Decarbonising the Public Sector Estate

THE PUBLIC SECTOR DECARBONISATION SCHEME: HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PHASE 3B

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: https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/publicsector-decarbonisation-schemephase-3 , along with short summaries on how the funding was used to implement heat decarbonisation projects.

WHY ARE THE GOVERNMENT OFFERING THIS FUNDING?

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.

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. co.uk/P3bPSDS_GuidanceNotes

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

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 Trusts and free schools

• Nursery schools maintained by a local authority

• NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts

WHEN IS THE APPLICATION DEADLINE?

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. co.uk/P3bPSDS_Application_Form

APPLICATION TYPES

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.

Please note: Your business must state whether they intend to apply for a single year project or a multi-year project when applying.

HOW THE UK’S LEADING ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR CAN HELP

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.

GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS (GSHPS) - A SOLUTION FOR HEAT DECARBONISATION

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 https://www.kensaheatpumps.com/ funding/public-sector-decarbonisation-scheme/

The Kensa Evo in Belford Fire Station, Northumberland

DECARBONISING THE PUBLIC SECTOR ESTATE

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. By John Treble, Client Services Director, The Green Consultancy (a division of JRP Solutions)

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!

DEMAND REDUCTION

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!

OVER-SIZED PLANT

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.

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.

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.

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

handling unit was wasting £100,000 per year at current electricity rates.

POOR BMS PERFORMANCE CAN BE DUE TO:

• 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

REPLACING OBSOLETE BMS

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

network or wireless; move from pulse to mBus or Modbus

• Integration with room booking – visibility of real-time data for staff and students via a phone app

• 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

HOW SMART SENSORS WILL HELP THE NHS REACH ITS NET ZERO GOALS

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 emissions 1 , 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.”

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 (ktCO 2

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.

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.

The report states: “A range of socio-technical interventions will be required to optimise the way the NHS 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.”

WHAT ARE SMART SENSORS?

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.

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.

ARE THEY DIFFICULT TO FIT IN OLD BUILDINGS?

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Pressac’s energy sensor

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

IS IT SECURE?

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.

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.

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/

CAN SYSTEMS-THINKING HELP TO REDUCE RISK AND DELIVER DECARBONISATION?

Stuart McLaren, Decarbonomics Director, and Steve Tasker, Infrastructure Market Director at AtkinsGlobal

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.

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.

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 systems-thinking approach by making bad decisions early in the process.

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.

DATA AVAILABILITY

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The value of systems-thinking is in enabling companies to go into spaces they may not have otherwise gone.

NOT PART OF THE LANGUAGE

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 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.

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.

RESOLVING COMPLEXITY

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. 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.

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.

DE-RISKING FINANCE

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 for projects, the blocker is trying to map money to projects as a lot of people simply can’t afford them.

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.

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.

THE BIRTH OF DECARBONOMICS™

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.

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 integrating people, data and technology to provide greater opportunities to embrace outcome-based commercial models which mutually incentivise delivery of net zero goals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/