Energy Manager Magazine September 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020

www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk

Improving availability of energy storage technology

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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18

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Priva Building Automation on Tour

Taking the first steps towards green buildings

The latest EC fan technology is critical to ventilation efficiency

FRONT COVER STORY:

Improving availability of energy storage technology See page 7

SEPTEMBER 2020

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INSIDE: 4

News

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Opinion

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Monitoring & Metering

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Net Zero

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Exhibition News

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Smart Cities

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Energy Storage

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Energy Management

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Biomass

35

CHP

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District Heating

38

Water Management

40

HVAC

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Renewable Energy

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Driving the Future ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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NEWS

INNOVATIVE BATTERY DELIVERED TO PORTSMOUTH INTERNATIONAL PORT AS PART OF PESO DECARBONISATION PROJECT

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20-foot container sized battery that can charge four electric cars simultaneously has been safely delivered to Portsmouth International Port this week as part of the Port Energy Systems Optimisation (PESO) project.

The PESO project is being led by Marine South East supported by Portsmouth International Port alongside Swanbarton and Energy Systems Catapult. The scheme will demonstrate how a port can operate as a smart energy network.

The port already has significant energy generating capabilities from solar panels across the site, so the ability to integrate local electricity generation with novel energy storage and smart energy management to be able to use it later at times of higher demand means that clean energy can be used much more efficiently. It can also be used by the wider electricity grid to help smooth demand at peak times, or provide power for electric vehicle charging.

The new GS Yuasa dual chemical energy storage system comes in the form of a weatherproof shelter that will be able to supply 100kW of power. In real world terms, this means four mid-range electric cars could be charged at the same time using energy stored in the battery.

The battery uses lithium-ion technology as well as standard lead acid Yuasa ENL battery technology. These batteries are manufactured

at GS Yuasa’s Ebbw Vale factory in Wales where final assembly and integration of the entire system takes place. The system’s lithium batteries come from Japan.

The funding to develop and build the prototype system is coming from InnovateUK’s ‘Prospering from the Energy Revolution’ fund.

The system is due to come into operation in early 2021.

Mike Sellers, port director at Portsmouth International Port said: “I’m delighted that this important milestone has been reached. This initiative has the potential to have significant benefits for the port, and could also provide a solution to smart energy use that can be shared with the wider port industry.

“This innovative project demonstrates our ambition to be one of the UK’s first zero-emission ports. Being at forefront of research into sustainable energy projects like this will help us reach that target.”

Dr Jonathan Williams, CEO of Marine South East, ‘The decarbonising of our ports and shipping sector presents enormous challenges requiring innovative energy systems. MSE is delighted to be leading

the PESO consortium to explore the role of port batteries in this energy transition.’

Anthony Price, Managing Director of Swanbarton added, “Making electricity storage work is an important part of the route to zero emissions, and we are looking forward to integrating Swanbarton’s innovative storage management controller with Yuasa’s new dual battery system to demonstrate both energy and cost savings.”

Liam Lidstone, Business Leader Infrastructure & Engineering at Energy Systems Catapult said “The Catapult see the decarbonisation of ports as a key part of the UK’s route to net-zero.

We are delighted to be a partner in this project and are looking forward to sharing valuable insight for ports in the UK and beyond.” www.innovateuk.ukri.org

Octopus Energy chosen to power next generation of on-street EV charging projects

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he energy technology company Octopus Energy, together with other industry leading partners, has secured funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for two pioneering projects in EV charging infrastructure. The projects will investigate how the secure smart metering system can be used to optimise on-street EV charging, to use electricity when it is at its cheapest or greenest, and to help balance the grid in a future renewable energy system.

Both projects will feature time-of-use energy tariffs, allowing users to charge their electric cars during off-peak hours when prices are lower. They will help the uptake of EVs by supporting the development of public charge points for drivers without driveways or garages who cannot charge at home charging stations. As part of both research trials, Octopus Energy will

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provide the renewable electricity used to power the next generation of smart on-street electric vehicle chargers.

The first project, Agile Streets, will develop a new business model to encourage EV drivers to switch to a flexible charging schedule while connected to new on-street charge points developed for the trial. The second project, SmartSTEP, will integrate smart meter technology with novel charge points, which were developed as part of the Innovate UK STEP project (Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways).

The charge points are slotted into the pavement and accessed via a separate “Trojan Energy Lance” issued to users.

Agile Streets and SmartSTEP are the only projects funded under the governments ‘Beyond Off Street’ programme. Phase 1 of the trials began in July 2020. Both

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

projects will also join Octopus Energy’s Electric Juice Charging Network, which offers electric vehicle drivers a ‘one-stopshop’ solution to pay for all their charging, covering different partner networks and charge points all across the UK. Zoisa Walton, Director of Octopus Energy for Business, comments: “Whether on streets, at petrol stations or in the home, we need electric vehicle chargers to be accessible everywhere if the green energy revolution is to keep powering ahead.

“We’re incredibly proud to have been picked to lead, together with our partners, the development of the next generation of charging infrastructure, enabled by smart meters, with these two projects.

Creating an effortless smart charging network is crucial to dispel concerns of EV critics and accelerate the electrification of transport.” https://octopus.energy

NEWS

Priva Building Automation on Tour: Building technologies manufacturer takes latest innovations direct to customers

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leading building technologies manufacturer has announced the launch of a new, safe way to stay connected with customers, consultants and Partners.

Priva Building Automation UK will tour the UK with its travelling ‘exhibition’, the Priva Bus during October 2020. The Priva Bus enables the company’s UK team to take its innovations and solutions direct to customers and stakeholders; wherever they are located.

The Priva team will plan a route around the UK taking in all four countries within the United Kingdom. Depending on distancing measures in place at the time, customers and partners based in Southern Ireland may

need to travel to location across the border.

The company believes its touring showcase offers a safe and attractive alternative to its usual schedule of thirdparty events and on-site briefings.

Gavin Holvey, General Manager – UK & Ireland comments: “With so many trade exhibitions and face to face opportunities postponed this year, we knew we need to find a safe, alternative way to keep in touch with people. Sometimes, a video call just isn’t enough. The Priva Bus is a brilliant initiative: it will be a place where visitors can learn – in a safe environment – about our Building Management System (BMS)

packages, Cloud Services, natural ventilation and smart, healthy building technologies.

And, the real benefit is, we can bring our Priva Bus right to customers’ doorsteps.

Companies interested in booking a visit from the Priva UK Team and the Priva Bus can do so by email, phone or online. Strict social distancing and hygiene measures will be in place to ensure the safety of visitors and Priva’s staff.

For more information visit: https:// www.priva.com/discover-priva/stayinformed/events/priva-on-tour

FINAL 5MW GOES LIVE AT UK’S LARGEST COUNCIL-OWNED BATTERY STORAGE SITE

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iwi Power, a leading global energy technology company that is simplifying distributed energy, has today commissioned the final 5MW of battery storage at South Somerset District Council’s (SSDC) ground-breaking site at Fideoak Mill in Taunton.

The additional £2.5m investment brings the site’s total capacity to 30MW, the UK’s largest council-owned battery storage site. Kiwi Power’s proprietary hardware, Fruit, was installed on all 22 battery units so that the site can provide grid balancing services to National Grid.

“Councils across the UK are seeking to make the most out of their sustainability and carbon emissions investments as they

seek to meet increasingly stringent targets.

Landmark projects such as Fideoak are vital for demonstrating how investments in battery storage and renewables are value adding and income generating” Thomas Jennings, Head of Optimisation said.

“With rapidly changing market dynamics, SSDC will be relying on our co-optimisation team to ensure that the £12m asset always participates in the right market at the right time so that it delivers the maximum return possible for the investment” Jennings added.

In June, Kiwi Power commissioned the first 25MW of the project in just four days. The final phase of the project – a further 5MW in capacity – has now also been commissioned.

In total, 67 Fruits are synchronised

together so that the site can participate in any of the UK’s 15 flexibility markets.

The site is unusual in the fact that the site controller must be able to simultaneously shut off all batteries with immediate effect in response to a constraint signal from Western Power Distribution. To facilitate this, Kiwi Power developed a solution based on its proprietary technology that could interpret the incoming signal and simultaneous dispatch it to each of the 22 units on site.

Complete synchronicity was key to ensuring proper management. By adapting the existing infrastructure, site completion continued without delay or additional cost to the client. https://www.kiwipowered.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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NEWS

LONDON BUS GARAGE BECOMES WORLD’S LARGEST VEHICLE-TO-GRID SITE

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North London bus garage is set to become a ‘virtual power station’, generating electricity from buses when not in use. Following a transformation to garage nearly 100 new zero-emission electric buses, Northumberland Park is now one of the biggest electric bus facilities in Europe. The project, called Bus2Grid, is believed to be the world’s largest vehicle-to-grid (V2G) trial site.

V2G technology enables energy stored in an electric vehicle’s battery to be fed back into the electricity network. By recharging when demand is low and putting energy into the grid when it is high, V2G helps manage the peaks and troughs, balance the network and make it more efficient.

If the entire London bus fleet of around 9,000 vehicles were to be converted with the technology being used in the Bus2Grid project, it could theoretically provide enough energy to supply more than 150,000 homes.

The Bus2Grid project will be led by SSE Enterprise in partnership with the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and Go-Ahead London. The initial trial will use the batteries of 28 state-ofthe-art double decker buses, capable of returning over 1MW energy to the grid.

Bus2Grid will explore both the commercial value and social benefits to the energy and passenger transportation systems by developing services for the national grid, regional distribution network operators, bus operators and transport

authorities. The development and test of the underpinning technology is also an important objective of the trial.

Niall Riddell, Smart Systems Innovation Sector Director for SSE Enterprise, said: “Central to the challenge of decarbonising our transport and achieving climate change targets is how we can optimise the existing flexibility within the energy system. Developing a charging infrastructure that operates in two directions so that batteries can give back as well as take from the grid is an important part of this.

Go Ahead London was chosen

by TfL to run the first electric buses in London back in 2013. It has now grown its fleet to 240 – making it the largest e-bus operator in Britain.

Dr Stephen Hall from the University of Leeds, one of the project partners, said: “Electrifying transport will have huge benefits for air quality in cities and for meeting our climate change commitments. Large electric vehicles like these can also support the energy system, but this means creating new ways of working between energy utilities, grid managers, and transport providers. This project is creating new business models to make this happen.”

Frank Thorpe, Managing Director of BYD UK (Build Your Dreams), said: “This is a significant step for the BYD ADL Partnership, already the market leader in electric buses on British roads. Exploiting the potential of electric buses to act as ‘mobile power

stations’ will be critical to the efficient running of the grid once electric vehicles of all types become commonplace.”

UK Power Networks forecasts there will be more than 3.6m electric vehicles connected to its network by 2030, an increase of more than 3.5m on the 95,000 vehicles currently in its region, creating significant additional demand on the energy system.

The options are either to spend customers’ money on building new infrastructure to meet this increasing demand, or to charge in a smarter way to avoid it.

The three-year trial is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) with the support of Innovate UK. The Bus2Grid project is being led by SSE Enterprise and supported by a partnership including bus manufacturer Build Your Dreams/Alexander Dennis Limited (BYDADL), TfL, bus operator Go Ahead Group, electricity distribution network UK Power Networks, Leeds University and Scotland based Alexander Dennis with aggregation of the buses supported by Origami.

For further information visit the Bus 2 Grid microsite here: https:// www.sseutilitysolutions.co.uk/ products/bus2grid-2/

RenewableUK unveils new electricity storage manual to highlight cutting-edge technology

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enewableUK is launching a new manual on energy storage, the day before our Global Offshore Wind V-Fest (virtual festival), where storing clean power is a key theme.

The new guide, entitled “Electricity Storage: The Cornerstone of the UK’s Future Energy System” is published by Haynes as part of its world-famous series of manuals, sponsored

by RenewableUK, RCG (Renewables Consulting Group) and Siemens Energy.

The manual sets out the wide range of storage technologies now being developed such as renewable hydrogen made from electricity generated by offshore wind farms, which can be used for heating and transport; two sectors which have so far been slow to decarbonise.

Increasing electrification in transport and

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heating this decade means that demand for clean power will surge in the years ahead, so increasing our ability to store electricity using a variety of technologies is an essential part of the UK’s future energy system. The widespread growth of EVs, for example, offers opportunities for the lithium-ion batteries that power these cars to make the grid more flexible and save consumers money by storing power.

The manual also explores cutting-edge projects like the Siemens Green Ammonia Demonstrator. This uses electrolysis, powered by renewable energy, to produce ammonia to be used as a fuel. When this is burned, it turns back into nitrogen and water – without creating any CO2 emissions.

RenewableUK’s Executive Director Isabel DiVanna said: “The aim of this manual is

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

to get everyone up to speed on the next big thing: energy storage. Ramping up our storage capacity is vital if we want to make the best use of the massive quantities of electricity we’re generating from wind, solar and other renewables.

Storage offers flexibility, helping to balance the grid, and it’s becoming an important source of revenue for our members. We’re seeing the growth of a new industry, with large-scale batteries co-located alongside wind and solar farms for example.

“But it’s about more than just batteries.

A variety of other innovative technologies like renewable hydrogen, green ammonia, flywheels and compressed air energy storage will play a role alongside traditional pumped hydro projects, as this manual explains”.

Email: Luke.Clark@RenewableUK.com

NEWS

Energy Infrastructure of the Future: Ground Source Heat Pumps

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IBE Energy Systems has published a new policy paper which includes a scheme to support the installation of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) infrastructure to enable greater uptake in the UK. It has been shared with BEIS and industry representatives.

The paper proposes a radical new policy solution to fund 100 years of GSHP infrastructure. This would help finance the ground works for GSHPs, making their cost comparable to gas boilers through a fee paid regularly by the household. This will pay back the initial capex for the ground works and create warmer, low-carbon new build homes, generating benefits for all parties.

GSHPs work by extracting warmth from underground by pumping water through a network of large pipes buried in a property’s garden, via boreholes that can reach several kilometers. They represent a stable method of heating and cooling all year round and are as effective in summer as they are in winter.

The ability to install a renewable heating system without the requirement for additional space is an attraction for developers with

space at a premium on new build sites. The technology offers a space-saving solution ideal for large developments, but significant deployment is being held back by higher costs.

The recently announced Clean Heat Grant was welcomed by the heat pump sector, however concerns have been raised about the predicted uptake and the suitability of the flat £4,000 grant for GSHPs. It is the cost of the groundworks which makes GSHPs more expensive than their air source counterparts but both technologies have a role to play in delivering the net zero aspirations. Just 11,000 GSHPs were installed under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) in March 2020 compared to over 46,000 air source heat pumps, despite applications for domestic RHI reaching a four year high. Mechanisms to support deployment must be tailored to ensure that all homes and business are able to access low carbon heating.

Conducting the ground works necessary for GSHPs is very cost-effective when servicing multiple homes at one time. This is because the machinery that is used to drill the boreholes, known as rigs, can simply

be moved between properties in the same development at a very low cost. If homes are serviced on an individual basis instead, the cost associated with the borehole drilling can be a substantial proportion of the overall cost.

NIBE believe that the groundworks needed for GSHPs should be seen as a long-term infrastructure investment and policy should be designed to encourage deployment. Incentivising energy infrastructure investments such as boreholes should help to deliver increased uptake of this lowcarbon technology. www.nibe.co.uk

IMPROVING AVAILABILITY OF ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

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ollowing the Government’s announcement to relax planning legislation around constructing larger batteries for renewable power sources, energy storage suppliers should take similar steps to make the technology available on a smaller scale.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) announcement that barriers will be removed for storage projects over 50 MW in England and 350 MW in Wales will boost construction of larger battery facilities. Chris Rason, Managing Director for Aggreko, is therefore encouraging uptake in this technology as the UK moves to a carbon-neutral future.

“The construction of larger batteries is

crucial to the Government’s efforts to hit its targets of net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” says Chris. “Great strides are being made to increase the country’s capacity for generating renewable energy, and improving its energy storage capacity is a part of this. As such, the Government’s recent announcement is very welcome news.”

With BEIS figures showing a record 37.1 per cent of UK electricity was generated through renewables, and industry bodies demanding further energy storage infrastructure to service a growing electrical vehicle market, Chris is anticipating increased demand for battery technology. “As the country gravitates toward these more eco-conscious energy sources and technologies, energy storage solutions will grow in popularity to sustain this demand,” says Chris. “With this in mind, it is vital that suppliers offer affordable solutions, in order to give businesses a helping hand overcoming traditional barriers associated with battery technology.

Battery-based storage technology has previously proven prohibitively costly for companies to purchase on

an industrial scale. However, progression in the rental space and moves such as the BEIS’s announcement has made it more accessible than it was even three years ago.

As well as allowing for more widespread use of renewable power, the technology also provides an excellent level of grid support.

Additionally, when incorporated into the energy mix, battery solutions can help alleviate technical difficulties associated with early-stage decentralised energy schemes, mitigating issues such as low and transient loads, alongside voltage and frequency fluctuations.

Chris concludes: “The relaxation of planning rules is a net positive for those looking to the build large-scale projects, and bodes well for a net zero future. However, suppliers of energy storage technology can do more to support businesses looking to adopt these innovative solutions on a smaller scale.

“Too many companies remain locked out of the energy storage space by prohibitive up-front costs. However, by engaging suppliers such as Aggreko that offer strategic equipment hire options, these capex concerns can be negated. Consequently, companies can take advantage of this technology and continue to decarbonise in line with net zero targets, without any large financial outlay.” aggreko.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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OPINION

WHAT NEXT FOR DATA CENTRES ON THE SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY? Ian Whitfield, CEO of RED (an ENGIE Impact company)

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ver the course of the past year, the number of tech giants that have taken a more aggressive stance on climate change and their own environmental impact has seen a significant increase.

Among others, Microsoft has pledged to become carbon negative, Amazon is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2040, and Intel has plotted a path to carbon neutral computing by 2030.

Each company faces its own unique set of challenges. Amazon, for example, is heavily reliant on a delivery infrastructure that currently produces millions of tons of emissions, whereas Microsoft and Intel are not. However, one area that will require all tech giants to focus on is data centres. These computer server facilities consume roughly 1% of all electricity worldwide – addressing this and transforming

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them to be more sustainable will be critical if those tech companies are to meet the various zero carbon and energy pledges they have made.

It’s important to note that much progress has already been made on improving the sustainability credentials of data centres in the past decade. Despite the volume of computing increasing fourfold in data centres between 2010 and 2018, energy consumption only grew by 6%, thanks to the efforts invested in achieving efficiency gains.

To date, many data centre operators have tackled the most straightforward efficiency saving opportunities. The most high-profile of these is cooling. Previously, the norm was to keep data centre temperatures operating at 20-22 degrees Celsius. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for data centres to be at temperatures closer to 27 degrees Celsius. This change has had a significant impact on efficiency

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

because less energy is required now temperatures don’t need to be as low.

In addition to this, there’s also been adoption of hot and cold aisle containment in recent years. This is where air flow is managed so that cold air from air conditioning doesn’t mix with the hot air emitted from the servers. The server racks are lined up in alternating rows, with the hot air output from servers on both sides of the aisle, which ensures the hot air is contained in that row. Meanwhile, the next aisle

OPINION

over is kept cool by positioning the server intakes facing one another.

Despite progress in efficiency in recent years, such as with the cooling, there is more that can and should be done.

OPTIMISATION AND RECONFIGURATION First and foremost, there are further energy savings that can be achieved by optimising the operation and performance of IT equipment. This takes two forms: replacing outdated, inefficient equipment with modern alternatives in existing data centres or specifying up to date equipment in new builds; and, reconfiguring existing equipment to operate in a more efficient manner.

The first of these, committing to the use of new, advanced equipment, has clear benefits. A server that uses less watts usually means fewer watts are required for cooling. Not only is the latest server technology better for the environment, there is a cost saving for operators over the useful lifetime of the server. Multiply that cost saving across an entire data centre of, say, 50,000-80,000 servers, and total savings could equal millions of pounds. The performance of a newer server is also superior to previous models, so often fewer servers are needed to handle the same load.

The second form, reconfiguration, can be more challenging, but is just as important. Here, equipment is assessed and updated to be more efficient. Take

a fan on a server as an example. The fan is usually set to run at maximum speed, which requires the air conditioning to work harder. Often, the fan isn’t required to work at maximum speed. Instead, it can be set to a lower speed, which reduces the demands on air conditioning and brings down energy use further.

These two activities present proven opportunities to tackle carbon emissions. However, an area of possible opportunity yet to be explored properly is the carbon footprint of data centres – and, by this, I mean the manufacturing of everything that goes into a data centre and its very construction.

REDUCING CARBON FOOTPRINT At present, much of the infrastructure for data centres has a high carbon footprint. Concrete is a good example of this – it is said to be responsible for 4-8% of the world’s CO2. And then there are other materials, such as copper, which are heavily used in data centres even though many operators aren’t clear on what the footprint is.

To tackle the challenges of carbon footprint, two things are needed. First, more research is required to understand the real carbon footprint of the various materials used in a data centre.

Secondly, the way in which materials are used needs to advance to improve performance and reduce footprint.

The key to understanding a datacentre’s embodied carbon footprint

lies in establishing the footprint of each component used to build the facility and their origin. This is because it is possible to find two materials of similar specification which have vastly differing carbon footprints. For example, most metallic components are forged or ‘founded’ at some point in their production. One foundry may use nuclear power as its heat source, whereas a similar foundry may use a fossil fuel derived energy. Understanding these differences allows designers of data centres and those commissioning the builds to make informed choices when choosing their datacentre supply chain.

Currently, 59% of the global population has access to the internet.

This will grow – forecasts suggest to 90% by 2030. Demands on data centres are only going to increase during this timeframe, and there will likely be a major surge in data being processed when emerging technologies, like autonomous driving, hit the mainstream.

In addition to continuing to make equipment more efficient, there is a small window of opportunity for big tech companies to further develop their understanding of factors such as data centre carbon footprints and recycling, and address the challenges they present. It’s important this is done sooner, rather than later – otherwise it could be an uphill battle for those tech giants to meet their sustainability pledges. https://www.red-eng.com/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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OPINION

BUILDING BACK BETTER MEANS RE-TOOLING, NOT SIMPLY STARTING UP THE ENGINE AGAIN Vaughan Lindsay, CEO, ClimateCare.

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OVID-19 is having a profound impact globally. Not only is it affecting our health and our personal lives, it is fundamentally challenging (and indeed changing) our political, social, and economic norms. It is also having a profound impact on the way in which we think about climate change too.

CORRELATIONS AND PARALLELS Many have written articles over the past few months about the similarities between the pandemic

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and the climate emergency. I, myself, have also commented on this because the similarities are indeed very prevalent on first view.

Certainly, the parallels between the Coronavirus response and how we should collaboratively tackle the climate crisis should not be overlooked.

For instance, tackling either problem will change our lifestyle in a number of ways, and we will all have to make short term adaptations for a much longerterm gain. Likewise, in both crises there is a requirement for coordination and cooperation; the efforts of any one individual will achieve nothing to mitigate the risk unless accompanied by efforts from many others. The pandemic has highlighted how important Government action is in galvanising action, so we all take responsibility together and fight this off together. I also believe that the

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

pandemic exposes that we can all live differently, that we are all adaptable.

But it has also, rather unfortunately, exposed that we can (as we have seen in recent days as lockdown is lifting), just as easily revert back to our original status quo too. This has left many who were hoping for long term behavioural change, scratching their heads somewhat.

SOME FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES There are also some very important differences too between the pandemic and the climate crisis; namely the speed in which we actually witness any effects and how long we all live with the impact. COVID-19 is immediate, it’s on everyone’s minds, every minute of the day and it is rapidly escalating. We simply cannot get away from it. Climate change, on the other hand, feels like a

OPINION done with realism and integrity. As a recent Mckinsey report reveals, “finding a low-carbon, high-growth recovery formula isn’t easy. It requires assessing stimulus measures with respect to complex factors, including socioeconomic impact, climate impact, and feasibility.”

Reducing emissions to net zero by 2050, and hopefully sooner (2030), and building back better also requires real action by Government right now. To achieve net zero as soon as possible, we must achieve an annual emissions reduction rate which is 30% higher than that seen since 1990, when the UK benefitted from the movement away from coal. Whilst reducing energy consumption and making other quick win changes are important, they alone, are simply not sufficient. If we are going to make progress towards net zero, we must start by ensuring that everyone takes responsibility for their full emissions sooner rather than later and at the same time as we plan for longer term systemic change to decarbonise our economy.

much longer-term threat and doesn’t invoke the same kind of unease or fear. As Alex Steffen, a climate futurist, explains, it’s “not an issue, it’s an era”.

Climate change is thus perceived by many as something that can be put on the backburner until we have sorted the current immediate threat from the coronavirus or Brexit or whatever comes next…. And this, for me, is concerning.

In my opinion, the short-term imperative of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t alter the urgency of dealing with the climate crisis. It’s simply not enough to state that if we can deal with the pandemic, we can indeed deal with climate change too.

This is a misnomer. And it’s actually very dangerous because it’s too passive.

TAKING RESPONSIBLY AND BUILDING BACK BETTER The period after the COVID-19 crisis, and of course the way the pandemic is handled, could well determine whether we meet our emissions goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement (to limit global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C). To achieve a low carbon recovery, we all need to start taking responsibility for all our emissions collectively and, most importantly, right now. If we are indeed going to ‘build back better’ then we need to work towards a sustainable low carbon recovery and this needs to be

AN ECONOMY WIDE CARBON PRICE WILL ENSURE POLLUTERS PAY Government must make progress on putting the appropriate policies and frameworks in place, to ensure that individuals and businesses are paying for their impact in a fair and equitable manner. An important step in this is to establish a mandatory, society wide price on carbon emissions, reflecting the true societal cost of carbon as well as the cost of an equivalent reduction.

Whilst this is something we have been striving towards here at ClimateCare, many questions have rightly been raised about how much this should be.

In fact, over the last few days, experts have warned that only assigning minor costs to CO2 output in the process will fail to make a dent in driving the sustainability of the global economy in the long-term and will in turn not meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals.

The OECD considers anything from €60 to €100+ a tonne to be an effective mid-point rate today and low-end estimate for 2030.

The target price must recognise the need for the UK to contribute to emission reduction projects both at home and abroad. These projects will not only deliver verified emission reductions which will offset today’s emissions, they can also provide additional positive impacts in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. This would help stimulate UK-based projects such as domestic sequestration through tree

planting and peatland restoration. This will not only aid the climate and biodiversity but will go even further to help tackle ongoing climate-related environmental issues which we will all continue to face, such as flood management.

We also need global solutions to tackle this global issue. An effective global carbon market is critical. Kelley Kizzier from International Climate EDF has highlighted that the global use of carbon markets could allow the near doubling of climate ambitions at the same cost, relative to current National Determined Contributions.

GOVERNMENT IS CRITICAL TO ENSURING WE MOVE AT PACE While there is much corporates, organisations and individuals can and should do to take responsibility for their emissions, Government leadership is required to ensure we move at pace in the coming months as we start to come out of lockdown. They need to set a strong policy environment with a clear direction of travel and plans to incentivise, enable and catalyse change at the speed required to put net zero within reach and build back better.

RE-TOOL, RATHER THAN RESTARTING THE ENGINE Certainly, the tragic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis have taken immediate attention away from the threat of climate change, not least because institutions have devoted themselves to protecting lives and livelihoods. Some have noted that COVID-19 is just the prelude to the climate crisis, former Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, for instance, said that the main lesson we have to learn from the pandemic is that “COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for climate change.” Whatever one’s belief about the longer term impacts here, we must all ensure we do not lose sight of the longer-term tragedy that faces us all.

The key here, as we come out of lockdown, is that we all need to retool, rather than start the engine back up again.

This, along with a mandatory societal wide carbon pricing, will be essential if we are to bring about the scale of change required to fight the climate crisis.

If we are going to limit global warming and avoid catastrophic climate change, then we need to take full responsibility for our carbon emissions right now, as well as taking action to move to NetZero as quickly as possible. Or as Mark Carney has quite aptly stated in the past, “Firms that align their business models to the transition to a carbon-neutral world will be rewarded handsomely; those that fail to adapt will cease to exist.” Never before has this been more true. https://climatecare.org/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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OPINION

CLIMATE CHANGE: A GROWING CHALLENGE FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Finding Talent in an Increasingly Competitive and Talent Short Market

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limate change is a real issue which requires real solutions. This is especially true for the public sector, particularly local authorities, who are faced with real climate-related impacts on communities and the environment.

“The debate is over: climate change is a reality. With a fast-closing window of opportunity, a rapid response is essential,” stated Phil Woolas MP in 2007, ex Minister for the Environment at Defra.

Considering this heightened awareness, it is no surprise that, to date, The Local Government Association has reported that 230 councils in the UK have declared a climate emergency.

But what does this mean for the public sector?

THERE IS STILL TOO LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION. The PSSA (Public Sector Sustainability Association) reports “Earth is now the warmest it has been in more than 120,000 years, with 19 of the 20 warmest years on record all occurring since 2001.”

When looking at this from a public sector point of view, two issues must be addressed: 1. Adaptation – taking measures to ensure that services can be delivered efficiently in the face of the effects of climate change; and 2. Mitigation – reducing the extent to which services contribute towards climate change, largely through reducing carbon emissions.

The Government is equipping the public sector with a number of tools such as UKCIP, guides for local councils, and a myriad of other documents and advice. Although we have known about the impact of human activities on the environment for over 20 years, only recently has climate change become an “active” concern, and therefore a relatively new order of business for the public sector. In turn, this means there is a need for specialist professionals able to support the public sector with both climate adaptation and mitigation.

This need is growing. With a limited number of experienced professionals

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equipped to assist, finding them is becoming a concern.

“ FISHING IN THE SAME POND.” The private sector has so far played a key role in looking at how organisations address climate change, with an increasing number of corporations, SMEs and start-ups directly responding with real action. Decision makers within all groups have invariably incorporated climate change action in the form of carbon offsets, climate action agendas, CSR and more. This, from a talent acquisition perspective, means that climate change specialists have been hired and developed to support such radical business model changes. Even within the private sector, experts are still difficult to find, thus aggressively sought after. With the public sector now entering the race, this talent shortage is only going to be exacerbated further.

It is true that the subject of climate change is now becoming increasingly taught as a topic in schools, colleges, and universities. New undergraduate degrees focused on climate change have been introduced, and an increasing number of students are enrolling in such courses.

However, the clock is ticking, and there is no time to wait for a new expert generation. While the public sector is joining the race, advertising for climate change experts on the same platforms used by the private sector, everyone finds themselves “fishing in the same pond.”

Therefore, the question is: what is going to influence talent to join one side or the other? Of course, salary, tempting packages and career rewards play a key role; but, as we enter a value-driven “new age”, this is not all those experts

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

are interested in. The value of making a change is becoming a (if not the) deciding factor when considering a new role.

Even with talent in place, how ready are public sector organisations to adapt?

FINDING AND ONBOARDING TALENT. AN EASY TASK? To tackle this skill shortage issue, it is important to have a robust talent attraction strategy to ensure you can hire the right people at the right time.

This can be done with the support of skilled recruitment partners who have a finger on the market pulse, and a pre-existing, established network.

Climate17 have specialised in Climate Action and Sustainability recruitment for many years, and have a track record of successful partnerships with a number of public sector organisations, including the City of London. While we recognise talent searching can be difficult in such competitive markets, we take advantage of our experience, and utilise industry intelligence and networks to successfully approach the right people and engage them in the right way, to give us the best chance of success.

We are Clean Energy and Environmental recruitment veterans, and our Directors have been recruiting within climate change and sustainability since 2007. Helping organisations that really want to make a difference is what drives us at Climate17. We thrive on opportunities where our specialists can assist the public sector in filling skills gaps, turning a challenging brief in a successful hire, and supporting the global fight against climate change. https://www.climate17.com/

MONITORING & METERING

MICRONICS U1000 CLAMP-ON FLOWMETER USED REPEATEDLY BY WATER TREATMENT AND LEGIONELLA COMPLIANCE SPECIALIST

ULTRAFLO U1000MKII-HM THE THERMAL, HEAT/ENERGY METERING SOLUTION FROM MICRONICS. SIMPLE, LOW COST, HOT OR CHILLED WATER ENERGY MEASUREMENT FROM OUTSIDE THE PIPE. A SMARTER SOLUTION THAN IN-LINE METERS!

The U1000 clamp-on flowmeter was used to control a chemical dosage system in a water tank in a major Manchester hospital.

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CS Group a top-5 water treatment, systems control and Legionella compliance specialist, which help manufacturers, commercial businesses, public organisations and maintenance companies find ways to manage water and water and air hygiene processes, are regular users of the U1000.

Tom Wilson, the Regional Delivery Manager was recommended to use the ultrasonic flow meter because it was non-invasive, meaning pipes would not have to be cut into during installation so that the day to day running of the hospital would not have to be interrupted. “At first I wanted a traditional meter but was persuaded to give the Micronics U1000 a try and I’m delighted that I did not follow my instincts because we have since successfully used the same meter in a Nottinghamshire hospital. We have to guarantee clean, safe water, fresh air and exacting hygiene particularly in a hospital environment and the Micronics unit helps us do that. And an added bonus was that the Micronics staff were very helpful.”

With 35 years’ experience in the market Micronics can supply or rent a simple to use portable instrument for the initial investigations to help build a picture of what’s going on and, as a next stage, they can provide fixed clamp-on solutions to provide the essential ongoing measurement and monitoring.

The U1000 ensures that installation costs are minimal because the system does not need to be drained down to cut into pipes making it a cost-effective solution. It’s configured for pipe size so there is only nominal configuration required on site and its easy to follow menu makes it an ideal alternative to the installation of a traditional in-line meter. Additionally, there is no possibility of flow contamination and ongoing maintenance is simplified because dry servicing is possible, which maximises availability.

If you would like further info, pricing for a project or a no obligation demonstration please take a look at our website: www.micronicsflowmeters.com or contact Tracey Rolfe at our sales office on +44 (0) 1628 642057 or email Tracey.Rolfe@micronicsltd.co.uk

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Simple to install – connect power and enter the pipe inside diameter, adjust the sensors and clamp-on the pipe – no specialist skills or tools required!

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Metering, Measuring and Managing Resources

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ENERGY CONTROLS

Metering, Measuring and Managing Resources

MONITORING & METERING

HEAT NETWORK METERING PLATFORMS: WHEN IS IT RIGHT TO RETROFIT? Retrofitting metering, billing and payment systems to existing heat networks can seem like an impossible task for energy managers. Even when there’s a strong business case for upgrading to a modern system, the cost and potential disruption can be off-putting. Is it worth it, asks Insite Energy’s Operations Director, Andy Leatherland?

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eing stuck with a metering, billing, and payment system that’s not fit for purpose can cause big problems for heat network providers and energy managers alike. Individual property heat metering and prescribed billing formats are now a legal requirement in most situations, yet there are still an estimated 342,000 unmetered properties on heat networks. Many more have only basic or poorly functioning meters that lack modern data and analytics technology, let alone meet legal specifications. Commonly, this leads to higher bills for both landlords and residents.

With the forthcoming amendment to the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014, enforcement is expected to be even more stringent than before. This will force many organisations to retrofit new metering and billing equipment when they otherwise might have continued indefinitely with sub-optimal systems.

Other pressing business concerns, too, are driving the retrofit trend. Credit billing without adequate debt control often results in a significant and surprisingly quick buildup of resident arrears, leaving heat network providers unable to recover the site’s energy bill.

Switching to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) minimises this risk by enabling self-disconnection of individual accounts following non-payment, and the ability to set-up simple, proportionate payment plans to recoup old debt that previously was challenging to collect.

Even when the need is less urgent, there can be compelling reasons to retrofit or switch to a new metering supplier. Restrictive contracts, crudely designed systems and poorquality hardware can ultimately end up costing a company and its customers more in energy use and maintenance. At Insite Energy, we are regularly called in to upgrade systems because clients want to make heat more affordable, fair (meaning users only pay for what they use) and to improve customer service, through technology and metering and billing services.

Giving residents better data about energy usage generally reduces consumption, resulting in further savings, so return on investment can be quite quick, ultimately, leading to reduced tariffs.

Sometimes the decision to retrofit comes from the desire for a one-stop-shop offering or a move away from restrictive closed-protocol systems. The latter was the case when a G15

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housing association retrofitted wireless PAYG metering and billing into 75 properties at a large existing development in London, switching from a credit billing system. As well as rapidly mitigating debt risk, the housing association now benefits from cutting-edge data analysis.

IS THE GAIN WORTH THE PAIN? Despite the potential gains, energy managers can be reluctant to replace legacy systems because it may be both expensive and challenging to execute. It can cost more to retrofit a PAYG system than to install it during a building’s construction, and even a modest outlay can be hard to cover when there’s no budget.

Added to this is the fact that residents may initially be opposed to a change like this that may lead to an increase in their bills (through the introduction of accurate readings) or require them to make regular payments, as well as causing upheaval and inconvenience during the changeover. Energy managers will be familiar with stories of installations taking months or even years to complete due to difficulties accessing tenants’ homes. No one wants to pay for site visits, only for contractors to be unable to get in to do the work on arrival.

These concerns can lead energy managers to feel they must stick with what they have, throwing good money after bad to fix redundant or poorly functioning technology, retaining exposure to bad debt, even though the potential savings from upgrading can more than repay the investment in the long run.

AVOIDING PITFALLS Retrofitting can be much easier than people think. Good preparation with the right partner can mitigate most potential difficulties, while financial options such as hardware leasing, as offered by Insite Energy, can reduce upfront costs to just the labour element, making them much more affordable.

The benefits of PAYG are worth the effort and when it comes to wireless PAYG retrofits, the process is much easier as there is no need for an existing, good quality M-Bus network.

A good metering system supplier will start by consulting with you in depth, to really understand your requirements. If possible, choose a company that offers a range of platforms that can be tailored according to need. At Insite, we offer Secure and Guru meters

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

and now, even a digital, low capital expenditure, app-based PAYG system called KURVE. We have spent the past two years studying how retrofits impact users and applying that learning to make the process as smooth as possible. Communicating effectively with residents about the installation process and the benefits of the new system – such as accurate billing, improved customer experience, and cost savings – is key to avoiding friction and delays. We’ve found the best approach is for our clients to communicate with tenants directly, with our help behind the scenes in the form of an online scheduling system. We also often attend residents’ meetings before, during and after a retrofit to provide reassurance, answer questions and resolve any issues.

There’s much that can be done to minimise inconvenience for everyone. We use dual-trade engineers who can complete the electrical and mechanical work in one visit, as well as being uniformed, fully PPE-equipped and trained in the appropriate etiquette for working in people’s homes. Equipment and parts are tested to ensure they’re functioning perfectly beforehand. Our online scheduling system makes it simple to book a convenient, password-protected appointment, as well as sending an SMS reminder and notification when the engineer is en-route. This approach can reduce retrofit completions from a couple of years to just a few months.

Understanding the benefits of a retrofit can go a long way to assuaging doubts. Insite’s in-house energy analyst can collect ‘before and after’ meter data, providing quantitative evidence of debt reduction and improved efficiency. We’ve yet to encounter a company that regretted making the move to a better system. https://www.insite-energy.co.uk

PEL 103

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MONITORING & METERING

TAKING THE FIRST STEPS TOWARDS GREEN BUILDINGS

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n his summer statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a billionpound programme to help improve energy efficiency in schools, hospitals and other public buildings. Called ‘The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme’, the programme, which is part of UK’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the public sector by 50%, is expected to see substantial investments in energy efficiency and heating upgrades over the next year.

‘The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme’ “will offer grants to public sector bodies, including schools and hospitals, to fund both energy efficiency and low carbon heat upgrades”. Schools and other educational institutions will be able to apply for grants from the government to make their buildings more energyefficient under a new public sector decarbonisation scheme. These grants

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will include the £560 million in additional condition improvement funding for 2020-21 and £1 billion for 50 rebuilding schemes starting from September 2021.

It goes without saying that ‘The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme’ is laudable in its objectives, as the world as a whole is dealing with an unprecedented ecological crisis. However, perhaps the first thing facilities managers should invest in when looking to improve energy efficiency is an instrument that allows them to accurately measure and record energy usage. Having an initial benchmark – before embarking on any changes and upgrades – is essential for measuring improvement and progress through time.

A portable energy logger (PEL) like the Chauvin Arnoux PEL103 is the ideal tool for accurately monitoring power consumption and much more, including harmonic levels, voltage imbalance

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

and power factor. In addition, by using a PEL103 across entire buildings and recording the results over time, facilities managers will be able to gain detailed and revealing insights into what’s actually contributing to their energy bills.

A PEL is an all-in-one instrument that measures a whole range of electrical parameters, such as voltage, frequency, current, real power, reactive power, harmonic levels and more. Crucially, the PEL doesn’t only measure these parameters, it also stores the results over a period of time that can range from a few minutes to months. This is essential, as some key issues, like equipment that is not needed during the shutdown but is still switched on and off automatically by a timer, can only be identified by looking at time-stamped energy usage records.

A PEL103 can be installed quickly and easily in a distribution cabinet where it

MONITORING & METERING can monitor circuits for lighting, HVAC, display screens, computer systems and more. If it is to deliver its full range of benefits, the PEL should be set up to make recordings over time. A day is good, but a full week or even longer is likely to be even better, as interesting things often happen at weekends! For instance, according to a survey carried out by British Gas, up to 46% of the electrical energy used by SMEs was consumed outside normal business hours, so paying attention to those outof-hours costs can yield big dividends.

Buying a PEL can be a very profitable long-term investment and connecting to it remotely can give you valuable insights even if you can’t regularly visit the site.

This is particularly useful during school holidays or during lockdown, when everyone is advised to work from home.

The PEL will give premises managers information about the power factor of the loads. Most electrical loads consume two “types” of power – active power and reactive power. The active power does useful things – light the lights, turn the motor and so on – while reactive power does nothing useful. But the catch is that you pay the same for active and reactive power! But where does power factor come in? It simply tells you how much reactive power your loads are consuming. If the power factor is 1.0, they consume no reactive power, but if it’s any lower – 0.9 or 0.8, say – then you’re paying for useless reactive power.

The good news is that it’s possible to ‘correct’ poor power factor, bringing it nearer to 1.0 and reducing the amount of reactive power you pay for. This correction usually takes the form of capacitors fitted near the main distribution board and you may already have them. But, over time, capacitors can lose their capacitance and, of course, the loads on your system may change. As a result, your power factor may be much worse than you think, and reactive power may be costing you a lot of money.

In case you’re wondering how

monitoring energy efficiency actually works out in practice, Peter Halloway, Regional Sales Manager at Chauvin Arnoux describes how a recent project at a secondary school in Kent provided some eye-opening findings.

“We were working on an energy efficiency project at a typical secondary school and we logged the measurements over an eleven-day period,” remembers Peter. “The period included the half term holidays, a week of term time and a weekend. The logged results revealed some very interesting statistics.”

“The total energy consumed in the period came to just over £2,000, which correlated well with the school’s annual electricity bill of around seventy thousand pounds. But even at the weekend, when there was no activity on the premises, there was still a load of around 30 A per phase. Also, there was a phase imbalance that was producing an excessive current flow in the neutral.”

Another important finding from the investigation was that harmonics were unexpectedly high, which is actually a common problem given the proliferation of non-linear loads in our fast-moving technological world. In this case, the data showed that the third- and fifth-order harmonics were dominant. Third-order harmonics in schools and other nonindustrial installations are typically caused by personal computers, office equipment and electronic lighting, and in this installation the fifth-order harmonics were ultimately traced to the server UPS. “Having analysed the data we had recorded over the eleven-day period, we were able to recommend a solution that would balance the loads and explain how to reduce the harmonics by fitting filters,” Peter added. “An even simpler solution however would have been to educate staff to turn off lighting and equipment at the end of the day or even install

systems to turn it off automatically.”

Relatively small changes like this will deliver big benefits over the years, giving organisations a golden opportunity to enhance their green credentials whilst simultaneously saving thousands of pounds. In short, a PEL is the right choice for kick-starting any organisation’s decarbonisation programme – and it’s a modest investment with the potential for delivering very big benefits!” https://www.chauvin-arnoux.co.uk/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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NET ZERO

ACHIEVING NET ZERO – TOO CHEAP TO METER OR TOO EXPENSIVE TO DELIVER? Paul Verrill, director of energy market data analyst EnAppSys

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ational Grid updates the electricity and gas markets annually with its new Future Energy Scenarios and this year’s edition sees a significant shift as it has been adjusted to accommodate Net Zero 2050 targets within three of the four offered scenarios.

Last summer, the UK government passed new laws that require the UK to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and these scenarios offer a view on what it will take to achieve these challenging – but now legal – requirements. The standout highlights of this report are the significant changes required if we are to achieve these now legal targets.

Overall, if the paths to net zero are taken, significant upfront investment will have to be made over a sustained period and at the moment there is not the market signals to make this happen by the private sector, meaning that new initiatives and support will be required.

As far as natural gas production and usage is concerned, the options set out are fairly simple – to move away from natural gas / oil usage almost entirely, or to use natural gas / oil within the context of carbon capture and storage.

These indicated declines in gas production and usage (to almost zero in some scenarios) stand in contrast to a power network that will see significant growth in usage and an even more significant growth in production capacity.

The most significant climbs in levels of power generation set out by the system operator, National Grid, come from wind farms and solar parks, and because of the intermittency of these sources achieving net zero requires a certain amount of over-installation.

For solar, the expectation is a climb in installed capacity from 13GW to between 55GW and 75GW, and for wind farms the capacity levels should rise from just over 20GW up to in the region of 115GW to

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150GW. These represent big figures in a market that currently has a peak demand of around 60GW (forecast to increase to between 75GW and 95GW by 2050).

At an annual load factor of 33% this wind generation translates into an average annual output of 3850GW of production which fits within forecasted demands of the system, but levels of wind output will be expected to rise and fall over time depending on the weather at the time.

For instance, applying the increased levels of capacity to wind and solar over a 16-day period in the first half of March 2019 would result in an average production of 62-82GW depending on whether installation levels were at the low or high end of the range. Factoring for nuclear and other renewable forms of generation

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

would take this production up to an average of 80-100GW over this period.

In 2020 the market has already struggled with high levels of renewables generation – with this not helped by the impact of COVID-19. This has led to negative prices when, at times, the system has simply had too much power. Given the potential increases in renewable capacity, these sorts of challenging periods will only become more problematic.

In a power market the size of Britain, adding a 1GW wind farm to an otherwise thermal system produces no real challenges in terms of system management and nor does the second or third GWs of additional wind capacity. However, with the goal of net zero, wind farms and solar panels will continue to be added into

NET ZERO a market that is already saturated with pre-existing capacity, in order to reach the point where the market can be entirely met by renewables.

This is why during the peak renewable day of that 16-day period, 100-120GW of power would be able to be produced at nominal cost based upon these scenarios, during a period in which storage is already likely to be maxed out and with peak demand being well below this figure.

During these periods through the year, some of the excess will be able to be converted into hydrogen but realistically these periods carry an excess that must be dumped or used. For at least some days of the year we could finally have electricity that is too cheap to meter.

What results is a certain amount of wastage that could be used usefully or which could be ignored by the system.

Wasting such a resource sounds unlikely, but it is worth bearing in mind that with the system continuing to have issues moving power from Northern Scotland down into England, the current market continues to pay wind farms to turn off rather than find productive uses for that excess power.

During these periods, power is not only free but being paid to shut off and so a saving could be made by paying people to use this power.

One of the structural challenges involved in this is the lack of halfhourly metering for domestic electricity supplies, with Scottish households being charged for the electricity they use at a time when the system is paying wind farms to shut down.

Savvy users of time of use tariffs on the electricity suppliers who do offer this service can already benefit from such arrangements, but best not to use too much power on an expensive evening under those arrangements.

Despite potential low cost, free or even paid for power during periods of excess, the overall result is unlikely to be cheap.

What we will gain in terms of low and possibly negative commodity electricity prices at certain times will ultimately require higher fixed-cost charges. The investment required for the infrastructure needed for generation and storage of hydrogen, carbon capture thermal plants, longer term energy storage, large-scale renewable projects, electrification and/or decarbonisation of domestic and commercial heating will require incentives for the high initial capital build. The signals and returns cannot in our view be delivered by commodity market prices and the system operator alludes to the fact that support and incentives beyond what we have

now are required to achieve net zero.

Whilst the scenarios have a high degree of electrical interconnection with neighbouring countries, the interaction of their net zero plans with GB plans could result in even more extreme periods of oversupply which needs managing.

The path set out by the scenarios has a high degree of linear progression given the assumption that change comes quickly. At the moment the growth rate of low-carbon technologies puts GB off this trajectory. The additional scenario illustrated by National Grid, taking a steadier approach to decarbonisation – Steady Progression – still emits 258Mt of CO2 in 2050, a reduction of 68% compared to the level in 1990.

The option would seem to be an excess of renewables sometimes delivering far more power than we need or the missing of the net zero targets. As far as decarbonisation is concerned, the low-hanging fruit has been picked and it gets incrementally harder from here on in.

Against the background of record spending to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, creating the incentives and drivers for the GB energy sector to deliver the investment to achieve net zero by 2050 is another expensive challenge ahead.

Details at www.enappsys.com

www.energymanagermagazine.co.uk

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THE ONLY PUBLIC SECTOR ENERGY JOURNAL ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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NET ZERO

FIVE INSIGHTS INTO NHS ENERGY PERFORMANCE AND THE CHALLENGES AHEAD TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO At 5.4% of the total, the NHS contribution to UK CO2 emissions is one fifth above the global average for healthcare (The Guardian). This prompts the question, is the NHS doing enough to manage its carbon impact? Given its substantial contribution to UK emissions and the clear links between climate change and public health, the NHS has an opportunity to lead by example in the quest for Net Zero.

In this article, Jack Magill – Energy Solutions Senior Analyst at EDF shares 5 insights from the Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) data of the last three years to highlight energy-related performance with a particular focus on sustainability and the aim for a greener NHS.

1. 2 019 SNAPSHOT In 2019 the total cost of running the NHS estate was £9.5 billion, up from £8.8 billion the previous year, with energy costs making up around 6.5% of this total. Its energy related carbon footprint was equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by forests covering an area ten times the size of London. The graph above also highlights the large variance in energy spend across different site types, with general acute hospitals spending significantly more than any other site type.

2. O IL USE IS STILL PREVALENT, AND 2 SITES STILL CONSUME COAL. A key part of the NHS journey

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to become greener will be reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. Although the discussion around fossil fuels is rightly focused on gas, reducing the use of oil and even coal are still on the sustainability to do list. In fact, phasing out the use of oil and coal-fired boilers is specifically referenced within ‘For a Greener NHS’, an initiative launched earlier this year aimed at driving the changes required to achieve Net Zero.

The map above shows 41 sites that were consuming more than 250 barrels of oil annually while 2 sites were still consuming coal. Oil is more commonly used as a resilience fuel in the event of a gas supply failure, however, there are still sites using it as a primary fuel for heating. With all fossil fuels comprising around 70% of the organisation’s energy mix, substantial changes need to be made to how the NHS powers

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

its operation. As the carbon intensity of the UK electricity grid decreases through the penetration of renewables, embracing the electrification of heat and transport in particular provide two ways in which the NHS can do this.

3. E NERGY EFFICIENCY HAS BEEN STEADILY IMPROVING. In recent years, climate change has come to the forefront of both the political and corporate agenda. This has led to stringent sustainability targets for public sector bodies, amplifying the need for the NHS to first understand and then optimise its energy use.

The good news is that over the last three years, its energy efficiency has been steadily improving. As a measure of efficiency, I’ve divided gas and electric kWh by the area of the

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buildings. The kWh/m² for both gas and electric has been trending downwards during 2017-19, with 7 of 8 site types seeing an improvement in their electric efficiency, whilst 6 of 8 improved their gas efficiency. However, the largest improvements are concentrated in the less common site types with smaller energy costs. General acute hospitals which as we’ve seen are the biggest consumers of energy have only seen a modest improvement in electric efficiency, with gas efficiency falling.

4. G REEN BREEDS GREEN Across the estate, there are approximately 1000 EV charge points installed. The benefits these provide are numerous. They provide a charging infrastructure for those hospitals that have already electrified their fleet and a means of generating income from EV drivers paying to charge their vehicles.

Furthermore, installing charge points enables the use of electric cars which brings a reduction in carbon emissions as they replace those powered by combustion engines. This demonstrates the positive impact on public health the NHS can have beyond healthcare and furthermore, a hospital car park full of electric vehicles sends a positive image of the NHS as a sustainability leader.

In 2019, 14% of sites with existing EV charge points invested in more charge points whereas only 3.1% of sites

without existing charge points installed their first in 2019. Is this because those with existing charge points already understand the benefits and were keen to maximise them? Is it because the perceived challenges of the first project had been overcome and were no longer a barrier? Is it that the sites installing more charge points have electrified their fleet and require the infrastructure for charging their own vehicles?

5. O N-SITE GENERATION CAPABILITY IS SIGNIFICANT BUT DOMINATED BY CHPS As the UK grid evolves into an increasingly flexible and renewablesdominated system more power will be consumed closer to, or at source.

This transition brings with it many uncertainties but by beefing up its onsite generation capacity the NHS can maintain its security of supply, mitigate the impact of rising non-energy costs and have more control over the carbon intensity of its energy use.

Onsite electricity generation currently meets 24% of consumption needs, but over 99% of this comes from gas-fed combined heat and power plants (CHPs). Furthermore, since 2017 new CHP investments have outstripped new renewables investments with 17 sites adding a CHP whereas only 3 made their first investment in

renewables. This demonstrates the ongoing importance of CHPs to the NHS but further highlights the current reliance on fossil fuels. Ensuring CHPs are increasingly powered by renewable fuels like biogas and hydrogen will mean they can form a key part of the energy operations of a greener NHS. Combining this with increased investment in renewable generation such as solar will result in substantial ‘green’ onsite generation capacity to complement low carbon energy sourced from the grid.

CONCLUSION The NHS faces a huge challenge to meet the healthcare requirements of a growing population with tight budgets, amplified by the covid-19 pandemic.

However, as it emerges from one crisis another looms large, with the need for shared action to tackle climate change increasingly urgent. Given its contribution to UK emissions, a more sustainable NHS will have a considerable impact on national efforts to achieve Net Zero.

As the analysis shows, positive strides have been made in improving energy efficiency but overall engagement with energy solutions has been sporadic and the use of fossil fuels is still widespread.

However, the launch of the ‘For a greener NHS’ campaign earlier this year should prove a catalyst for more widespread action. For those Trusts already reaping the benefits of investments in sustainability and energy solutions, there is an opportunity to look beyond improving the performance of their hospitals and to assume the role of a sustainability leader. By sharing their experiences and lessons learned, they can smooth the path for other Trusts to take similar action, ensuring that the benefits are distributed throughout the wider NHS to the benefit of everyone.

A NOTE ON ERIC DATA ERIC is a data set compiled each year by the NHS Trusts. It comprises information relating to the costs of running the NHS estate including maintenance of buildings, the provision of services and the costs and consumption of various utilities. https://www.edfenergy.com/

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EXHIBITION NEWS

DISCOVER THE FUTURE OF LEARNING SPACES •

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his year and for one year only, the UK’s Learning Spaces event – Education Estates® 12-16 October, 2020 – goes digital in partnership with the Department for Education, to enable attendees safe involvement from either their homes or places of work.

Education Estates® Digital Week will have 70+ Webinars featuring 100+ speakers, 50+ exhibitors, 800+ delegates anticipated, an interactive floorplan, ‘Sector Insight’ Webinars hosted by exhibitors & sponsors, awards ceremony and a whole host of networking activities.

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION: “The Department for Education is pleased to continue its long-standing involvement in Education Estates®. Our vision is to provide world-class education, training and care for everyone, whatever their background. It will make sure that all children and young people have the chance to reach their potential and live a more fulfilled life. Investment in the school and college estate is crucial to transforming education for thousands of pupils, and the recent announcement by the Prime Minister of an ambitious, ten-year rebuilding programme – along with planned investment in FE colleges being brought forward – represents a step-change in this endeavour.

As the genuine need to replace many school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs is recognised in this way, Education Estates® is a key event for us to engage and share our plans with the industry and gain its feedback. At this year’s Education Estates® Digital Week, we will be contributing to several of the key themes, including: capital, condition, building performance, good estate management, modern methods of construction, zero carbon and more. The DfE Sustainability Award will be announced at the Education Estates® Digital Awards Ceremony, recognising and celebrating the best in education buildings’ operation and management. So, join my colleagues and I at Education Estates® Digital Week and discover the future of learning environments.” - Rory Kennedy, Director of Capital, Department for Education (DfE).

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE: •

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BARONESS BERRIDGE OF THE VALE OF CATMOSE, Parliamentary Under Secretary

of State for the School System.

RORY KENNEDY, Director of Capital, Department for Education.

GHAZWA ALWANI-STARR, Pro-Vice Chancellor Strategy, Planning and Partnerships and Director of Property - University of London, & Chair – HEDQF.

CONFERENCE WEBINARS INCLUDE: Gen Zero – better school buildings – Crawford Wright, Head of Architecture and Design, Department for Education.

The Department for Education (DfE) supported by the Construction Innovation Hub is developing ideas for the next generation school buildings in England.

GenZero is a £1.8m research and development programme, set up to investigate potential new solutions for carbon zero secondary school buildings, utilising standardisation and digital technologies.

The research work will support the DfE in achieving designs and standards that are sustainable, enable off-site construction, and help meet the ambitious UK’s 2050 carbon targets. The programme is a ideas project for wider government aspirations of standardisation and increased productivity. The project will be completed in early 2021.

Net Zero Carbon – is Passivhaus the answer? Allan Smith – Morrison Construction, Alex Donaldson – Scott Brownrigg and Neil McIntyre – West Lothian Council As part of the West Lothian Council Early Years programme Morrison Construction (Galliford Try) are providing two new Early Years Centres at St. Mary’s Bathgate and Blackridge Primary Schools to compare the benefits of using Passivhaus standards. Whilst spatially identical, the two buildings, designed by Scott Brownrigg, will be built to follow two different sets of environmental performance criteria. The presentation shall discuss all aspects of the twinned designs, through design, procurement, construction and inuse performance monitoring as well

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

as how user behaviours can impact and influence design and operation.

To view the full conference programme go to www. educationestates.com/conference.

ATTENDING: The digital conference is complimentary for those directly employed in schools, colleges, universities, government and local authorities (includes governors and independent schools).

The following delegate rates apply for everyone else wishing to attend Education Estates® Digital Week: • £99.00 + VAT for Early Booking Rate (available until 11 September 2020) • £149.00 + VAT for Standard Rate.

Please note that all registrations will be verified by the organiser and anyone not deemed as public sector will be contacted to amend their registration.

EXHIBITING: When choosing to exhibit at Education Estates®, you will receive both Education Estates® Digital Week exposure this October and Education Estates® 2021, maximising on branding exposure, lead generation and thought leadership.

To view the floorplan and to book a stand contact Rebecca on 01892 779995 or rebeccastratten@stepconnect2.com.

AWARDS: Education Estates® Awards goes digital for one year only and will take place on Thursday 15 October 2020 from 18:00-19:00. The annual Education Estates® Awards Ceremony Celebrates Excellence & Achievement in Education.

REGISTER YOUR PLACE: For more information and to register go to www.educationestates.com.

WITH THANKS: Education Estates® Digital Week is sponsored by; Arcadis, Atkins, Galliford Try & Space Zero.

Education Estates® Digital Week is supported by; Higher Education Design Quality Forum, LocatED, RIBA, The Modular & Portable Building Association & The Trust Network

SMART CITIES

LARGEST UK SMART CITYWIDE, LOW CARBON ENERGY SYSTEM PLANS UNVEILED

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aunched at an online event, Peterborough Integrated Renewables Infrastructure project (PIRI) aims to deliver a significant drop in CO2 emissions by 2030, while cutting energy bills by up to a quarter. Peterborough is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK and is facing a significant increase in energy demand as the city continues to grow.

The two-year project has been granted funding from UK Research and Innovation, alongside corporate investment, to design a low carbon, smart energy system for the city. The partnership includes Peterborough City Council, SSE Enterprise, Element Energy, Cranfield University, Smarter Grid Solutions and Sweco UK. PIRI combines a next generation heat network, electricity network and electric vehicle infrastructure under one smart holistic scheme. If successful, the scheme could be rolled out to other cities and towns, to help the UK realise its ambitions of Net Zero by 2050.

The project over the next two years will deliver cleaner, cheaper energy and the benefits of the scheme include: • Locally produced, cleaner energy and heat from waste and with services being low carbon driven • Multi-utility infrastructure delivery, meaning lower costs and lower bills for consumers • Integrated billing and service for heat, electricity and mobility (such as electric vehicle charging) so customers can benefit • Low carbon technology made available at cost-effective connection cost • Transparent tariff setting will generate long-term savings for local authorities The PIRI project brings together energy generation, demand and storage, thereby unlocking efficiencies not deliverable under existing, traditional energy systems.

It is envisaged to be especially effective in areas where the electricity network is constrained; as well serving as a blueprint for other urban locations across the UK. Elliot Smith, PIRI Programme Lead at Peterborough City Council, explains; “This is a highly innovative project - one of the most ambitious nationally and one which could become the most significant in the UK’s transition to low carbon infrastructure. For Peterborough, it has substantial benefits and supports the sustainable growth of the city.”

Professor Philip Longhurst, Head of the

Centre for Climate and Environment Protection at Cranfield University, said: “For the UK to achieve its ambitions of Net Zero, we are going to have to do things differently. These plans announced today for the PIRI project show how local low carbon, smart energy systems could be used across the MOBILITY HEAT – as we develop a network of local UK for the benefit of both ELECTRICITY carbon infrastructure we will be - every day the Peterborough able to connect the city’s public Energy Recovery Facility, is turning the environment and - by creating a local electricity transport into our system. unwanted waste into electricity network with technology we can Stagecoach is seeking to relocate and heat (in the form of steam), this reduce the strain on the National and electrify a 90 bus depot and we consumers. At Cranfield, steam is currently condensed back Grid and meet local electricity will also install 50 fast charging into water, but over 16MWth could demand with electricity production points for cars. Energy generated be sent to heat local businesses we pride ourselves on the in Peterborough. We are the UK’s during the night (when most of us and homes. There is already a small 4th fastest growing city and the are asleep) can be made available network making use of this electricity grid is filling up and we practical application of our to charge electric vehicles, buses resource in Fengate, but we could are unable to install more and taxis instead of using fossil branch out across the whole city. renewable energy to plug into this fuels. You would be surprised at This would mean individual low carbon technology grid. By creating a local energy how much electricity we produce businesses and homes wouldn’t system for Peterborough we can every day from unwanted waste, have their own boiler, but the heat research and our close balance the production and use of solar power and wind and this can would be recycled from a previous electricity locally and allow further support the City as it grows. use – saving money and delivering renewable energy investment to links with industry, PIRI near zero carbon emissions. flow into the City. is a fantastic example DIGITAL SMART ENERGY MANAGEMEMT of that in action.”

Bringing a smart local electricity different times of the day. For to use additional electricity at network to Peterborough. example at night we use less different times of the day to boost Neil Kirkby, Managing Harnessing demand and supply electricity when we are in bed, so we their resilience, save money and balancing technology we are able can divert electricity away to charge reduce their carbon emissions.

Director of SSE Enterprise, to meet the needs of Peterborough buses that are parked up, in the (its homes and businesses) at future we can also help businesses said: “SSE Enterprise sees PIRI as a progressive project that will showcase leader, said: “Our future energy supply the potential of smart can be clean and cost-effective, but this urban energy systems and help drive comes with the key challenge of greater local decarbonisation in a commercially variability in renewable energy generation. viable manner. It builds on the ‘whole Element is delighted to be part of PIRI, which system approach’ that our distributed will demonstrate how balancing energy energy business offers; where we look to supply with demand from a diverse range integrate different energy elements into of users of heat, transport, and electricity one investable solution and thereby make in Peterborough, across day-to-day and savings for customers. As PIRI develops seasonal variations, can deliver an efficient we’ll be able to show how city living and energy infrastructure that will be clean, regeneration can be enhanced and we secure and affordable for decades to come.” expect this project to serve as a blueprint Dr Graham Ault, Director at Smarter for other urban locations across the UK.” Grid Solutions, said, “Locally led solutions Dr Tanja Groth, Director of Urban Energy to the climate challenge are essential and at Sweco UK, said “To maximise benefits to the leadership and ambition being shown consumers and businesses while addressing in Peterborough is exemplary. The design the climate emergency we need to move of smart, flexible, clean and decentralised away from incremental improvements to energy systems is both challenging and a isolated energy segments and instead move great opportunity. Our work across the UK, towards transformational change to the Europe and US is showing us the core role whole energy system. PIRI is applying bestand high value of our software products for practice innovation in a city-scale energy flexible, intelligent control of energy assets regeneration project, demonstrating that required in smart local energy systems. We this approach not only delivers aggressive welcome the opportunity to harness what reductions in carbon but provides resilience, we have learned about the management, lowers consumer energy costs and provides grid integration and market interconnection wider societal benefits such as improved of distributed energy resources and bring local air quality, more efficient use of local this to the design of the Peterborough resources and stimulates the local economy.” system alongside all the project partners.”

Shane Slater, Element Energy’s founding www.cranfield.ac.uk/energyandpower director and Smart Energy Systems team

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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ENERGY STORAGE

WHY ‘EVERYTHING AS A GRID’ IS KEY TO UNLOCKING A LOWCARBON ENERGY FUTURE of the transport sector is expected to boost global electricity demand by 27 per cent, while the demand produced by data and computing will quadruple. At the same time, the old model of centralised electrical supply is just that – old.

Taking an “Everything as a Grid” approach to the energy transition will unlock a low-carbon energy future. By ensuring more renewable resources, behind-the-meter assets and smart electric vehicle infrastructure can be added to the energy mix, we have the opportunity to create more sustainable and resilient infrastructure while lowering energy costs.

Giuseppe Sgrò, Energy Storage and Emerging Technologies Executive, Eaton

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y 2035, half of the world’s electricity will come from renewable resources.

The traditional model of a centralised electricity supply has been upended. We have seen – and will continue to see – an increase in distributed energy resources with more homes, businesses and communities able to produce and sell energy as well as consume it. This energy transition is changing how power needs to be managed and optimised for homes, commercial buildings and industrial environments.

There are two fundamental trends upending the energy status quo that is driving a need for an ‘Everything as a Grid’ environment: increasing electricity demand and the fact a centralised supply is no longer the only option. Increased electricity demand is being driven by how buildings, transportation and the data economy are powered – by 2050 analysts expect a 50 per cent increase in the share of energy provided to buildings and over the next decade the electrification

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DECENTRALISATION IS KEY TO DECARBONISATION In terms of power supplied, much of the renewable generation capacity currently installed can be considered a like-for-like replacement for coal and natural gas plants – and while these are usually in the form of large-scale farms there are many smaller installations that contribute to this energy mix. Having this in place changes the complexion of the grid as it can no longer be assumed that the grid is divided into points of power production and power consumption.

Rather, it’s increasingly the case that buildings which consume power will also produce their power, and the grid is adapting to that by allowing smallscale producers to feed power back to the grid when they have a surplus.

From the grid’s perspective, it doesn’t matter whether this power is being fed back in from a solar panel or if it comes from a battery system – and that is the real opportunity we are beginning to see. BloombergNEF’s 2019 New Energy Outlook foresees the installed base of energy storage growing 13 times over the next decade with the adoption of behind-the-meter assets such as electric vehicle charging stations and on-site static battery systems. The latter can be installed to provide back-up power to reserve energy generated in off-peak

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

periods for later use, or to charge electric vehicles, but for much of the time the energy stored is likely to be sitting idle – highlighting how decentralisation offers the means for distributed storage to support the grid on a national level.

SO WHAT DOES ‘EVERYTHING AS A GRID’ LOOK LIKE? The idea behind ‘Everything as a grid’ is that everyone can be a participant in energy production – and if the nation is serious about meeting emissions targets then it is a must. The energy transition is changing the electrical power value chain leading to a new decentralised and bidirectional grid in which every market participant can be both consumer and producer of energy, creating an ‘Everything as a Grid’ environment.

For example, behind-the-meter assets in homes can be used to store solar energy during the day to charge electric vehicles at night, while in commercial buildings they can maintain critical up-time by providing energy if the grid fails. Creating this system is about technologies that enable the integration of renewables and allow existing and new electrical loads including data centres, buildings, factories, and electric vehicles to support local and national grids.

The switch to a grid powered by renewable energy is no longer up for debate and the problem that needs to be solved is how every part of society can play a role in achieving a zero carbon future. Taking pressure off of the grid by decentralising our energy supply is the only way the country can meet demand, ensure a reliable power supply and simultaneously decrease reliance on fossil fuels.

The road to net zero is not an easy one – and we’re only going to get there by taking a more collaborative approach to how we consume and produce energy. Everybody has their own part to play and in doing so we can make tangible progress to mitigating one of the key factors pushing modern day climate change. www.eaton.com

ENERGY STORAGE

ARE YOUR STORAGE ASSETS OPTIMISED FOR THE BIG SWITCH? An inflection point is coming in the battery storage landscape, one that will have considerable implications for the way asset owners and investors maximise their internal rate of return. Thomas Jennings, Head of Optimisation at Kiwi Power explains the big switch.

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attery storage is growing apace, underpinned by demand for flexibility as a result of the UK’s ever-increasing renewable generation capacity. Since the first storage investment in 2012, the market has grown rapidly with over 10.5GW (over three Hinkley Cs) of capacity planned at the beginning of 2020.

The potential value streams open to storage assets are constantly evolving, today we have 15 different markets available.

This diversification of value streams adds complexity to any battery storage investment case and, as elsewhere, asset management plans need to be dynamic if they are to leverage short term gains.

Only in May, National Grid introduced a new service that storage assets could play into – Optional Downward Flexibility Management – in response to changing energy consumption demands as a result of COVID-19.

A CHANGING STATE OF PLAY That said, while storage assets have access to several markets, most current revenue strategies rely heavily on a longer-term view based on just one or two value streams within the ancillary services market – understandably, because this is where the value currently sits. However, all of that is about to change, the question is when.

As more storage projects come online and begin to participate in the ancillary services market, the price will inevitably fall. As this happens, other shorter-term value stream opportunities that are not currently being leveraged due to their relative value and risk profile, will become increasingly attractive. At this point in time, shorter-term opportunities may begin to win out over a longer-term view.

That switch is coming soon. No asset manager knows exactly when, although

sustained market growth suggests that it could happen as soon as the end of the year, or early in 2021. The race is on amongst traders and analysts alike to be the first to say: “I called it” after taking that initial leap. However, leap too soon and the storage asset misses out on generating maximum value, leap too late and the asset misses out on getting in at the peak of the market.

RIGHT MARKET, RIGHT TIME To make the most of the opportunity, storage asset managers will need to ensure that they are always in the right market at the right time, otherwise known as co-optimisation. The premise is straightforward. Co-optimisation takes a short-term view of the market – a month ahead at most – to decide which markets could perform best for that asset. Rather than locking your asset into one market area, you keep a blend of markets open and available.

This isn’t about timing the market.

Co-optimisation is a proven technique that blends deep industry expertise with a savvy algorithm that makes up to 17,500 decisions per asset a year to maximise revenue at each half hourly interval. Each decision is based on a mix of weather forecasts, market data and trends, and other insights, ultimately allowing the owner to position the asset in the market where it will gain the best possible internal rate of return.

As we edge towards and over the tipping point, markets will become less predictable; co-optimisation will mean the difference of tens of thousands of pounds.

The co-optimisation model that we have developed at Kiwi Power, expects to make around 40% more revenue from an asset than if it were allowed to just sit in one or two markets. This will serve as a huge boost for existing assets and could also serve to bring forward new projects that

teeter on the edge of being investable.

CONFIDENCE UP, RISK DOWN At the heart of it, co-optimisation is not just for extracting the greatest value from an asset, it is a prudent approach to managing risk. As a by-product of being open to all the markets available, diversification becomes a key benefit of co-optimisation, significantly reducing the over-exposure than occurs when assets only operate in a couple of markets. With that being the case, co-optimised portfolios are largely protected from potential price shocks which substantially reduces investment risk.

Equally, co-optimisation can tailor its market recommendations to specific risk profiles. This will be particularly valuable as the switch begins; there will be some asset owners who will be comfortable taking a little more risk, for more reward, while others will pursue a more cautious approach. Co-optimisation can account for both, uplifting investor confidence in the asset’s internal rate of return, even in times of volatility when the value fluxes rapidly between markets.

As co-optimisation becomes the gold standard, investors will increasingly seek it out to give them greater confidence in the internal rates of return offered. Equally, its use will undoubtedly enhance the attractiveness of the sector reducing risk and improving project confidence: We can expect to see more projects brought forward, further accelerating the global transition to a low carbon economy.

WHY WAIT? The market has a short amount of time before this increased diversification of value streams begins to take effect. Right now, it makes sense for assets to sit across one or two markets, however the industry is on the clock, even if we are not entirely sure what the deadline is yet. Asset owners and investors can use this time to prepare. If the revenue strategy is not geared towards co-optimisation, there is a short window of time in which this can be implemented, ready for the inevitable day when gaining the best internal rate of return will become that bit more complex. www.kiwipowered.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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ENERGY STORAGE

NET ZERO: CAN TRADING BATTERIES IN ENERGY MARKETS REDUCE GRID CARBON INTENSITY? Faizan Ahmad - Integrated Solutions Manager at EDF

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efore EDF, much of my professional career has been spent working in the more traditional areas of efficiency and renewables in the energy sustainability industry.

The past few years of working on ‘beyond supply’ initiatives at EDF has broadened horizons and introduced me to the fascinating world of storage, EVs, flexibility and wholesale energy market trading. Ultimately, all the pieces of the puzzle will have to fit together if we are to realise our Net Zero ambitions.

One aspect which I’ve always found mildly dissatisfying is how storage and flexibility are sometimes considered as just supporting and enabling technologies for the low-carbon transition vs. providing direct and independent decarbonization benefits.

CARBON IMPACT OF EFFICIENCY VS. STORAGE With an efficiency project, the decarbonization equation is straightforward:

CARBON REDUCTION [KG.CO2] = [X] MWH/YR SAVED X [Y] KG.CO2/MWH X [Z] YEARS where [X] is the annual project energy savings, [Y] is a grid carbon intensity factor and [Z] is the project lifetime. Figuring out the equivalent number of trees planted or houses taken off the grid is just one more arithmetic step away.

addition, recent progress in overcoming ethical concerns with precious metals in the battery supply chain, as well as the long list of second-life battery applications are also cited positively.

However, I think there is more to the carbon story and we may be ‘selling batteries short’, especially when considering batteries trading in the wholesale energy markets. The reasoning is outlined below, and while I’ve focused on batteries, the same concept will apply to other flexible loads. This includes electric vehicles employing smart charging to avoid expensive peak periods as well as households making decisions about

With a battery storage project, there is typically no such convenient figure to calculate. Instead, the wider societal benefits discussion tends towards improving grid resilience, helping to manage the intermittent nature of renewables and providing essential grid services such as frequency response. In

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ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

when to run their washing machines.

CARBON AND PRICE ARE CORRELATED Firstly, above is a graph of UK hourly grid carbon intensity vs. UK hourly day-ahead energy prices in 2019. Every circle represents an hour in the year and the colour of the circle represents the fraction of low-carbon power (wind, solar, hydro and nuclear) making up the generation mix for the hour.

Very simply, there is a trend between the carbon intensity of energy and its price. The next graph below is the same data shown differently, with each square

ENERGY STORAGE

of the grid representing a day in the 2019 year, and the carbon vs. price trend for the day shown within. Mostly positive slope lines in the grid show that this trend holds well throughout the year.

What drives this trend? Like all commodities, the price of electricity is driven by the dynamics of demand and supply. On the supply-side, increasing quantities of minimal marginal cost (and low-carbon) renewables in the UK grid tend to depress short-term power prices, as unlike fossil-fuelled coal or gas power stations, renewables do not need to factor in the cost of fuel per unit of electricity generated when offering a price to the market. In addition, coal and gas plants also pay carbon levies and are required to purchase carbon certificates based on the emissions they generate, which further amplifies the trend.

On a windy sunny day in the summer with low demand, we can expect low energy prices with a relatively high fraction of the generation mix made up of renewables. On the other hand, during a still and dark winter evening, more inefficient gas and coal plants will need to run to keep up with high electricity demand. This will drive up the price as well as the average carbon content of energy.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BATTERY Now, let’s consider the carbon impact of a battery operating in the wholesale energy market with a very simple trading strategy of running one single cycle per day, charging and discharging at the trough and peak of the day-ahead price respectively.

In reality, our trading team maximize value of our growing portfolio of storage assets by constantly trading across multiple markets. However, the general concept of buying low and selling high still holds true, so we can persist with this simplification.

Now, storage by itself is intrinsically neither low-carbon or high-carbon. But after making allowances for charging efficiency, if the carbon intensity of energy used to charge a battery is lower than the carbon intensity of energy the battery displaces when discharging, this results in a net carbon reduction.

Consequently, for a merchant battery operating in wholesale market arbitrage mode, the act of buying low and selling high automatically results in decarbonisation benefits. This is because, as illustrated in the example graph above, it is typically displacing ‘high carbon’ energy when discharging during a high-price period with ‘low carbon’ energy used to charge the battery during a low-price period.

In reality, the marginal grid carbon intensity should be considered instead of the average intensity, as it’s the marginal generation unit supplying power to the grid which will be impacted by the battery operation. But data on marginal intensity is not readily available and nor is there is a single method for objectively determining marginal rates.

As such, using average figures is a reasonable first-order approximation.

For illustration, with all the simplifying assumptions noted, a 1 MWh battery with a 90% roundtrip efficiency would have saved 19,000 kg of carbon (equivalent to about 20 houses off the grid) with the above trading strategy in 2019.

A COUPLE OF QUALIFICATIONS Co-location – The above analysis has used the grid carbon intensity.

Stationary batteries which form part of microgrids or are co-located with other generation assets will need to be considered differently. In particular, co-location of batteries tied directly with solar may improve the carbon benefits.

UK Specific – The premise that trading storage assets carries a carbon benefit is only based on the present grid and generation mix characteristics in GB and may not necessarily apply elsewhere.

IN CONCLUSION No single technology or approach is going to enable us to achieve Net Zero. While energy efficiency is a logical starting point and typically the most cost-effective means for decarbonization, carbon is impacted by when we use electricity along with how much. For the “when”, we are fortunate that given the correlation between price and carbon, what’s good for our wallets is also good for the environment and our Net Zero goals.

In the domestic space, perhaps the carbon benefits of charging up our electric vehicles and running the dishwasher during off-peak hours will be a greater driver for influencing behaviour vs. just cost benefits.

In the business space, perhaps carbon reporting requirements should evolve beyond employing a static GHG conversion factor to annual energy consumption and instead provide a truer picture by accounting for time of use.

Lastly, for companies investing in storage assets which are traded in the markets, perhaps the direct carbon impacts should be reflected in the benefits case as well. www.edfenergy.com

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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ENERGY MANAGEMENT

SMARTER COUNCIL OFFICES, UK SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions used the ICL range of Digital Twin Technologies and Daikin VRV Systems plug-in to create a calibrated model with 99.3% accuracy, to predict the savings potential of a unique heat recovery air conditioning strategy central to this retrofit.

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SE have discovered the value of using IES ICL Digital Twin technology in their retrofit projects, after creating a detailed calibrated model to calculate the savings potential of a heat recovery air conditioning system from Daikin, which is helping a UK local authority make major savings at one of its key facilities.

And as the second anniversary of the new strategy approaches, initial indications from SSE Enterprise are that the savings from a move towards ‘smart building’ status are significantly

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more than forecast.

It is a two storey office building with a total floor area of 1,400m2. The recently refurbished building is home to the council’s 187m2 central server room, which powers the council’s IT network. About 130 council employees in various departments occupy the rest of the building.

After announcing plans seven years ago to rationalise its offices from 11 sites to just three, the council has been investing in improvements to this and

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the two other buildings, upgrading them to meet modern standards and accommodate relocated staff.

Like most councils, it had limited financial resources and challenging energy savings targets. Therefore, it had to develop a very robust business case in order to secure funding for retrofitting energy saving equipment

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

in several council buildings. The solution was an energy performance contract (EPC), procured via the Re:fit framework, guaranteeing energy savings for 10 years. The EPC route is a lifeline for local authorities needing to tackle energy efficiency issues and maintenance backlogs.

SSE Enterprise was awarded the contract in December 2016, and commenced the design of measures for an initial phase of 14 council buildings.

This was one of the biggest and most complex buildings in that phase due to its size and critical services.

SSE quickly rejected any plan for an upgrade of the boilers and four computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units in favour of a holistic approach, involving a Daikin VRV IV heat recovery air conditioning system. SSE reasoned that, as ceilings were being replaced, installation of air conditioning throughout the building was feasible.

It would also negate the need for upgrading the boilers and plant room.

Old gas boilers – beyond their useful lives and non-compliant with current regulations – previously heated the building via radiators. Gas for the boilers was costing £1,620 a year. The server room was in constant use – using power 24/7 for the servers and CRAC units. The building’s total electricity bill was almost £129,507 a year – a third of which was the cost of critical cooling for the servers.

By opting for Daikin’s threepipe heat recovery system which can simultaneously heat and cool,

SSE is able to utilise waste energy from the server room, and recycle it into other areas of the building – creating a truly smart building.

The heat recovery system, installed

by SSE’s specialist sub-contractors, Daikin D1 Partner Crowther and Shaw, includes two condensing units, with a combined output of 28hp, located in a parking area. Indoors there are Round Flow cassettes, concealed ceiling units and a wall-mounted fan coil unit. The indoor units are individually controlled, giving each zone the ability to adjust temperatures slightly, if needed.

Refurbishment of the building, completed in 2018, included new ceilings and partitions – and a complete rethink on the building’s energy requirements, based on the council’s aim to cut its energy costs on the site by 20%.

To calculate the savings from the energy conservation measures (ECM) proposed for the building, SSE used the IES Virtual Environment (VE) software and iSCAN tool to produce a simulation with 99.3% accuracy, based on real data. The analysis showed the existing cooling units had a seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER) of 1.95, while the boilers’ seasonal efficiency was 60%.

SSE worked with Daikin’s bespoke IESVE plug-in to model how simultaneous heating and cooling would operate and predict the SEER in both modes. This simulation showed that the system could achieve a SEER of 3.37. On this basis SSE’s EPC guaranteed the council would save £4,228 a year and reduce

CO2 emissions by 29.4 tonnes.

In practice, results were even more impressive. In year 1 the project delivered monetary savings of £11,196 (11% of baseline cost) based on electricity savings of 83,669kWh and gas savings of 129,841kWh. After 11 months in year two, the project has delivered monetary savings of £11,601 (12% of baseline cost) based on electricity savings of 88,145kWh and gas savings of 124,841kWh. This has resulted in the council reducing carbon emissions by 118 tonnes since the beginning of the Re:fit project.

“We are extremely pleased with the initial energy savings achieved through the Re:fit project. Our technical team worked tirelessly to ensure the council would achieve maximum energy savings, contributing to the council’s overall carbon reduction target.” - Kostas Papadopoulos, Head of Smart Cities Solutions Development, SSE Enterprise “The concept of retrofitting a VRV IV heat recovery air conditioning system to transfer warmth from a server room to an office is simple, but guaranteeing the energy savings is complex because of intricate building physics. Collaborating with IES and Daikin enabled me to build a ‘Digital Twin’ and underpin investment with significantly reduced risk. The results of this project prove that collaboration and digital technology are the key to a net-zero future.” - Tunde Olaoye, Senior Energy Solutions Engineer, SSE Enterprise. https://sseenergyoptimisation.co.uk/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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ENERGY MANAGEMENT

VIEWING ENERGY STRATEGICALLY As businesses navigate returning to work as COVID-19 restrictions relax, becoming more energy efficient is growing in importance. Dr. Alex Mardapittas, CEO of Powerstar, discusses how strategic energy management enables businesses to drive efficiencies and operate more sustainably and effectively.

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t the beginning of 2020, there were a host of headlines that will directly, or indirectly, have significant effects on energy in the coming years. Since the start of the year, a range of companies and local authorities have pledged to go carbon neutral (reach net zero emissions) and the ban on new internal combustion engine cars has been brought forward by 5 years to 2035, however it has been predicted that the UK is on course to breach its fifth carbon budget.

It can be difficult to distil how energy headlines translate into the impacts on businesses. However, Centrica’s Distributed Energy Future Trends, published at the end of 2019, looks into some of the key issues, including organisations that view energy as a strategic asset, rather than a cost, as well as businesses who are placing heightened value on environmental sustainability.

There are key findings which

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energy companies must consider, as they highlight the importance of a comprehensive energy strategy that provides flexibility, resilience, efficiency, and actionable insights for organisations, and how this can be implemented through smart energy solutions.

Energy is an expense to most businesses; however, more and more are diversifying their energy assets to better meet the needs of sites and improve power quality, as well as minimise costs. Some organisations with installed smart energy systems earn revenue through selling surplus onsite generated energy via schemes such as grid contracts.

According to Centrica’s research, just under one fifth of organisations now see energy as an asset to be managed in order to generate revenue and gain a competitive advantage. More broadly, the proportion of businesses with an energy strategy containing specific targets, actions, or budgets is now 66%, having risen by 15% from 2017 to 2019, which is likely to grow even more in 2020 during the current climate.

ACTIONS BUSINESSES ARE TAKING In recent years the UK’s energy mix has changed drastically and this trend is set to continue, 7 in 10 businesses recognise the need to be more flexible in how energy is generated.

Whilst many businesses understand the change that will take place, a select

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group are already benefiting from pioneering smart grid integration as they begin to recognise the benefits available.

In terms of the actions this group are taking, 66% of sustainable businesses are integrating energy technologies and assets together to maximise the commercial benefits and return on investment. Whilst there are a host of technologies that can work individually to improve energy optimisation, when utilising synergies through Internet of Things (IoT) connected technology, the benefits can be maximised.

Another measure that three quarters of leading sustainable businesses are intending to take, is the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) into their fleets in the next 5 years, a change which requires the embedding of EV charging solutions into business energy infrastructure.

Transport is seeing increasing regulation that businesses must comply with, including the combustion engine ban, and more urban ‘clean air zones’ being created. Implementing such a change can help businesses minimise their contribution to the UK’s highest emissions emitting sector, transport, improve fleet efficiency, and reduce outgoings on fleet running costs.

HOW BUSINESSES CAN BENEFIT The benefits of viewing energy strategically have been calculated

by Centrica, those with the most

ENERGY MANAGEMENT advanced energy strategies are 2.5 times more likely to achieve strong financial performance in comparison to their competitors. They’re also 2.7 times better equipped to deal with marketplace risks and 6.7 times more likely to be operating a sustainable business model. As many industries are changing due to developments brought

by Industry 4.0, the smart industrial revolution, external factors such as trade impact select businesses, and sustainability grows in importance.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY; INSEPARABLE? Without doubt there has been a significant amount of discussion on environmental issues recently and scrutiny on the issues is likely to reach new heights. Despite good progress in decarbonising electricity generation, the UK is straying further from meeting its overall carbon emissions targets, which includes industry and services.

This will likely spur Government and regulators to increase pressure to cut CO2 emissions, or play a more active role in the expansion of renewable energy.

CONSUMERS COERCING BUSINESS In addition to regulatory pressure, consumers are becoming more selective in their buying behaviours, increasingly choosing suppliers that have a lower environmental impact. As customers are becoming savvier than ever on environmental issues, businesses will need to take real action to avoid accusations of greenwashing, and communicate the activities they are undertaking effectively to cut through the noise. The UK’s energy challenge provides businesses with an opportunity to play a part in the required change, and can also help ensure financial security. This is reflected by social and environmental responsibility rising into the top 3 organisational priorities of businesses in 2019.

THE COST OF INACTION As a result of the changes to the energy market in the UK, the cost of energy has risen substantially in the last 5 years, due to the level of uncertainty regarding the future market it is expected to rise further in the future.

This high cost of energy is one of the main barriers identified by businesses to achieving sustainable growth, particularly

Figure 1 – 2019 Organisational Priorities, Centrica

in energy intensive industries with fine margins, such as manufacturing.

To become more independent and futureproofed, many businesses have implemented renewable energy assets, such as solar and wind power, at their sites and two thirds of these businesses already generate more than 10% of their energy on-site, with 8 out of 10 anticipating they will increase use of on-site generation over the next 5 years, showing that it is a valuable, scalable investment.

Furthermore, 30% of businesses generating energy on-site are selling energy back to the grid. Schemes such as grid balancing contracts, demand side response (DSR) helps facilitate the expansion of renewables within the UK network, and maximise renewable energy assets. Through combining onsite generation with energy storage businesses can earn additional revenue, and improve their energy flexibility.

Due to a combination of the discussed Government and regulatory pressures, a shift in consumer attitude and actions, and energy costs affecting businesses, it is becoming increasingly difficult to forge business success without taking sustainability into account. Business need to implement new actions to meet energy targets, alongside proving to customers that they are a trustworthy and responsible organisation.

IN SUMMARY It is clear that the way we generate and use electricity is set to evolve in the coming years, and that businesses will face new energy challenges, including becoming more flexible to fit in with,

and benefit from the energy networks of the future; balancing financial and environmental sustainability as the two become inextricably linked.

Strategic management of energy looks to become a key route for businesses to drive efficiencies, operate more effectively, and establish a competitive advantage, for those that have not yet got a plan in place. However, it can be a daunting prospect. Powerstar recommends that businesses take a strategic view of energy management through holistically assessing the current and future energy needs of the business, evaluating the energy infrastructure of the site, and putting together a comprehensive plan to optimise energy through a staged or simultaneous roll out of improvements.

Viewing energy strategically can also help businesses to understand how actions to improve sustainability through improved energy management can be identified and implemented.

Powerstar has a range of technologies that enable businesses to increase energy efficiency, and improve energy flexibility, helping businesses to develop an energy infrastructure fit for the networks of the future, and work towards net-zero targets. The Powerstar concept to completion approach evaluates the current situation of sites, and plots a pathway for businesses to improve energy management as a long-term objective.

To learn more about Powerstar, its range of smart energy solutions and how your business can implement its own smart energy strategy, visit the Powerstar website by visiting: https://powerstar. com/smart-energy-solutions/ energy-optimisation-efficiency/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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BIOMASS

THE ROLE OF BIOMASS WITHIN ENERGY SUPPLY

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n line with the UK’s commitment to minimising its use of traditional fossil fuels, the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has declared that coal will no longer be used as a source of power generation from 2025.

Indeed, as the COVID-19 lockdown saw demand for electricity plummeting from April 2020, Britain has since lasted a full two months without burning coal to generate power. To counteract the drop in demand, the UK’s remaining four coal-fired plants were shut down by 9 April 2020, which enabled the previous record of 18 days without the use of coal power in June 2019 to be exceeded.

This shift towards sourcing cleaner, renewable forms of energy means that there has been a subsequent increase in the combusting of organic matter, otherwise known as biomass, as a fuel.

Many UK power stations have switched to the use of compressed wood pellets as a renewable energy source, which in turn helps to reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions. This is also reflective of the fact that 37% of electricity in the UK in 2019 was generated via renewable sources, compared to 35% by fossil fuels.

In this article, George Bradley, technical support manager for SOCOTEC’s Energy Services team and the UK’s principal expert on the ISO/TC 238 Solid Biofuel and ISO/ TC300 Solid Recovered Fuels Technical Committees, discusses the role of biomass and its versatility as a renewable energy source.

WHAT IS BIOMASS? Many automatically think of wood pellets when they hear the phrase ‘biomass’, but in reality it can mean absolutely anything that is of plant or animal-based origin. Rather than taking the form of something that is manufactured – such as a wood pellet – it is often a material that might be considered as a waste or a by-product. This includes coconut, pistachio, walnut shells, olive cake, bagasse (sugar cane residue), oat husk (residue after the removal of the oat kernel) or waste-derived fuels such as solid recovered fuel (SRF) and refuse derived fuel (RDF).

Biomass is also present in many types of fuel in varying concentrations. While it is most concentrated in biofuels, it is also a component of SRF and other waste-derived fuels. Power generation subsidies are calculated on the basis of the biomass energy content within the fuel, as this is regarded as a renewable energy source.

HOW DOES BIOFUEL DIFFER FROM BIOMASS? The terminology is often confused, but biomass is simply a component of biofuel. As biofuel is the term used within the international industry standards, it is the one that is more frequently used by professionals.

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It is important to remember that all biofuel is biomass, but not all biomass is found in biofuel. For example, wheat is both a crop and a form of biomass, but it isn’t a biofuel when its intended use is to make bread. Short rotation coppice (SRC) willow is also a crop and biomass, but as an energy crop, its intended use is to generate heat and/or power. As a result, it can be classed as a biofuel.

WHAT ARE BIOFUEL PELLETS MADE OF?

WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE BEST BIOFUEL?

As the single largest worldwide source of biomass feedstock, biofuel pellets can be used within a wide range of applications. The feedstocks from which they derive can vary from hard and softwood sources to agricultural ‘waste’ products such as oat, sunflower and peanut husk, olive cake and straw.

Determining the best biofuel is subjective depending on its application.

Each one will have an associated fuel specification detailing its acceptable/ideal properties, which would be determined via the analysis of a representative sample. Analysis is also critical to understanding and monitoring whether there is anything in the fuel that could be damaging equipment or negatively affecting the outputs, such as ash and emissions which could be causing unnecessary environmental pollution.

HOW WOULD YOU IDENTIFY THE BIOMASS CONTENT WITHIN A FUEL? Interestingly, there are no standards to determine the level of biomass content in biofuel, and it is generally accepted that biofuel in its strictest form is 100% biomass. There is, however, a standard for the determination of biomass content within solid recovered fuel, which includes analysis techniques such as selective dissolution (a wet chemistry method) and manual sorting. The former is the most widely used throughout the industry given its relative accuracy and financial viability. However, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) promotes the use of a manual sorting method on their website as an alternative means for the determination of biomass content.

WHERE DO THE STANDARDS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF BIOMASS CONTENT COME FROM? The standards are produced by technical committees working on behalf of the International Standards Organisation (ISO). SOCOTEC is represented on these committees and actively participates in these discussions, with our Energy Services team in an ideal position to be able to contribute to this process and the resultant published standards thanks to our industry experience, expertise and heritage.

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WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIOMASS AND SYNGAS? Various technologies are used to convert biofuel into heat and/or power; for example, through direct combustion or gasification. When an application uses gasification technology, the process produces syngas, which is an abbreviation for synthesis gas.

A number of benefits are seen to be obtained from the combustion of syngas rather than the biofuel itself, including the fact that it releases fewer particulates into the atmosphere.

HOW CAN SOCOTEC HELP? As the largest independent solid fuel inspection company in the UK, SOCOTEC provides an extensive range of accredited testing services to some of the nation’s largest power generators along with a myriad of smaller scale power plants and fuel producers With the ability to sample and analyse a wide range of fuels at its central laboratory in Burton on Trent and smaller on-site laboratories, SOCOTEC’s Energy Services team can determine the suitability and quality of the fuel and assess how well it will perform within your application. www.socotec.co.uk

CHP

THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY Cooking using leftovers and cheap ingredients, also known as Cucina Povera is a tradition that spans across most of Europe.

From the Neapolitan soffritto to British black pudding, some of the world’s most iconic dishes derive from the need to use readily available resources effectively Over time, these cunning recipes have become a part of our identity and culture. So, given this proud part of our history, why are we not extending the same creativity to efficient power generation? Here Nigel Thompson, Sales Manager at Finning UK and Ireland, explains the benefits of adopting combined heat and power (CHP).

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hen operating a continuous generator, CHP is an energy-efficient solution for heating.

CHP captures heat produced during power generation and uses it in conjunction with or instead of traditional boiler setups. This helps the generator reach more than 80 per cent efficiency, whereas coal and gasfired plants struggle to achieve more than 40 per cent. In other words, CHP is an effective way for businesses to cut their bills by capitalising on energy already present in their buildings.

REDUCING EMISSIONS As well as being a more affordable source of heating, CHP can reduce carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions. While CHP still produces the first two of these pollutants, businesses adopting CHP will reduce emissions by at least 20 per cent.

The overall cuts in costs and pollution will depend on how long the CHP system will be in operation; CHP systems represent a substantial investment, but offer an excellent rate of return.

CHP IN PRACTICE Due to its ability to reduce costs and emissions, CHP is used in numerous manufacturing industries, including food and pharmaceuticals.

Some industries are yet to widely adopt CHP but could benefit from the technology — it has great potential to improve energy efficiency in healthcare infrastructure, for example, a sector looking to make the most out of limited investments.

For example, Finning collaborated with Octagon Healthcare to supply a Cat G3516 lean burn gas engine to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

The CHP system acts as lead boiler, recovering 1314 kW worth of heat from the engine exhaust, jacket

water and oil cooler circuits and returning medium-pressure hot water for immediate use. In periods of low thermal demand, the CHP system can still run, providing cheaper power than importing from the grid.

MAKING THE MOST OF CHP When businesses generate both electricity and heat using the same method, it becomes essential to take good care of the investment.

CHP systems should be installed on reliable and regularly maintained generators, ensuring the highest standard of safety for operators.

For example, sending fuel samples to a dedicated fluid analysis lab, to receive reports with updates on generator condition and receive advice on best practice to minimise wear. Another way to improve generator lifespan is to make use of equipment an equipment overhaul service. These facilities can significantly extend the lifecycle of a generator, maximising the benefits of a customer’s investment in CHP. Future development for CHP would include incorporating high capacity energy storage, to provide resilience and power security.

Combining gas CHP and microgrids offers a high level of efficiency and net carbon reduction, a considerable stepping- stone towards the UK’s commitment to net zero by 2050.

While your grandmother may be able to make a three course meal out of whatever is left in your fridge, you might want to get an expert in to make a boiler from your generator’s heat.

CHP systems effectively use a sideeffect of power generation to bring cost-effective and environmentally conscious heating to businesses. To find out how you can make the most of your existing processes, visit https:// www.finning.com/en_GB/industries/ electric-power-generation/chp.html.

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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DISTRICT HEATING

HEAT: VISION 2030 This article introduces the goals of ‘Heat: Vision 2030’ and how to activate the deployment of cityscale climate change mitigation through heat networks.

THE VISION: ABUNDANT LOW CARBON AND AFFORDABLE HEAT What are we trying to achieve? I think we all agree that we want zero carbon, abundant (accessible and affordable by all), reliable long-term heating for all.

No more carbon emissions, no more fuel poverty and no more short-term fixes.

We need to include all stakeholders, embed the ability to leverage diverse energy sources and adopt flexible technology solutions that are designed to incorporate continuous improvement.

Let’s collaborate, empower and let the best ideas flourish.

THE MOMENTUM BEHIND HEAT NETWORKS IS GROWING- LET’S MAKE SURE IT IS MAINTAINED Delivering successful heat networks requires a collaborative and generous approach to design whilst embedding offtake surety into the model.

The ambitions are big. Across the U.K. we expect a nine-fold increase in district heating by 2050 to meet its net-zero emissions target. The Netherlands is seeing a 17-fold increase as it moves completely away from natural gas in homes.

While we still have some time on the clock, here are some thoughts on the reasons for avoiding unenforced errors.

The purpose of, ‘Heat: Vision 2030’, is to provide a positive map of what is possible, now. We want to contribute ideas, create debate and influence policy.

We want the UK to pursue pragmatic and powerful action to deliver heat networks across the country by 2030.

Enough of us now accept and understand the scale of the climate crisis. The knowhow, the technology, the modelling, the finances are all there. The biggest challenge left is shifting our mindset from, ‘I’d like to do this’, to, ‘I have to, I will do this’.

With respect to heat networks, we have to

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https://about.bnef.com/blog/district-heatnetworks-need-the-private-sector-to-deliver-anet-zero-transition/

address the mountainous risks associated with heat networks and reduce them to molehills. The two biggest are related to inaccurate mapping and surety of offtake.

Too often problems are embedded in the design process. The ‘Heat: Vision 2030’ project is about asking how can we address these problems and eradicate them, leaving only the cream. We try and ask questions and invite those of us with a stake in delivering and using heat networks to share, discuss and challenge what makes a heat network successful in the early stage.

This will help local and national policy to effectively support heat network deployment where it is needed most.

And where is that help required?

Offtake surety is the fundamental nut that must be cracked.

Large-scale, meaningful, investments will only be made when all buildings on a heat network use the heat available.

The option of sticking with natural gas, for example, just doesn’t cut it. There are a lot of ways to deliver offtake surety. A carbon tax will help but with gas at such low costs, even a 100% tax makes it a low cost alternative. In light of such huge massive market failures, let’s look at other levers. In city centres, building air quality standards would help. How about local government mandating a requirement zero emission buildings by 2030?

FALSE CHOICES BETWEEN SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EQUALITY We need to liberate ourselves from needless compromises that put brakes on achieving our goals.

An example of a needless compromise, a self-defeating compromising, is to allow domestic gas boilers to be fitted into new builds through to 2025. The argument here is that we need cheap gas to alleviate fuel poverty. Approximately 15% of households in England and Wales and

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25% in Scotland are in fuel poverty.

To resolve this problem we are often presented with a false choice- less fuel poverty or less climate change. We need to change the mindset. We can eradicate fuel poverty as well as carbon emissions.

We can make low carbon heat affordable.

In the case of heat networks, the choice we are given is the same. We are told that because heat networks will provide costly heat versus the status quo, we should give end users the option.

Firstly, this is a crisis. In an emergency we need to jettison the easy options- they cannot be on the table. Secondly, there are plenty of ways to reduce the cost of heat to end users. No doubt, some of them are still waiting to be discovered. Finally and fundamentally, fossil fuels cannot be a first choice, or a second choice. At best, they should be back-up and peak load in exceptional circumstances.

YOU, ME… EVERYBODY And let everybody be a part of this.

By that I mean our companies, clients and collaborators but even more so I mean us; you, me and our neighbours.

The political will to activate and deploy heat networks can be accelerated if our communities are given the chance to learn, feedback, criticise and inform what they want and how we can help them achieve it.

The, ‘Heat: Vision 2030’, view is that we need to get inside the heads of city-centre residents, not just the supply chain.

The psychology seems to be that once you take the step of beginning the conversation and facilitating what the community needs and wants; and taking the time to explain your own position then you can really make things happen.

We talk about a levy on the gas bills, we talk about a carbon price. Of course, financial incentives help but by working at the grass roots level I am sure we can bring better solutions to bear. A thousand, ten thousand, voices in each community saying, ‘Yes’.

CONCLUSION We all want to do this. Now we must move our mindset to we have to do this. And we have to do this together, as the heat network sector and we need to spread the message far and wide- we are ready, we have the tools and we can deliver. https://www.greenumbrellas.co.uk/

DISTRICT HEATING

BAD BOY ON THE BLOCK DISTRICT HEATING NEEDS A BETTER REPUTATION Ben Carter, Green Umbrellas.

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nd now, for a touch of plagiarism. I’d like to share some thoughts and facts which I base principally on a great report, ‘The Decarbonisation of Heat’ (2020)’, produced by Regen – www.regen. co.uk which does a very good job of presenting where we are and what we need to do. I also reference the Glasgow City Centre Strategy – www. glasgowcitycentrestrategy.com/yourdistrict-regeneration-frameworks.htm.

The big word for me is abundance.

Any new solution must therefore provide comfort, accessibility, ease of use and low cost.

Today, consumer engagement and understanding of what low carbon heat means and involves is very low. The corresponding technologies and longterm costs are not very well understood.

It is true that the supply chain does need to be beefed-up but the constituent parts are there. The roots are in the ground- we just need to water it regularly, place it in a sunny position, and let it flourish.

Also, consumer confidence is low vis-a-vis heat pumps and heat networks.

I know this, having worked in the field, and having read the literature. There are a few reasons for this but generally they come down to short-termism: in design, procurement, deployment and operations. Each stakeholder in the supply chain is putting up with cost-cutting and allowing a mediocre solution to trump the correct one.

In the face of this patchy legacy we need to build on the success stories out there and innovate with the tools we have in our hands, now.

1. Putting more time into clear sighted, collaborative design and master planning is an example of what can be offered now that gives ample margin for shortterm and long-term gains.

2. Getting the policy right. Largescale heat networks will need all or some of the following: ○ Offtake Surety- for potential heat users in a heat network

zone. You can ensure value for money by asking bidders to put in a guaranteed price per kWh of heat. ○ Provide financial support for heat pumps and waste heat generation and any other local, reasonable zero carbon heat generation e.g. geothermal, minewater, solar thermal. ○ Surely one of the best ways to reduce costs is to ensure heat networks dig up the ground to lay the pipework in conjunction with other services- lots of double spend there. ○ Give local authorities the power, after consultation with and supported by the local community and residents, to insist on local, long-term commitment to heat network heat usage. ○ Performance criteriaefficiency targets and reporting should be mandatory for funding.

3. Developing business models that are laser-focused on putting the customer experience first by putting value on what is actually being consumed- comfort for the end user. And everything leading up to the point of consumption should be focused on delivering that comfort evermore efficiently and intelligently with the goal of requiring fewer and fewer energy inputs to deliver the outcome of happy end users.

WHAT SORT OF SCALE ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? In 2020 there are 29 million existing homes and by 2030 the UK will have added another 2.5 million to the housing stock. 20% of the existing stock is over 100 years old. About 2% of all heating consumed is supplied by heat networks and only 7% of UK heat networks are low carbon.

Energy efficiency is critical to enabling and delivering affordable low carbon heat networks. We need these energy efficiency measures to be valid and verifiable. And they

need to be baked into the heat network design strategy; the controls logic and the operational parameters: 1. Low cost of heat 2. Low cost of maintenance 3. Low capital expenditure 4. Long-term continual improvement.

According to the Regen report, 40% decarbonisation of heat is possible within 10-15 years but requires a step change in deployment, across all pieces of the puzzle: • National policies • Collaboration • Joint investment across regional stakeholders, local government, housing associations and the private sector.

Cities are ideally placed to take a lead- they enjoy significant returns to scale. Let’s take a look at Glasgow, a city close to our heart: ‘The city centre, which accounts for 34% of Glasgow’s output, will continue to provide opportunities to make the city centre a place where more people want to live.’

In light of COVID-19 how much does this statement change towards a reduced output but increased residence? Increased residence means increased heating demand and a requirement to provide a better living space. The report continues: ‘While the distinct characteristics of each neighbourhood will be retained and celebrated, the city centre will achieve greater social and physical coherence through the application of shared sustainability themes and objectives.

These include carbon neutrality, zero waste in construction and operation, biodiversity net gain, high physical and digital connectivity, empowered communities, and active, healthy lifestyles.’

There are big gains to be had to convert city centres into something well beyond concrete offices, now more than ever. Most UK cities have a climate change strategy and clear targets. We want to be a part of that by being local partners, encouraging more partnerships and pursuing community, public sector and private sector support.

We all want to do this. Now we must move our mindset to we have to do this.

And we have to do this together, as the heat network sector and we need to spread the message far and wide- we are ready, we have the tools and we can deliver. https://www.greenumbrellas.co.uk/

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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WATER MANAGEMENT

A SOLUTION TO BUYERS’ BIGGEST HEADACHE Liam Greenall, water-saving expert at phs Group

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usinesses are entering the next phase of the year with one of the biggest clouds of uncertainty they’ve ever faced. While necessary, the extensive COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing measures have challenged businesses like never before; leading to reduced occupancies and decreased demand while fixed costs have remained high. The pressure to cut costs is sky high and opportunities to quickly and effectively achieve cost savings have become the holy grail.

While there are some costs that are easy to reduce, once you’ve ticked those boxes, where do you turn next? The answer could be waiting for you in your washroom.

Easily overlooked, washrooms are the biggest source of business’ water usage. In fact, research has found as much as 90% of water is used within a business’ washroom. Conversely, when it comes to achieving water savings, washrooms are often at the end of the list – and sometimes forgotten about entirely. But when you consider wasted water costs UK businesses a staggering £3.5bn a year and that a few simple water-minimisation measures can cut water usage by up to 70% in the washroom, suddenly this becomes a very attractive business proposition. In fact, saving washroom water is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways a business can cut costs.

What’s more, saving thousands – if not millions – of litres of water each year is not only the right thing to do for your business bottom line but it’s also the right thing for the planet too.

So how can you do this? The first task is to go into your washroom and look at your urinals.

Most urinals have an automatic flush process; something you probably don’t give a second thought. However, urinals are programmed to flush every 15 to 30 minutes all day, every day, even if they are not being used. They are quite literally flushing your money straight down the toilet. In normal pre-COVID circumstances, this creates a lot of water wastage during quiet times or when a premises is closed. But now, when washrooms are being used even less frequently, the level of wasted water is exacerbated and most businesses are continuing to pay out for high water bills when they simply don’t need to be. The answer is to be smarter with your washroom water management.

Introducing intelligent flush controls means that urinals will only flush when you need them to. These include infrared technology

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which detects the presence of the first customer or employee and begins working as soon as its needed. At normal occupancy levels, this results in an average saving of £800 a year per washroom – and more than 300,000 litres of water. At reduced occupancy levels, there is scope to increase these savings even more substantially.

If you’re in the business of saving money, there are several other measures you can take to realise further water and cost efficiencies. This includes devices and mechanisms to reduce the flow of water from washroom taps by as much as 8 litres per minute and to save as much as three litres from every toilet flush.

Implementing water-saving measures such as these are already working for businesses up and down the country. Pub company EI Group is set to save as much as 80 million litres of water per year in its washrooms across its managed estates by reducing flushes. Meanwhile motorway services operator Welcome Break is set to save more than 118 million litres in its first year – that’s enough to fill 48 Olympic-sized swimming pools – and save 41 tonnes of carbon. Water management has also helped a city council save 96% of urinal water usage and 80% of washbasin water, a sports stadium use 65% less water with a financial saving of £15,000 and has reduced a pub chain’s water consumption by 80%, saving over £600 per washroom each year.

New investment may not sound the most appealing option at the moment but the benefit of water-saving controls is that they deliver demonstrable cost

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savings and quickly pay for themselves thanks to their ability to cut costs so quickly – and they keep generating savings each and every day.

Water is a precious resource but it is also finite. During lockdown, increased demand has also put more pressure on supply levels making conservation even more important. Moreover, saving water also helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint. And while financial savings are key for any business, conserving water is also the right thing from an environmental perspective.

We live in an environment where we expect a constant flow of water without question. But water is a precious and finite resource. The UK has less available water per person than most European countries while demand continues to grow, particularly as we’ve seen during lockdown which puts even more pressure on supply levels. This makes it essential for everyone to play their part in conserving water. The good news is that, as we’ve seen, this also makes financial sense, delivering savings on an organisation’s water bills as well as helping businesses reduce their carbon footprint. This means that doing your bit for the environment is not only easy but makes financial sense, saving significantly on cost; something which so many businesses are working so hard to achieve in today’s climate.

Email: LiamGreenall@phs.co.uk visit https://www.phs.co.uk or follow @phsGroup on Twitter and phs Group on LinkedIn.

WATER MANAGEMENT

SWITCHWATERSUPPLIER.COM IS HERE TO HELP MAKE THE OPEN WATER MARKET WORK FOR EVERYONE! Our founders have a shared vision and a unique combination of skills and resources that allow SwitchWaterSupplier.com to really address the needs of the UK water retail market.

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ith over 30 years of experience working in the water industry, and the last 20 of those as the co-founder and senior partner of specialist water, waste water and trade effluent consultancy, H2O Building Services, Graham Mann has amassed a vast working knowledge of the non-domestic water retail market.

Graham has a particular passion for the water industry and conservation of one of the world’s most important, yet undervalued, resources. Through his consultancy, he and his team have been championing the customer for years, working with organisations small and large to devise and deliver on water efficiency strategies, identifying incorrect billing, often resulting in significant claims for refunds from the water wholesalers, and helping to correct the water billing data to ensure the customer continues to benefit from the work going forwards.

Since deregulation in both Scotland, and more recently in England and Wales, as of April 2017, Graham has been at the forefront of identifying where new issues in billing data accuracy and other side-issues resulting from the technical challenge of the deregulation process, have arisen. With this experience and practical insight, the need for businesses to step forward and help the water industry regulator, market operator and retailers to realise the goals and benefits of an open water market was abundantly clear.

Having worked with SwitchWaterSupplier.com’s cofounder, Tim Guest, for nearly 20 years on technology projects for H2O Building Services, Graham needed a business partner capable of sharing his passion to help the water retail market mature and work for both customer and retailer.

Tim’s business, Contedia, is a boutique IT services and digital consultancy that has

been developing custom and web applications since 2001, and together, Graham and Tim have developed solutions to automate and allow consultative and customer access and analysis of AMR (Automated Meter Reader) data.

Tim is a solutions expert, capable of understanding and translating business challenges in to strategic technology solutions, so upon realisation of the opportunity to make a genuine difference to so many businesses in and around the water retail industry, his interest was assured. Together, Graham and Tim set out to provide the water retail market with what it needed, a ‘go to’ organisation capable of representing the needs of the open water market and the general interest in water efficiency, together with the providing the tools to ensure customers and retailers can do business better together.

With deregulation bringing about the possibility for most businesses to seek more competitive costs for their water and waste water services by switching to an alternative water retailer, perhaps aligning themselves with a supplier who provides a more suitable service arrangement than their existing supplier, the need for the market to make the opportunity to switch a simple, guided and impartial process is clear. Unfortunately, with only limited information and resources made available to-date, and the complex nature of contacting and evaluating comparable quotes, especially for larger businesses or those with more metered sites, the expectation of businesses being encouraged to switch hasn’t been met, and it’s here where

SwitchWaterSupplier.com decided to enter the market and begin to offer solutions to the challenges that exist.

Based on the experience and skills within the business, SwitchWaterSupplier.com set out to develop the first, completely independent and impartial water tendering platform, designed to cut through the current barriers and offer the features needed to allow customers to manage their water estates free of charge and more easily approach the entire water retail market for like-for-like quotations for their onward water contracts.

With additional, value-added services available from SwitchWaterSupplier.com, including water audits, water bill validation, site surveys and leak detection and repair, the business aims to be the only partner for water-related matters an organisation should ever need.

A whole raft of further features and services will follow the initial launch of the UK’s first water tendering platform, making SwitchWaterSupplier.com the place to start a customer’s journey for all things water, waste water and water efficiency.

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HVAC

THE LATEST EC FAN TECHNOLOGY IS CRITICAL TO VENTILATION EFFICIENCY The Ecodesign Directives and a significant proportion of the Building Regulations obligate everyone involved in the ventilation equipment supply chain to strive for maximum efficiency. David Millward, Group Product Manager (UK & Ireland) at Elta Group, explores how the latest electronically communicated (EC) motor technology could prove to be a silver bullet to this challenge.

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he specification and installation of new ventilation equipment requires consideration of a number of factors. Everything from installation costs and energy efficiency, through to legislative compliance and control for the end-user, affect which system is most suited to a particular application.

For many years, alternating current (AC) motors have been the most popular in fans, but emerging technology has led to a shift away from this. Lower energy EC motors are becoming an increasingly common option, thanks to their superior efficiency, alongside a number of additional benefits to ventilation systems.

ENERGY USAGE Sustainability is a massive issue in construction in general, and this is certainly true for the ventilation industry. Environmental concerns are playing a huge role in the development of products, which increases the focus on energy efficiency and CO2 emissions.

A factor that is often overlooked is the additional energy loss – surplus to specific fan power (SFP) – associated with speed controls. These can be significant, and should be included in calculations of the total power consumed by a ventilation system.

EC motors help to offset this issue, as they negate the need for a mains-powered speed controller by incorporating it into the fan. This significantly reduces total energy consumption compared to an AC motor, contributing to a greener product and, crucially, reducing the running costs associated with the fan.

Significantly, especially in the wake of the latest Ecodesign Directives, the improved performance of EC motor-controlled fans leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions. By operating

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at a lower current, this new wave of technology drastically boosts efficiency, without sacrificing on performance.

STAY IN CONTROL From an end-user perspective, ensuring a comfortable internal atmosphere will always be a top priority. The ability to easily control fan speed is crucial to this, because it allows the output of the fan to be matched to the specific requirements of that location. This also has a knockon effect on energy expenditure, as it prevents unnecessarily excessive fan speed from racking up running costs.

Controlling fan speed with an AC motor is feasible, however this often requires an external controller that can have a negative effect on the overall lifetime of the fan and, in some cases, increases its noise during operation.

EC motors have speed control built within them as standard, as well as automatic overload protection.

STRAIGHTFORWARD INSTALLATION Reducing the energy costs of a fan is one thing, but making sure that it is simple and straightforward to install is another. A built-in speed control on EC motors makes commissioning easier (and cheaper), and because it is connected directly to mains power, an electrician isn’t required to wire the controller.

EC controls also stay the same size, whereas an AC fan requires a specific speed controller to fit the fan power. For example, a 3 AMP fan

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needs a > 3 AMP controller, a 10 AMP fan needs a > 10 AMP controller, and so on. This means that controls get bigger and heavier as the fan power increases, making installation more challenging in tight spaces.

COMPLIANCE The technological development of EC motor-powered fans is underpinned by legislative change.

Contractors must meet increasingly stringent efficiency requirements which, in turn, shifts the focus of manufacturers onto supplying ventilation products that meet this demand.

EC motor technology can allow ventilation products to meet the latest efficiency requirements. Some of the latest products have been designed to ensure compliance with legislation due in 2021, with the aim of future-proofing fans against further changes to regulations.

Those working in the ventilation industry are often left frustrated at the rate of change of legislation, which means products are at constant risk of withdrawal. Opting for a ventilation strategy that future-proofs against this, while providing optimum performance and minimising running costs, should be the priority for ventilation specialists. https://www. eltafans.com/revolution-slc-ec/

HVAC

RINNAI – PRECISION CONTROLLED TEMPERATURE THE NEW NORMAL FOR ALL HYGIENE REGIMES Rinnai continuous flow, unlimited hot water on demand for all care homes, commercial, industrial and institutional sectors.

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ot water temperature precision and control are now being stated as major factors in the design, specification, and installation of any hot water delivery system. Reports have emerged from specific industries and sectors, such as laundry for healthcare and care homes, that the temperature of the hot water is critical to the cleaning and disinfecting process to render the possibility of transmitting the virus as near to zero as possible.

‘At a time when the need for clean and sterile indoor environments is paramount, we must re-consider the design of the provision of hot water services which incorporate heat engines to provide copious volumes of hot water AND provide that hot water at the precise temperature needed,’ comments Rinnai Operations Director, Chris Goggin.

Sound guidance does already exist, as seen in the laundries industry, as seen within the Health & Safety Executive’s HSG (95)18 Hospital Laundry Arrangements for Used and Infected Linen which states “The washing process should have a disinfection cycle in which the temperature in the load is maintained at 65ºC (150ºC) for not less than 10 minutes or, preferably, at 71ºC (160ºF) for not less than 3 minutes” The benefits of temperature control are not new – for example, in the world of building services it is well understood particularly, for anti-legionella regimes. With ACOP L8 advising that “maintaining a supply temperature of at least 60 degrees C from the heat source and/or storage vessel (calorifier)” amongst other system design advice.

All hot water delivery systems in any commercial or institutional sites need to be given detailed consideration to the potential of Legionella proliferation during the shutdown. This will necessitate that certain procedures and measures are carried out before the system can

be made ‘live’ and function efficiently.

ACOP L8 guidelines, produced and published by the Health & Safety Executive, lists the details and necessary procedures to ensure system cleanliness. According to ACOP L8, continuous flow direct to outlet systems are low risk for Legionella, due to it allowing for a full turn-over of water volume, no stored water and accurate temperature control.

There is also greater scope being given to the importance of temperature in terms of building efficiency and carbon footprint. There are already industry groups lobbying with growing influence refer to Taking the temperature – domestic hot water, CIBSE Journal January 2020 online https://www.cibsejournal.com/ technical/taking-the-temperature/ Adds Rinnai’s Chris Goggin, ‘From almost all angles this is rightly so, as the necessity to design hot water systems at a set point greater than needed to satisfy Legionella concerns or temperature loss fears or to build in shunt pumps to continually pump water round an unoccupied building to prevent stratification, raises the real question that any user, designer, consultant or manufacturer must ask – “Are we using the right system for the right job” Available within 24hrs from Rinnai is a range of units giving instant and constant flows of hot water for hygiene and cleaning use in any commercial or institutional sites

such as all healthcare, care homes and mobile hygiene, including any new or planned sites.

If there is a constant supply of gas and water the Rinnai units are guaranteed to supply temperature accurate hot water in unlimited quantities for all hygiene regimes in all types of healthcare sites or temporary accommodation.

Rinnai’s complete range of hot water heating units are available for next day delivery on orders placed before the previous mid-day.

Rinnai is the world’s leading manufacturer of continuous flow hot water systems - it makes and sells 2 million units each year. The range of units can be manifolded to supply, limitless hot water to a school site of any size. This means fast, efficient, temperaturecontrolled water on demand at the point of delivery – kitchens, showers, accommodation blocks, bathrooms, washrooms. It also means far less space spent on plant rooms and no or little maintenance as all units are proven to be robust with a long, long working life.

Installers can contact the company direct in gaining access to the supply of units – Call 01928 531 870 or email sales@rinnaiuk.com – or engineer@rinnaiuk.com. Alternatively use the smart online contact points “Help Me Choose” or “Ask Us a Question”, all held on the website homepage at www.rinnaiuk.com.

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

POWERING A COAL-FREE FUTURE – IS THE UK’S COALFREE HIATUS HERE TO STAY? Britain passed a significant landmark in June 2020, as the nation went for two months without burning coal to generate power. A decade ago, around 40 per cent of the UK’s electricity came from coal and, while the recent plummet in demand accounts for some of the success, it isn’t the full story. Here, Simone Bruckner managing director of power resistor manufacturer Cressall, explains why the country no longer depends on burning coal that has, for so long, been the backbone of Britain’s power.

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ritain’s new coal-free period has smashed the previous record from June 2019, which lasted for 18 days, six hours and ten minutes. While that hiatus was caused by the unprecedented shutdown of many of the National Grid’s coal-fired power plants, the disruptions in 2020 have been even more remarkable. They are, however, by no means the sole contributor to coal’s decline.

RENEWABLES ON THE RISE Two examples illustrate the recent changes in Britain’s power network. Ten years ago, wind and solar energy made up a meagre three per cent of the country’s power mix. Compare this to the first six months of 2020, where renewables were responsible for a significant 37 per cent of electricity supplied to the network — this outstripped fossil fuels by two per cent.

Secondly, a company that has historically been one of the biggest players in coal power appears to be moving on from its history. Drax, the UK’s largest power plant, was once the biggest consumer of coal in the UK. Now, the plant is making the switch to compressed wood pellets with the goal of phasing-out coal entirely by March 2021.

While some environmental activists still question the efficiency of burning wood, which still produces carbon emissions in its own right, this change would leave the UK with just three coal-powered plants.

WINDS OF CHANGE There is one major reason why Britain’s 2020 shift away from coal power will have more longevity than a passing trend. That’s because renewable technology is far more sophisticated than it was ten years ago.

Renewable energy has undergone a massive scale-up in recent years. This is largely as a result of the Paris Climate Agreement, but also because new technologies have made it more possible for renewables to outshine fossil fuels.

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In solar panel developments, for instance, research into capturing and using waste heat emitted by solar panels could help to reduce solar costs even more, while doubling the efficiency of solar cells. Photovoltaic tracking panels have also become increasingly popular, which use tracking systems to tilt and shift the angle of the panel as the day goes by to best match the sun’s position.

Wind turbines are much larger nowadays. One example is the 9.6 mega Watt (MW) turbine from Danish producer, MHI Vestas, that alone is able to power more than 8,000 homes. Power storage is increasingly possible, and many companies have partnered with battery producers to store extra power so it can be used on less windy days.

KEEPING TECHNOLOGY TURNING As renewable resources grow in sophistication, it is vital that other systems also keep pace in order to effectively manage the power they create.

For example, wind turbines are typically connected to the distribution network through step-up transformers.

When energised by high inrush currents, these transformers can experience overvoltage on the distribution network.

This can potentially damage equipment.

Overvoltage issues can be remedied by using technologies like pre-insertion resistors (PIRs). PIRs, such as those offered by Cressall, are a three-phase resistor with a high thermal mass that allows them to absorb energy from high inrushes,

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while still being compact enough to fit efficiently in a transformer substation.

Resistor technologies can also help manage power in solar panels. One example is electric motors that help solar panels move to “track” the position of the sun. These motors can be fitted with braking resistors to ensure that the panels stop at the optimum angle when tracking the sun for maximum efficiency.

Braking resistors can also be used on wind turbines, particularly on fixed-speed winder generators where sudden changes in wind speed can have a detrimental impact on the stability of the system. By inserting a dynamic braking resistor in series with the generator circuit, designers can help the system to dissipate the excess power created by stronger winds, before it has chance to damage the entire system.

The UK’s current coal-free reign may not last forever — at least not yet — but the pause from burning fossil fuels certainly marks a brighter future. As renewable resources form an increasing part of our energy mix, it will be ever more essential to ensure that the technologies which power them, and those that manage the power, support the nation’s net zero goal. www.cressall.com/category/blog

RENEWABLE ENERGY

SOLAR THERMAL – SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY WORTH RECONSIDERING Bill Sinclair, technical director, Adveco

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aced with an increasing expectation to become more actively sustainable, as well as the need to mitigate rising energy costs, now is a good time for commercial organisations to reconsider the integration of a solar thermal system as part of their premises. Not only a proven and extremely reliable technology, for the past 15 years solar thermal has offered a clear path to reducing CO2 emissions.

Ten years ago, it was very difficult to argue in favour of solar thermal because the numbers really did not stack up against the price of gas. The capital costs of installation and maintenance versus the operational savings meant many early projects failed to recoup their investment, even with the support of RHI, despite a typically cited ten-year payback.

Flash forward to today, and we are in very different situation. Commercial organisations in response to the need to reduce CO2 are moving water heating away from gas to direct electric which is perceived to be cleaner. But what they are finding is that shift comes with a new financial burden as electricity at 11p/ kWh is substantially more expensive than gas. If you can offset that cost, then the numbers now start to look favourable for adopting solar thermal. A ten-year return on investment becomes very achievable, before even factoring in supplementary support from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. But be aware that project applications for RHI close in March 2021, and support for solar thermal under the replacement Clean Heat Grant is not currently planned. Despite that, the undisputed carbon and cost savings means we are seeing a definite upswing in demand for new systems.

Solar thermal systems are ideal for organisation that use and rely on large amounts of domestic hot water (DHW)r, but it is important to understand that a solar thermal system will not fully replace an existing water heating system and will not provide space heating. The actual percentage of water heating demand covered by solar thermal will depend on the site and energy consumption habits - around 30% is typical for commercial applications.

As with any technology, issues can arise if a commercial system is poorly

designed and/or badly maintained.

A correctly designed and sized system will consider the daily usage and peak demands. Its aim is to serve all peaks from storage, with the size of the peak determining the size of pre-heat. The recovery time for peaks is what ultimately determines number of solar collectors a building requires. The design process also sizes usage with available space. A south-facing and unobstructed roof with an inclination of 30° from the horizontal is optimal, though by no means essential as modern solar collectors can be installed in a variety of permutations.

Unsurprisingly, solar thermal collectors do suffer if the building is significantly shaded, in which case a commercial air source heat pump may be a preferred option to produce low carbon heat. Length of pipe run is also important, if collectors are located a considerable distance from plant the system’s thermal losses can be detrimental to efficient operation.

Perhaps the largest negative for early adoption of solar thermal was the possibility of overheating causing pressure blow-off, or worse stagnation of Solar Fluid. Without overheat protection, a poorly maintained system could see fluid ‘cooking’ to the consistency of molasses. This could happen within weeks of installation, blocking collectors and pipework and causing permanent damage.

The response has been to deploy systems that offer drain back, which, as the name implies drains the Solar Fluid from the collector to a reservoir when not in use.

Flat plate collectors with an integrated drain back module offer a more cost-effective

(as there is no requirement for large solar storage) and more efficient (as there is no call to dump unused heat) approach. The technology has proven itself in the field, with some sites requiring fluid changes after eight or nine years rather than the expected three, and some sites have required no fluid change at all in the past decade.

Quality design work enables calculation of the Solar Fraction, the total annual heat demand for hot water compared to total available from solar inputs. Obviously, solar thermal systems are most productive during the summer months, but during winter a back-up heat system is also required.

Designers have two options – gas fired with solar preheat, or electric with heat pump and solar – to balance cost and environmental impact. Solar has always been used as a preheat with coldest water possible to maximise the efficiency and output: this gives maximum free heat with no carbon emissions. But there is a good case now for using solar thermal with heat pumps and electric if set up as a mid-heating system which can lower both carbon and cost.

No single technology currently provides the ‘magic bullet’ of sustainability for commercial-scale projects. Delivered in conjunction with other technologies – high efficiency gas or electric boilers and ASHP – Solar thermal, when correctly sized, commissioned and protected from overheat, is a proven and practical technology. It can help future-proof a hot water system whilst making substantial savings in operational costs (with or without RHI) while dramatically reducing emissions all year round. www.adveco.co

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

HYDROGEN HUBS DELIVER AFFORDABLE NET-ZERO TRANSPORT FOR CITY REGIONS

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BOC offers game-changing hub funding model for hydrogen refuelling stations serving the need of clusters of users. Mark Griffin, Hydrogen Market Development Manager for Clean Fuels, BOC.

he UK government’s plan to bring forward by five years the ban on selling new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars in the UK from 2040 to 2035, highlights the urgent need to deliver on zero-emission transport.

To facilitate the transition to low-carbon vehicles, the government recently announced funding support for zero-carbon buses.

The use of hydrogen as a clean fuel for transport is attracting serious interest up and down the UK and a number of city councils are already taking action. Aberdeen City Council is expanding its existing fleet of hydrogen fuelled buses, Glasgow City Council has set out proposals that all of the council’s vehicles should be emissions free (a mix of hydrogen and electric) by the end of 2029 and Liverpool City Region is developing plans to use hydrogen to help achieve its 2040 zero emission target.

Councillor Liam Robinson, Transport Portfolio Holder at the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said, “We want to use the current moment to build a fairer and greener economy and transform the Liverpool City Region into the UK’s renewable energy coast. That’s why we have an ambitious target to be zero carbon by 2040.

Hydrogen is allowing us to rethink the way we generate and store energy, power transport fleets and heat homes and we are fortunate to have a company like BOC based in St Helens with whom we can work in partnership.

The relationship will be particularly vital as we move forward on the project to bring a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled buses to the streets of the city region.”

By leading the transition to zero-emission fleets, city and city region authorities like Glasgow, Aberdeen and the Liverpool City Region are accelerating the market growth for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

THE GAME CHANGER: HYDROGEN HUBS A hydrogen hub brings together a number of users to share a hydrogen refuelling

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facility. A large user base creates regular demand for hydrogen and maximises the procurement potential for councils.

These financial benefits extend to the purchase of vehicles and investment in the hydrogen refuelling station itself.

Producing higher volumes of hydrogen helps to reduce the fuel cost per mile so that it is comparable with diesel.

When cities are able to commit to fleets of 50-100 vehicles or more, the economics of hydrogen refuelling change dramatically. Ambitious local authorities looking to drive up demand and produce higher volumes of hydrogen will find a range of different investment models available, including the option to have BOC fund the capital cost of the refuelling station. This removes one of the biggest barriers to local authorities

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developing hydrogen infrastructure and frees up capital to invest in vehicles.

Like battery EVs, fuel-cell vehicles cost more than today’s internal combustion engine vehicles. However, members of the H2Bus Consortium are working together to produce a singledeck bus at a price around £300,000 leveraging component cost reductions and increased volumes of production.

Hydrogen is a particularly suitable fuel for larger vehicles, such as buses and trucks. It offers a much better vehicle power-to-weight ratio than batteries, which makes it possible to travel long distances without significantly increasing vehicle weight.

Refuelling with hydrogen is a fast and familiar process, which is similar to refuelling a diesel vehicle.

RENEWABLE ENERGY PHASED DELIVERY

It takes around 10 minutes to refuel a bus, which can cover a range of around 350km, and just five minutes for a car giving a range of 500km.

Today, the adoption barriers facing hydrogen are similar to those of battery EVs: lack of refuelling infrastructure and higher vehicle costs. Hydrogen hubs offer a way to overcome those barriers.

COLLABORATION IS KEY Bringing together a hydrogen hub that serves a multitude of projects helps to realise the full value of hydrogen for transport while offering local authorities a clear strategy and a coherent investment opportunity to decarbonise transport.

It helps local authorities to focus on a coordinated scalable hub rather than dealing with numerous, isolated smallscale projects that fail to realise the benefits offered by economies of scale.

A hub demands a collaborative approach between the local authority, fleet operators and other users, vehicle suppliers, sources of funding, an energy supplier or utility and the refuelling station developer. The local authorities are responsible for running various vehicle fleets, including buses and refuse trucks as well as various council vans and cars. Other users can include both public sector organisations such as the NHS and police, while early adopters in the private sector are likely to include taxi fleets, logistics companies, supermarket delivery vehicles and other users that need to travel longer daily distances without the time to recharge batteries.

As well as encouraging businesses to switch to zero-emission vehicles, developing a hydrogen refuelling hub gives private motorists the option to run a fuel-cell car.

BOC’s modular approach to hydrogen refuelling allows hub operators to size their refuelling station to the initial user base and scale up production volumes as demand grows.

Typically, construction takes around 12-months from point of order to being able to refuel. The hydrogen supply is key, which can either be delivered to site from an offsite production plant or produced onsite. To produce hydrogen on-site, an electrolyser is required to extract hydrogen from water. A compressor unit takes the extracted hydrogen and compresses it for efficient storage. The station also requires a hydrogen store, which is capable of storing hydrogen under pressure, and a dispenser for pumping the hydrogen gas to the vehicle under pressure.

Hubs can produce green hydrogen on-site by using renewable energy to power the electrolysis process, either from local renewable energy sources or by using an energy company that offers a green tariff.

THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE – TODAY Transport now accounts for a 28% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, with the majority of these coming from road transport.

Hydrogen is no longer a futuristic fuel. Hydrogen refuelling stations are in daily use today, for example at Kittybrewster in Aberdeen, providing reliable and affordable energy for a new generation of zero-emission vehicles,.

To meet the country’s net zero emission targets, we need to fast-track deployment of hydrogen-fuelled zero-emission vehicles. City councils can work collaboratively and take advantage of BOC’s hub funding model to lead this transition and act as catalysts for hydrogen hubs. And, as the number of hubs increase, so regions will develop a cluster of hydrogen refuelling stations that will help realise the full potential of hydrogen as a transport fuel across the UK and beyond. www.boconline.co.uk

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DRIVING THE FUTURE

E-CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM This article is part of a series on the future of e-charging infrastructure in the European Union and United Kingdom.

In this piece we will discuss: 1. An overview of the United Kingdom ("UK") e-mobility market.

2. The legal framework for the construction and operating of electric vehicle ("EV") chargepoints.

3. The subsidies and tax benefits that exist to incentivise the construction or operation of EV chargepoints.

4. The different business models in the UK e-mobility market.

OVERVIEW OF THE E-MOBILITY MARKET IN THE UK The race is on to transform the UK’s transport sector in the next 15 years.

The UK Government has indicated it wants to bring forward its ban on the sale of new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK from 2040 to at least 2035.1 This change comes after the Independent Committee on Climate Change advised that the original date of 2040 was too late to achieve the UK’s net zero carbonemissions target for 2050, which was enshrined into UK law in June 2019.2 By accelerating the phasing out of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars, the UK Government is depending on the rapid expansion of the EV market in the next few years to fill the gap.

With the 2035 deadline as a formidable backdrop, the UK Government, as part of its “Road 1 Source: HM Government Open Consultation: “Consulting on ending the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans”, 9 April 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/government/ consultations/consulting-on-ending-the-saleof-new-petrol-diesel-and-hybrid-cars-and-vans/ consulting-on-ending-the-sale-of-newpetrol-diesel-and-hybrid-cars-and-vans).

2 Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/ news/uk-becomes-first-major-economyto-pass-net-zero-emissions-law

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to Zero Strategy”, has introduced (or is consulting on) a number of schemes and law changes to support the expansion of all areas of the e-mobility market. Fundamental to increasing the uptake of EV vehicles in the UK is ensuring that there is adequate e-charging infrastructure installed throughout the UK.3 The expansion of e-charging infrastructure in the UK has been rapid.

As at 27 May 2020, there were 31,680 charging connectors in the United Kingdom (an increase from 1,503 at the end of 2011)4 and the UK e-charging market is recognised as one of the most advanced in Europe.5 However, it will need to continue to grow rapidly 3 This is to address “range anxiety” – the fears over the distance an EV can travel between charges, which is a key factor for people considering buying an EV. Source: House of Commons Library, Briefing Paper, “Electric Vehicles and infrastructure”, David Hirst, Number 7480, 25 March 2020 (http://researchbriefings.files.parliament. uk/documents/CBP-7480/CBP-7480.pdf)].

4 Source: https://www.zap-map. com/statistics/#region.

5 Source: PwC report: “Powering ahead! Making sense of business models in electric vehicle charging”, October 2018 (https://www.pwc.co.uk/ power-utilities/assets/powering-aheadev-charging-infrastructure.pdf).

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

Martin Lucas, Partner, Watson Farley & Williams

to ensure that the UK Government’s bold ambitions become a reality.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF CHARGEPOINTS LEGAL REQUIREMENTS TO CONSTRUCT AN EV CHARGEPOINT The legal framework for the construction of e-charging infrastructure differs across the United Kingdom because the majority of the relevant legislative powers (e.g. town and planning legislation and building regulations) have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the Assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland respectively. The requirements set out in this section are limited to England only unless otherwise stated.

PLANNING PERMISSIONS AND OTHER CONSENTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF EV CHARGEPOINTS PRIVATE LAND The construction of EV chargepoints on private land (e.g. off-street public and private car parks) benefit from permitted development rights under English planning law, which means that planning permission is not required, provided that certain conditions are met.

For wall-mounted EV charging outlets, the units must be less than 0.2 cubic metres, be over 2 metres from the highway and must not be within certain types of protected properties (e.g. a designated scheduled monument or the curtilage of a listed building). For upstanding EV charging outlets, their height cannot exceed

DRIVING THE FUTURE 1.6 metres (for residential areas) or 2.3 metres (in all other cases).6 Other consents may be required depending on the ownership arrangements of the relevant land (e.g. from the freeholder or management agent of a block of flats).

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS The construction of EV chargepoints on public highways can be done by local authorities without planning permission.

Third parties may need to obtain planning permission however and early engagement with the relevant highway and planning authorities is vital to avoid any undue delay. Factors such as whether the proposed site is in a flood risk area or a conservation area, near a listed building or close to a tree will be considered as part of any planning application.7 A number of other consents that may be required to construct an EV chargepoint on a public highway.

These include a section 278 agreement (required under the Highways Act 1980), which is a legal agreement with the relevant highway authority that allows a developer to carry out works to a public highway and a section 50 street works licence (required under New Roads & Street Works Act 1991), which is a licence to allow developers to install and/or maintain apparatus under a public highway.

Additional consents may be required depending on the nature of the public highway and the requirements of a particular local authority.8

FUTURE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF EV CHARGEPOINTS IN RESIDENTIAL AND NONRESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES Some local authorities in England have already introduced policies that require the installation of e-charging infrastructure in different types of developments (e.g. the London Plan) 6 Source: Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2011, Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 and Town and Country Planning Regulations SI 2019 No 907.

7 Source: London’s electric vehicle charge point installation guidance, December 2019 (http://lruc.content.tfl.gov.uk/londonelectric-vehicle-charge-point-installationguidance-december-2019.pdf).

8 Source: London’s electric vehicle charge point installation guidance, December 2019 (http://lruc.content.tfl.gov.uk/londonelectric-vehicle-charge-point-installationguidance-december-2019.pdf).

but there is currently no nationwide requirement. The UK Government is looking to change this and has recently concluded a public consultation on proposed amendments to the building regulations in England that will require the installation of EV chargepoints in new residential buildings and certain new non-residential buildings. Under these proposals: • every new residential building with an associated car parking space must have a EV chargepoint (and this requirement would also apply to any existing building undergoing a material change of use to create a dwelling); and • every new non-residential building and every non-residential building undergoing a major renovation with more than 10 car parking spaces must have at least one EV chargepoint and cable routes for an EV chargepoint for one in five spaces.9 The second proposal above regarding new non-residential buildings is required as part of the UK’s transposition of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (the “EPBD”).10 The EPBD also requires that every existing non-residential building with more than 20 car parking spaces must have at least one EV chargepoint from 2025. If introduced, this change will be transposed through separate legislation rather than an amendment to current building regulations, which are only applicable when building work is being carried out.11 Whilst the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, the terms of the withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK mean that (until 31 December 2020, unless extended) the UK is still subject to EU law and therefore under an obligation to transpose the EPBD into national law.

9 Source: HM Government Consultation paper: “Electric vehicle charge points in residential and non-residential buildings”, 15 July 2019 (https://assets.publishing. service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/file/818810/ electric-vehicle-charging-in-residentialand-non-residential-buildings.pdf ).

10 Source: Directive (EU) 2018/844 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency.

11 Source: HM Government Consultation paper: “Electric vehicle charge points in residential and non-residential buildings”, 15 July 2019 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov. uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/818810/electric-vehiclecharging-in-residential-and-non-residentialbuildings.pdf).

These proposals have broadly been well received but responses to the consultation have asked the UK Government to consider issues relating to the additional cost of any installation for property developers, the relationship between property developers, e-charging infrastructure operators and residents as well as health and safety considerations.12 The UK Government was expected to publish its response to the consultation at the beginning of this year, but its publication has been delayed.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR OPERATING AN EV CHARGEPOINT ALTERNATIVE FUELS INFRASTRUCTURE REGULATIONS 2017 The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 came into force in October 2017 and, even though it is EU legislation, it will remain in force after the UK fully leaves the EU.13 These regulations aim to standardise the customer experience across all EV charging infrastructure and ensure that public EV infrastructure is accessible to all. More specifically, these regulations require EV chargepoint operators (“CPOs”): • to comply with common standards for socket outlets and vehicle connectors and with requirements for intelligent metering; • to make their equipment available for use by the general public without requiring a pre-existing contract or membership; and • to make data regarding public EV charging infrastructure, such as its location and type, accessible to the public on an open and non-discriminatory basis.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards has published guidance on these regulations that includes clarifications on what is considered “public” EV infrastructure and good practice recommendations on how best to make data accessible.14 12 Source: https://www.bpf.org.uk/sites/ default/files/resources/British%20 Property%20Federation%20-%20 EV%20Chargepoints%20in%20Resi%20 and%20non-Resi%20submission.pdf.

13 Source: Office for Produce Safety & Standards: ”The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017: Guidance on the UK Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations”, July 2019.

14 Source: Office for Produce Safety & Standards: ”The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017: Guidance on the UK Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations”, July 2019 (https://assets.publishing.service. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ Continued attachment_data/file/817044/alternativeon page 48. fuels-regulations-2017-guidance.pdf).

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

47

i

DRIVING THE FUTURE

u

Continued from page 47.

THE AUTOMATED AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES ACT 2018 The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 does not itself impose any new requirements for e-charging infrastructure but instead gives the UK Government the power in the future to regulate a number of areas in the e-charging infrastructure sector as and when it deems necessary. The Act states that the UK Government has the power to introduce requirements in connection with: • the performance, maintenance and availability of e-charging infrastructure (which could require CPOs to co-operate with each other to share facilities or information); • the method of payment for using e-charging infrastructure; • the provision of e-charging infrastructure by large fuel retailers or motorway services operators; • the standardisation of both the type of data made available to the public by CPOs and the method of transmission of such data; and • the technical specification of any new e-charging infrastructure.

The UK Government has recently concluded a consultation on smart charging for EVs and has said it will it may use the Act to mandate that all chargepoints sold or installed in the UK have smart functionality (i.e. prioritise charging during off-peak periods when electricity demand is low).15 The UK Government is currently considering the responses to the consultation and will response in due course.

The UK Government has also recently announced that it may bring in legislation using its powers under the Act to support the roll-out of a fast-charging network (see “Rapid Charging Fund” below for more details on this roll-out).16

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY LICENCE The electricity supply licensing regime in the UK is designed on the basis that electricity is supplied to 15 Source: HM Government Closed Consultation: “Electric vehicle smart charging consultation: summary of responses”, 27 May 2020 (https:// www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ electric-vehicle-smart-charging/publicfeedback/electric-vehicle-smart-chargingconsultation-summary-of-responses).

16 Source: HM Government Policy Paper: “Government vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England”, 14 May 2020 (https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/ government-vision-for-the-rapid-chargepointnetwork-in-england/government-vision-forthe-rapid-chargepoint-network-in-england).

48

“premises” (e.g. homes or businesses) and therefore EV charging infrastructure does not fit neatly into its rules.

To assist CPOs, local authorities and other businesses in the e-charging infrastructure sector, Ofgem (the UK electricity regulator) issued guidance in October 2019 on the circumstances in which an electricity supply licence would be required.17 In its guidance Ofgem confirmed that a supply licence would be required for the supply of electricity to an EV chargepoint but that, under most circumstances, the supply of electricity from an EV chargepoint to an EV would not require a supply licence on the basis that an EV is not a “premises”.

The guidance also explored the licensing position at certain sites with complex ownership and letting arrangements involving multiple parties, such as a supermarket carpark. In this scenario it is possible that the owner of the supermarket is supplied electricity by a licensed supplier and then the supermarket supplies the electricity to an EV chargepoint that is owned by a thirdparty operator who then supplies the electricity to an individual’s EV. Ofgem has confirmed that in these circumstances, while the supply of electricity by the owner of the supermarket to a third-party owned EV chargepoint may under the general rule require a supply licence, it is possible such supply could be exempt on the basis it is the ‘re-sale’ of electricity, meaning that no supply licence is required.

Subsidies and tax benefits to incentivise the construction or operation of EV chargepoints

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES AND TAX BENEFITS FOR THE INSTALLATION OF INDIVIDUAL CHARGEPOINTS The UK Government and specifically the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (the “OLEV”), has introduced a number of schemes to encourage EV owners, businesses and local authorities to construct e-charging infrastructure.

THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE HOMECHARGE SCHEME The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (“EVHS”) provides grants to assist EV vehicle owners with some of the 17 Source: Ofgem Guidance: “What you need to know about selling to Electric Vehicle users”, 17 October 2019 (https://www. ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2019/10/ what_you_need_to_know_about_ selling_electricity_to_ev_users.pdf).

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

costs of acquiring and installing an EV chargepoint at home. The grant covers 75% of the eligible costs of installation (up to a maximum of £350) and the application for the grant is made on behalf of a customer by the relevant installer who have been authorised by the OLEV. Individuals are eligible for the grant if they own an EV and own a property with designated private off-street parking.

THE WORKPLACE CHARGING SCHEME The Workplace Charging Scheme (“WCS”) encourages the installation of e-charging infrastructure at places of business by providing support towards the up-front costs of the purchase and installation of e-charging infrastructure.

The scheme is voucher-based, meaning that a successful applicant (which can be a business, charity or public authority) receives a voucher that is valid for 6 months that can be used to partly pay for the installation of e-charging infrastructure by an OLEV-authorised installer. The authorised installer can then redeem the voucher with the OLEV. The WCS reduces the cost of installation by up to £350 per socket for up to a maximum of 40 chargepoints (this was recently changed from £500 per socket for a maximum of 10 chargepoints).

THE ON-STREET RESIDENTIAL CHARGEPOINT SCHEME The On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (“ORCS”) is available to local authorities and provides access to grant funding to be used to part fund the procurement and installation of on-street e-charging infrastructure in residential areas. The grant funding can cover up to 75% of the capital costs of procuring and installing e-charging infrastructure and (if required) an associated dedicated parking bay.

The costs of upgrading or maintaining existing chargepoints is excluded.

The OLEV has said that the maximum it will fund per chargepoint is typically £6,500 (but will consider applications of up to £7,500 per chargepoint on a case-by-case basis). The OLEV does not anticipate any application greater than £100,000 per project. There are several criteria that must be met, including the requirement that the chargepoint is added to the National Chargepoint Registry, which is an open resource listing publicly accessible chargepoints in the UK and designed for use by website and smartphone app developers as well as satellite navigation manufacturers.

DRIVING THE FUTURE CAPITAL ALLOWANCE FOR CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE As well as tax incentives for the acquisition of EVs, the UK Government has also introduced legislation so that expenditure on new e-charging infrastructure qualifies for the 100% first-year allowance, meaning that a business can deduct the full cost of such expenditure from its profits before tax. The allowance applies to any expenditure prior to 31 March 2023 (for corporation tax purposes) and 5 April 2023 (for income tax purposes).18

GOVERNMENT-BACKED FUNDS FOR LARGE-SCALE INSTALLATION OF EV CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE The UK Government has also taken steps to make capital available for large-scale development of EV charging infrastructure.

CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT FUND In 2017 the UK Government, through the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, created the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (“CIIF”). The CIIF aims to invest up to £400 million to ensure that there is enough capital available to enable the roll-out of e-charging infrastructure in the UK. The UK Government has agreed to invest £200 million to the fund with the remaining amount funded by private investors. The fund is managed by Zouk Capital, a Londonbased private sector fund manager.

On its first financial close in September 2017, a total of £70 million (funded 50:50 by UAE renewables investor Masdar and UK Government) was raised by the CIIF to support the construction of 3000 rapid chargepoints by 2024.19 On its second financial close in April 2020, £80 million (funded 50:50 by private investors, including the Church Commissioners for England, and the UK Government) was raised by the CIIF, which will be deployed in due course. The timing of this capital raise hopefully gives a small indication that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government and private investors are still prepared to commit funds to the future of e-charging infrastructure.

18 S ource: HMRC policy paper: “First-year allowance for electric charge-points” (https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/firstyear-allowance-for-electric-charge-points/firstyear-allowance-for-electric-charge-points).

19 S ource: https://www.zouk.com/ news/38-infrastructure/212-over-500mnew-investment-in-green-technologiesfor-a-cleaner-and-healthier-future.

RAPID CHARGING FUND In the 2020 Budget, the UK Government announced its ambition to roll-out a fast-charging network for EV vehicles in England and that this expansion would be supported by a “Rapid Charging Fund”. This fund will be available to cover a portion of costs of installing high powered e-charging infrastructure at strategic sites across England’s road network where such an upgrade would otherwise be prohibitively expensive and uncommercial. By 2023, the UK Government aims to have at least six high powered, open access chargepoints (150 – 350 kilowatt capable) at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having as many as 10 to 12 chargepoints. It is hoped that the number of high-powered chargepoints will then increase to around 2,500 by 2030 and 6,000 by 2035.20

BUSINESS MODELS IN THE MARKET The EV charging infrastructure market is fast-growing and very competitive, with a plethora of different companies. from start-ups to established CPOs and energy companies, vying for market share.

In October 2018, PwC, in partnership with the trade association Energy UK, published a report entitled “Powering ahead! Making sense of business models in electric vehicle charging” that focused on CPOs and different business models in the UK EV charging market.21 The report was the result of a number of interviews with leading CPOs and other key stakeholders such as electricity supply businesses. The report identified four emerging business models for CPOs in the UK EV charging market: • The Portfolio player: a CPO that operates across different charging segments such as home, work and destination e-charging infrastructure.

• The Specialist player: a CPO that only operates in one charging segment to maximise its expertise in a particular area (e.g. rapid charging).

20 Source: HM Government Policy Paper, “Government vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England”, 14 May 2020 (https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/ government-vision-for-the-rapid-chargepointnetwork-in-england/government-vision-forthe-rapid-chargepoint-network-in-england).

21 Source: PwC report: “Powering ahead! Making sense of business models in electric vehicle charging”, October 2018 (https://www.pwc.co.uk/ power-utilities/assets/powering-aheadev-charging-infrastructure.pdf).

This article is part of a series on the future of e-charging infrastructure in the European Union and United Kingdom. To read further country specific articles please visit: https://www.wfw.com/ articles/the-future-of-echarging-infrastructure-inthe-european-union-andunited-kingdom/ • The Network Optimiser player: a CPO that aims on building a future market position across multiple segments with the aim of creating additional revenues by exporting power from clusters of stationary EVs to the grid or by using smart technology to ‘load shift’ (facilitate the charging of EVs at periods of low demand).

• The Energy Supplier player: a CPO that uses EV charging to supplement and develop its existing electricity supply business (in particular with existing domestic customers).

The report makes clear that any single business may incorporate more than one of these models and that there are other market players that do not fall into any of these models such as local authorities and oil and gas companies (who have entered the market in recent years to diversify their businesses).

As the e-mobility market goes mainstream, technology continues to advance, and the nuances of the customer experience become clearer, it is inevitable that these business models will change and adapt and new opportunities for businesses will emerge.

For example, tourist destinations that rely on car-access may look to provide their own EV solutions as visitors become more conscious of their carbon footprint and companies looking to replace their existing vehicle fleets with EVs may seek to form strategic partnerships with CPOs and other market participants.22 https://www.wfw.com/ 22 Source: Ensto blog entry “5 Great EV Charging Business Models” (https://www. ensto.com/company/newsroom/blogs/5great-ev-charging-business-models).

ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

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DRIVING THE FUTURE

COUNCILS COULD SAVE MILLIONS ON ROAD TO NET ZERO, AFTER FREE ADVICE SURGERIES LAUNCHED Local authorities could save thousands of pounds on each electric vehicle charger they install for public use, after UK Power Networks launched free advice surgeries.

T

here are already more than 80,000 electric vehicles on the road in UK Power Networks region across London, the East and South East of England, a figure set to rise to 3.6m by 2030.

Demand for electric vehicles means there are a total of 4,749 on-street charging points across the areas that UK Power Networks supplies the power to – which is almost 75% of public chargers in the UK today. The 152 local authorities across the area play a critical role in ensuring residents and visitors have access to public charging infrastructure.

In response UK Power Networks has launched free ‘Ask the EV Expert’ surgeries to help local authorities meet the demand for more public charge points in the most cost efficient way.

Experts from the company’s Connections team undertake a detailed analysis of where a local authority plans to install charge points, and suggest the most cost-effective alternative locations.

If a single charge point is planned for a location without an electricity

cable running directly underneath, was moved to a location with existing infrastructure, the saving could be up to £20,000. With many local authorities having ambitious plans to energise the electric vehicle rollout, the savings could amount to millions for local authorities which cover large regions.

So far UK Power Networks has helped 17 local authorities including county, unitary, parish and London borough councils and identified more than 400 lower cost locations for charge points. More than 150 local authorities have also received bespoke electric vehicle uptake forecasts to help guide their charging strategies.

Neil Madgwick, head of Connections Service Delivery at UK Power Networks, said: “Councils want to provide on-street charging infrastructure in the right places at the right time to encourage uptake of electric vehicles and making best use of their limited funds and available grants.

They told us they were concerned they don’t have the insight into residents’ behaviour or the technical knowledge

to make informed decisions, so we are taking a collaborative approach to best deliver the transition to electric vehicles “We look forward to continuing helping local authorities install charging infrastructure to support residents who don’t have access to off-street parking, and their local businesses and taxi fleets.”

Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Environment Susan Carey said: “The support we received from UK Power Networks through their free surgeries has been invaluable to installing electric vehicle charge points in Kent. Participating in the surgeries not only saved the council money, but freed up many hours of officers’ time in helping assess the most appropriate locations to place the chargers. UK Power Networks’ assistance has been critical in helping county councils like ours develop our plans to tackle the climate change emergency.”

For more information see: https://bit.ly/2yjlD9E

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