we take heed in terms of water? By 2050 business operating costs could be substantially affected. As with energy, using water only when necessary is the sole means to a sustainable future.
For a sustainable future, the understanding of water consumption combined with control is essential in resolving efficiency issues. The potential scarcity, and therefore the need to maximise efficiencies of water should be of equal, if not greater, concern than monetary savings.
If shower times could be shortened by just 1 minute – annual savings across student accommodation for combined energy and water costs could amount to £40M and 7 billion litres of water!
An energy management system with multiple inputs is a practical solution to monitoring and managing water in large commercial dwellings. In addition to the two devices described above, Leak detection pads, Shut-off valves, Water meters, Pipe sensors and Cylinder temperature probes can link with control units around the building. Data transmitted to the internet portal gives managers control, remotely. This ‘big picture’ provides an understanding of consumption and potential waste, helping them to develop strategies to save on both energy and water costs.
42 WATER MANAGEMENT ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022
A device affixed to a bathroom wall with integrated PIR and sound pressure sensor detects movement and water flow. This indicates the shower is in operation. An upward counting clock is activated. The purpose – to promote awareness of time spent in the shower.
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Looking at toilet leaks first: A device that attaches to the cold-water inlet of a cistern, monitors the temperature in both the pipe and the room. The differential signifies that cold water is flowing through the pipe. A constant flow highlights that the cistern isn’t doing its job. Money is literally going down the pan. This could be a subtle dribble or a considerable flow, either way, if unchecked a single toilet could waste 140,000 litres per year. Multiply this by the estimated number of leaks in this sector and the waste is eyewatering, at almost 6 billion litres!
This event will connect high level professionals from within the Public Sector with companies offering a range of products, services and solutions to support their sustainability goals. A top quality conference programme will accompany the exhibition to make this event a must-attend. www.pssevents.co.uk November 1st 2022, Old Trafford, Manchester United FC.
Visit www.primelight.co.uk 020 8968 2000 Up to 80% savings on energy 20% reduction in carbon 30% reduction on maintenance spend Astronomical savings, healthy and happy occupants, improved reporting, leaner processes, lower maintenance costs. Book a call with us, or arrange a free audit on your building, for a bespoke savings estimate Celebrating 30 years Est 1992 Your building Prime Light's controls system Energy and cost savings
