The Energyst

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Blackouts: Lord Redesdale says firms are in for a shock

June / July 2015

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Why energy efficiency projects are stalling

51

National Grid launches massive demand response push

Secure your organisation’s future by becoming more resource efficient.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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Demand Response

Insight

National Grid sees demand side response making up to half of balancing services within five years. It wants your load

Blackouts: Lord Redesdale “puts money on blackouts or brownouts” by year end and predicts soaring power prices

18

Financing Energy Efficiency Readers tell us project finance and board level buy-in is scant.

Bankers tell us they have lots of money. The Energyst unpicks the disconnect

38 Monitoring & Targeting

The monitoring system will help National Grid handle emerging challenges through better visibility of the health of the grid

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“A big priority

to those affected sites to reduce consumption during peak periods”

Gas & Electricity

P272: Many are unaware of the impending change to mandatory half-hourly settlement for profile classes 05-08

12

7

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Blackouts: Lord Redesdale says firms are in for a shock

Policy & Legislation

News

Esos crunch: Just 57 firms out of 14,000 have notified the Environment Agency of compliance

4

Policy & Legislation

Why energy efficiency projects are stalling

51

National Grid launches massive demand response push

The new name for Water, Energy & Environment

14 Cover Story

Secure your organisation’s future by becoming more resource efficient.

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No minister: Npower calls for new Office for Energy to bring rationality to energy policy

News & Comment

June / July 2015

18

Secure your organisation’s future by becoming more resource efficient

Esos Update

24

Building Controls

44

12

HVAC

26

Drives & Motors

50

Financing Energy Efficiency

16

Lighting

32

Compressed Air

52

Gas & Electricity

20

M&T

38

Water Management

56

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June/July 2015

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COMMENT

What is an energyst?

Water, Energy & Environment has rebranded to The Energyst to adapt to the needs of the modern energy professional. Magazines can be defined in three major ways; the sector that they cover, the thing that they talk about or the people that they talk to and inform.

As a magazine that has always been cross sector and focuses on reducing energy and water use within a site as well as buying energy it has fallen into the category of things that we talk about; namely water, energy and the environment. However, the magazine is really about the people that have to contend with this fast-paced world of shifting legislation in which we live. Like a physicist covers physics, or an economist economics, so an energyst deals with all aspects of energy.

The Energyst aims to provide a platform where issues are discussed, reported upon that can affect the energy professional This strategic rebranding of Water, Energy & Environment aims to cater for the very different needs of the modern energy professional that were not around 16 years ago when it first launched.

There was no Climate Change Programme, the Department of Energy & Climate Change didn’t exist and the UK was a net exporter of gas. Times have changed within the fast-paced energy industry with increasing legislative and compliance demands allied to constrained or expensive supply.

The modern energy professional has to be an expert in technology, procurement, risk management, finance, behavioural change and demand and response reduction while getting to grips with an alphabet soup

Editor Tim McManan-Smith tim@energystmedia.com t: 020 3714 4450 m: 07818 545308

Sales manager Robert Gouge robert@energystmedia.com t: 020 3771 1267 m: 07557 109724

Sales director Steve Swaine steve@energystmedia.com t: 020 3714 4451 m: 07818 574300

Production Paul Lindsell production@energystmedia.com m: 07790 434813 Circulation enquiries circulation@energystmedia.com

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June/July 2015

of market mechanisms, legislation and regulation.

The Energyst aims to provide a platform where these issues are discussed and reported, with readers, via regular surveys, helping to set the policy agenda.

Water will remain a part of the remit, as many FMs and energy managers are increasingly tasked with broader resources management. Water procurement and efficiency will follow with the opening up of the water market in England come 2017.

There is a lot to stay on top of. But incisive updates through the magazine, theenergyst.com, our email newsletter, social media and market reports will keep every energyst informed of the latest legislation, policy, trends and issues of an industry that is fundamental to the UK economy. Your insights form the cornerstones of our market reports and help shape the news and policy agenda. We hope that you see The Energyst as a two way platform, because in an energy system undergoing fundamental structural change, there has never been a more crucial time for smart energy people who are not afraid to say what they think.

Energyst Media Ltd, PO BOX 420, Reigate, Surrey RH2 2DU Registered in England & Wales – 8667229 Registered at Stationers Hall – ISSN 0964 8321 Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers.

The Energyst is a controlled circulation magazine available to selected professionals interested in energy, who fall within the publishers terms of control. For those outside of these terms, annual subscriptions is £60 including postage in the UK. For all subscriptions outside the UK the annual subscription is £120 including postage.

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news & comment

Bid for demand reduction funds, says Decc The Decc has called on businesses considering implementing energy efficiency measures to bid for funds under the second phase of its demand reduction pilot scheme.

A total of £6m is available to firms that can deliver lasting electricity savings at peak times.

The minimum project size is now smaller (50kW) and the Decc said it has made the rules simpler.

Changes include: • the minimum project size has halved to 50kW • Choose between installing within 8 months or 20 months – with delivery of savings in either Winter 2016/17 or Winter 2017/18.

• More scope for projects to develop over time, and for you to make changes to your successful project according to business need.

This includes being able to bid in for a lower amount of

A total of £6m is available to firms that can deliver lasting electricity savings at peak times

National Grid ‘delighted’ with DR but warns over system tightness National Grid is confident it has procured sufficient reserve capacity for the coming winter but has warned that margins will remain tight for the next few years.

The power system operator has issued contracts to generators so that, if required, some 2.56GW of (derated) power capacity will be made available to balance the system over winter. The cost of having that capacity on standby is £36.5m.

Should the plants be called upon to generate power, their owners will also need to be paid for output.

As will those providing demand-side measures.

Of the 2.56GW total, some 177MW has been allocated to demand-side response.

National Grid will likely offer contracts to almost all of those that bid in the second demand-side balancing reserve (DSBR) tender round.

In total, 325MW was offered in the second tender round, with National Grid “minded” to offer contracts to providers of 300MW

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June/July 2015

National Grid has 2.56GW of capacity on standby to balance the system over winter

worth of demand response (equivalent to 112MW of derated capacity), subject to validation of bids. National Grid had already procured 215MW (derated to 65MW) in the first DSBR tender round.

The system operator said it was “delighted” with the level of demand-side response being offered by companies. The 515MW of capacity procured this for this winter, compared

to 330MW procured last winter, represents a 56% increase in DSBR. Announcing the results of the tender, National Grid stated it was “encouraged by the growth in this [DSBR] service, particularly with new entrants coming into the demand-side market, given that demand side services will play an increasingly important role in supporting security of supply with the decarbonisation of electricity supplies into the future”.

However, ahead of the capacity market coming into play in 2018, the system operator warned of system tightness over the next couple of winters, and that it may need to rethink how it procures reserve.

“Looking ahead to 2016/17 and 2017/18, margins look set to remain tight. We will therefore be consulting with the industry in July on whether these arrangements should be extended, whether changes are required, or whether an alternative solution should be developed,” said the company.

savings than the maximum your project can offer.

• Simpler evidence requirements, including project level payback and baseline information after application.

• An early payment after installation (up to 20%) For full guidance and registration, see: www. gov.uk/electricity-demandreduction-pilot. The deadline for registering is 3 September 2015.

Government confirms closure of RO to onshore wind The government has confirmed that it intends to close the Renewables Obligation to new onshore wind a year earlier than planned. The Decc said that closure would apply across the UK and not just in England and Wales.

Previously there had been doubt about whether it would apply to Scotland.

Decc said that up to 5.2GW of projects in the planning system may still qualify for the subsidy, which it will otherwise legislate to close to all new onshore wind projects from 1 April 2016.

The early closure of the scheme has provoked outcry from renewables developers, who may now mount a legal challenge.

Decc said it made the changes because the UK was on track to meet its targets for renewable energy.

The UK ‘on track’ to meet its renewable energy targets

theenergyst.com

Only 57 firms have notified EA of Esos compliance Only 57 businesses have so far notified the Environment Agency of Esos compliance, raising the prospect of a scramble as the December deadline looms. Failure to comply with the scheme could see firms hit with fines of up to £50,000.

Around 14,000 businesses are required to conduct an energy audit using a lead assessor. The Environment Agency said it has approved 700 lead assessors so far and told The Energyst

(29 June) that it had currently received 57 notifications of Esos compliance.

While there is five months before the compliance deadline, the fact that 99.6% of those required to carry out an audit have failed to notify the agency of compliance, increases the risk that lead auditors could be overburdened as the deadline looms.

Environment Agency Esos project manager Jo Scully said firms should

take immediate action.

“Many businesses are in the midst of their Esos preparations and we expect them to meet the December deadline. The feedback we have received from businesses shows that awareness of the scheme has risen but organisations still have work to do in order to comply,” she said.

“In response to this we sent out a reminder letter to 14,000 businesses urging them to take action. We have also been raising awareness by holding

workshops, producing a regular newsletter, publishing guidance on our website and setting up a dedicated helpdesk.”

“We hope to see all businesses benefit from the changes they make as a result of a more energy efficient approach and recommend that those who need to comply begin the process as soon as possible. They can refer to the Esos guidance on our website or contact Esos@environment-agency. gov.uk for further details.”

Ofgem in capacity market contracts award probe

Drax to power Thames Water via £500m Haven Power deal Haven Power will provide Thames Water with power for the next five years in a deal worth £500m.

The Drax-owned energy supplier said the agreement would enable Thames Water to use only renewable power.

The contract has the option for two further five-year renewals.

Thames Water energy manager Angus Berry said the deal “puts downward pressure on bills and means we will now be using 100% renewable electricity. We look forward to growing our relationship with Haven to exploit further opportunities to minimise

theenergyst.com

energy costs and emissions, as well as continuing to work towards our ambitious target of self-generating 30% of our own electricity by 2020.”

Drax Group is in the process of converting its 4GW Drax coal plant in Selby, Yorkshire, to biomass.

Two of its six units have so far been converted with a third unit expected to be modified later this year.

Thames Water already generates about 20% of its own renewable electricity via solar, hydro, wind and biogas.

Ofgem has opened investigations into five companies which secured contracts in last year’s capacity auction.

The regulator’s investigation centres on whether the companies have all necessary planning consents for proposed generators allocated contracts in the so-called T-4 auction in December.

The capacity market, which operates via auctions, is designed to reward generators for making plant available when it is needed and bring forward investment in new plant.

The first capacity auction (so-called T-4 because it

secures capacity to be supplied in four years’ time) took place just before Christmas.

It procured 49.26GW of capacity at a clearing price of £19.40kW. Ofgem said that it was investigating whether GF Power Peaking, Berangere, Adret, Alkane Energy UK and Power Balancing Service provided false or misleading information to National Grid, which runs the annual capacity auction.

The regulator said that the investigations did not imply that it had made any findings about non-compliance, but cited potential issues around planning consents in each case.

Amber Rudd steps up to top energy job Amber Rudd (pictured) has replaced Edward Davey as secretary of state for energy and climate change, the government has confirmed.

The MP for Hastings and Rye has her work cut out, given the suite of policies she has inherited and the fact that legally binding 2020 targets will fall on the watch of the current government.

Her appointment was welcomed by renewable groups, although Rudd is also seen as an ally by shale proponents.

June/July 2015

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news & comment

iNSPIRe begins retrofit building kits trial An EC-funded project to create effective and affordable retrofit building kits has now begun testing its designs in three model buildings across Europe.

The kits, created by the iNSPiRe project, consist of facades and roof kits with integrated heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and energy-collecting devices designed to be easily and cost-effectively installed without having to evacuate the buildings, both commercial and

residential, of their owners.

Each of the kits has been designed with the aim of reducing the primary energy consumption of buildings to lower than 50 kWh/m2/ year – an 80% reduction of the current average.

The first, in Ludwigsburg in Germany, is an example of 1970s social housing and is made up of four flats on four stories, where iNSPiRe is fitting a wooden façade and roof kit as well as a heating system.

In Madrid, a multiple

occupancy residential building of eight flats over four stories has had energy boxes fitted as well as new envelope solutions and solar collectors.

Meanwhile, iNSPiRe’s office building solutions are being tested at a site in Verona.

The building is being renovated with metal-glass facade modules that combine solar collectors and sorption chillers, as well as ceiling panels that cater for heating, cooling and ventilation.

Monitoring is now taking place to assess the full impact

IES and EnergyDeck deal offers an easier route to Esos compliance Performance analytics firm IES and energy management platform provider EnergyDeck have struck a deal that allows EnergyDeck customers to link the platform with IES’ Esos Auditor. The firms say the move enables a quicker and easier route to Esos compliance.

These organisations are now looking for the best and most efficient ways to collect, validate, evidence and store all the data required to calculate their total energy consumption and undertake energy audits. Each participating organisation needs to build an evidence pack to evidence the information in their Esos compliance assessment.

Bringing IES Esos Auditor and EnergyDeck together offers organisations the benefits of a more seamless process, an efficient workflow and maximise value from the data gathered, claim the firms.

“Esos Auditor allows organisations to manage all of their data online in one place, enabling them to delegate

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June/July 2015

The partnership with EnergyDeck will now enable even more organisations to comply quickly and easily with Esos and understand just how much they can achieve in terms of energy efficiency the workload, improving data collection efficiency, reducing risks of omissions and the chances of fines if the selected for audit by the government,” says David McEwan, director at IES. “The partnership with EnergyDeck will now enable even more organisations to comply quickly and easily with Esos and understand just how much they can achieve in terms of energy efficiency.”

“EnergyDeck is an energy management platform that

allows users to easily gather resource consumption data for a wide range of metrics, track efficiency projects and share information within their organisation and beyond,” says EnergyDeck COO Nic Mason.

• In another move to aid Esos compliance, the Energy Institute has set up a helpline to provide a 20-minute free consultation for businesses, enabling them to ask questions about Esos, energy auditing and the benefits of seeking professional advice on energy efficiency.

The service is fulfilled by members of the Register of Professional Energy Consultants (RPEC) – a regulated directory of experts who are all chartered, are bound to a strict code of conduct and have a proven track record in energy consultancy.

Companies can register their interest via email, telephone or online and a consultant will respond within two working days. energyinst.org/energyefficiency

in terms of the energy and cost savings they will create.

In its latest Science and Policy Report, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission in-house science service, stated that developing and implementing energy-efficient renovation kits at the heart of its message, citing it as the only feasible way to reach and then surpass the EC’s 20-20-20 energy targets (20% renewable energy and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020).

Energy Bill – security and affordability?

The Queen’s Speech suggests that the Conservative government will increasingly focus on domestic oil and gas production over the next parliament while devolving responsibility for onshore wind farms to local authorities.

The Energy Bill outlined in the speech could be interpreted as leaning towards two corners of the so-called trilemma – energy security and affordability.

However, guidance notes published by Decc state that the government remains committed to decarbonising energy.

The Conservatives will “continue to reform the electricity market to ensure the necessary investment is made to transition to a low carbon electricity system” at lowest cost, according to the document.

Meanwhile, in a blog post on Decc’s website, energy secretary Amber Rudd said the UK was “already playing its part” in limiting the impact of climate change and that a global agreement on carbon emissions reduction was “the only credible means to leverage more from others and would further drive down the costs of climate action”.

Sponsored column

Energy efficiency finance ‘too complex and too expensive’ Energy managers must report directly to boards rather than to finance directors, according to Lord Redesdale, head of the Energy Managers Association.

Speaking at a breakfast briefing in June, Lord Redesdale said that energy managers also need financial training so that their recommendations stand a chance of being approved.

Meanwhile, energy services companies (Escos) and solutions providers need to create more innovative business models to create service contracts that do not fall foul of European accounting laws and that compel businesses to invest in energy efficiency, according to Stephen Fawkes, head of the Investor Confidence Project Europe.

The breakfast event was held to launch Financing Energy Efficiency, a new report produced by Energyst Media and sponsored by Cofely. The report, based on reader survey data as well as interviews with financiers and energy managers, is available to download for free at theenergyst.com.

Alongside Redesdale and Fawkes on the panel were Bill Rogers, head of energy efficiency at the Green Investment Bank and Tony Crane, strategic development director, Energy Services, Cofely UK. Crane said that Cofely was developing new, serviceoriented business models but admitted that the industry had made energy finance too complex. He said service providers must be transparent about finance options and

Produced by

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Financing Energy Efficiency

How will the transition to new renewable subsidy schemes impact bills?

By David Taylor

2015 report

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try to win back client trust by acting as independent advisers.

“The right solution might not be to finance it,” said Crane. “We have to explain both options and recommend the best way forward. That way, clients will realise we are trying to help them, not just finance everything.”

Cost of capital was also a barrier to signing off projects.

The GIB’s Rogers said the bank was working to bring down that cost but that underlying risk could only be mitigated by good project development.

Rogers said it was lacking within energy efficiency.

Fawkes agreed cost of finance was an issue, and that EPCs could no longer be “black boxes” in terms of rates and margins. Scale would bring down cost of capital, he said, and 2% should be the aim. That would not materialise without standardised development protocols and robust performance data upon which to build trust, he said.

Download your free copy of Financing Energy Efficiency at theenergyst.com

At a recent event for energy buyers I spoke at, three-quarters of the audience said they believed that the new Contracts for Difference (CfD) system for supporting renewables would drive better value than the current Renewables Obligation (RO).

The result of the first CfD auction certainly supports that optimism. Only the most price competitive projects received contract offers, and the coalition government said that the cost of building the 2GW of new capacity awarded would be £110m per year less than it would have without competition.

But we’ve seen significant increases in the cost of supporting renewables in recent years, so how much impact can we really expect to see on bills?

First of all, bear in mind that the existing RO scheme will be open for new projects until 2017 (or April 2016 for onshore wind as announced by the new Energy Secretary) – with support for existing RO generators continuing out for 20 years.

Together with the cost of funding the Small-Scale FiT scheme, charges in the short and medium term are likely to continue to increase as more renewable projects come on stream.

Changes to the subsidy mechanisms are just part of a package of measures under Electricity Market Reform which will have an impact on bills.

The Capacity Market will see payments for generators who provide capacity during peak periods to ensure the lights stay on. It is expected to add £80-£100/

“The advent of peak charging will open up new opportunities for larger energy users that are prepared to embrace them” MWh to usage in winter peak times from 2018/19 onwards, recovered through bills from November 2016.

And of course, there is the need to invest billions in grid infrastructure, again funded through domestic and business energy bills.

So while every little helps for energy buyers, any perceived savings achieved through CfDs may not have that much impact against a backdrop of rising nonenergy costs.

But on the flipside, the growth of intermittent generation and the advent of peak charging will open up new opportunities for larger energy users that are prepared to embrace them.

smartestenergy.com

Insight

Lord Redesdale: Blackouts, price hikes and skills crunch loom The head of the Energy Manager’s Association has blasted UK firms’ myopia on energy risk and suggested many may face a rude awakening. Brendan Coyne reports

L

ord Redesdale would “put money on brownouts or blackouts by the end of the year” due to the tightness of winter capacity margins.

He thinks energy prices could rise by 25% within the next year and has criticised companies for failing to look beyond two year paybacks on energy efficiency measures.

Why might power prices jump that much so soon?

“Because we haven’t got enough power. National

Grid’s own graphs show that if we don’t build a load of generating capacity, our [supply margin] will go off a cliff,” says Lord Redesdale.

Frack factor “It is not as if we are closing Ferrybridge for any other reason than it is 48 years old.

It has come to the end of its life, and because of fracking in the States and the price of coal going down, we have burnt through the power stations we needed for 2016/17.”

FM the breeding ground for new talent Supply shocks may knock some sense into companies. But they will struggle to find skilled energy managers and fully mitigate risk, believes Lord Redesdale. The industry is not replacing lost talent.

“Those people who fired them or outsourced them will find it very difficult to get anybody with knowledge back in,” he warns. “The demographics are appalling. Boards see energy managers as being just part of procurement. So the top end is going into consulting and there’s nothing coming through underneath.”

The Energy Managers Association is trying to address the situation with a new apprentice scheme, lodging the bid with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in June. Lord Redesdale is hopeful it will grant approval for the scheme in September so that the apprenticeship can start late 2015/early 2016.

The aim is to start training from the bottom up and build a stronger foundation layer of energy managers and Lord Redesdale believes the adjacent facilities management sector can help plug the gap.

“What we are focusing on is where energy management fits. We see it sitting within FM, or the majority of people sitting in FM. So we want to work with the FM community and switch a lot of the people who are doing energy anyway over from FM to having an energy management specialisation.”

Finance will be a core component of training, added Lord Redesdale, so that energy managers stand a better chance of getting projects signed off by finance directors.

10 June/July 2015

It will be a great time to be an energy manager… Because suddenly companies are going to see energy as a massive risk

Lord Redesdale believes wind and solar development will also “fall off a cliff ” due to market reforms and political intervention. While gas plant was relatively quick to build, “they currently take seven years to connect to the grid”, he adds.

Sizewell B aside, he points out that the UK’s nuclear fleet was on its last legs with little prospect of Hinckley C coming on stream before 2030, “if it ever gets built”.

Those factors place greater emphasis than ever on the need for energy efficiency, he said, suggesting that the government should focus on behaviour change via the Business and Local Energy Unit, the replacement for the scrapped Energy Efficiency Deployment Office.

Crunch time “I love the idea of heat pumps and electric vehicles but they are not going to do the job.

We waste 40% of the energy we use. If we can halve that, it puts us below the point where we are going to have brownouts or blackouts It is not as if we can hang around for the next five years.”

Nor the next five months.

“I would put money on the fact there are going to be brownouts or blackouts by the end of the year. Some of our people were saying there was 1% capacity [margin] last winter and it was a really mild winter,” says Lord Redesdale.

“If you get a cold winter with 1% of capacity [margin] and Sizewell B, which is 8% of the grid, goes down for an hour

Sponsored column

Rising non-commodity costs demand action Esos: How to win funds and influence directors Esos should be a huge opportunity for energy managers to engage directors and potentially pitch businesses cases for energy improvements. But Lord Redesdale warns of an impending bottleneck.

“We are the second largest trainers of Esos lead assessors but people aren’t training at the moment.” That’s because firms aren’t yet doing the work. “I think there will be a massive rush in the third quarter of this year,” he says.

“There are lots of people trained. But the big companies will take 12-16 weeks to get an Esos assessment through. So it will be interesting in September when everybody comes back from their summer holidays and realise they risk a massive fine.”

Lord Redesdale is annoyed when energy managers complain that Esos is just another admin burden.

“Energy managers have difficulty getting their recommendations put in front of the board. Esos requires board directors to sign off the report. Most energy managers who become lead assessors will know what they want to put into the report before they even start. It’s not as if you have to do a massive report and then realise ‘my god we have to do lighting,’” he says.

“So this is brilliant. I have problems with energy managers saying ‘this is a pain’. No, this is core to what you do. Everybody complains that they can’t get the board to take what they are saying seriously. But here is the opportunity to bring a regulatory requirement in front of the board – and say ‘by the way it makes economic sense’.”The aim is to start training from the bottom up and build a stronger foundation layer of energy managers and Lord Redesdale believes the adjacent facilities management sector can help plug the gap.

“What we are focusing on is where energy management fits. We see it sitting within FM, or the majority of people sitting in FM. So we want to work with the FM community and switch a lot of the people who are doing energy anyway over from FM to having an energy management specialisation.”

Finance will be a core component of training, added Lord Redesdale, so that energy managers stand a better chance of getting projects signed off by finance directors. … It is simple mathematics.”

National Grid stated in June that margins “look set to remain tight” for the winters of 2016/17 and 2017/18, but dismissed Lord Redesdales predictions of system failure.

“We’ll be setting out our initial view of the coming winter and consulting on that view in the next month or so. We have a number of tools in place to help us deal with even the toughest winter conditions, including the Supplemental Balancing Reserve and Demand Side

theenergyst.com theenergyst.com

Balancing Reserve. Our competitive tender for the SBR and DSBR has secured the reserve we need to do our job, as early as possible, while providing market certainty and keeping costs down for consumers.”

Lord Redesdale remains unconvinced. But he suggests supply and price shocks hold a silver lining: “It will be a great time to be an energy manager…

Because suddenly companies are going to see energy as a massive risk”. te

Dave Cockshott, chief commercial officer at Inenco, Those with a passing interest in the energy market could be fooled into thinking that businesses were enjoying a period of stability – commodity prices have remained relatively low and the volatility of recent years has disappeared. But of course, the wholesale market only tells half the story.

Non-commodity charges have risen to 55% of the bill, overtaking commodity costs and remaining on an upward trajectory.

We all bang the drum that the cheapest and greenest energy is the energy that you don’t use, but sometimes turning down isn’t an option.

As network charges take up a growing proportion of the bill, being smart about when you use energy can make a big difference to the bottom line.

At a recent Inenco energy forum with some of biggest retail end users in the UK, load management was on everyone’s lips – avoiding red zones was the hot topic of the day – but only half of those attending were aware that they could be eligible to participate in some of the demand side opportunities recently introduced.

We all know that shifting consumption outside of DUoS red zones and triad periods can deliver significant savings. But those businesses able to shift their usage are exactly the right organisations to profit from demand side initiatives.

Both National Grid and DECC operate demand side schemes, offering organisations a payment in return for a commitment that they will turn down consumption when needed, typically by switching to onsite generation.

The National Grid scheme is Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR), where participants must switch down consumption within a two-hour period during times of peak demand.

DECC’s Demand Side Response scheme forms part

“Smart businesses will take advantage of opportunities to earn as well as save from shifting consumption” of Electricity Market Reform and is designed almost as an interim measure to keep the system balanced over the next two winter periods prior to delivery of Capacity Mechanism generation from winter 2018.

DECC is also running an Electricity Demand Reduction (EDR) pilot, with a £20m pot available. Unlike the other two schemes that pay businesses to switch down at peak times, under EDR firms are paid for committing to permanently reducing consumption during peak periods, via efficient lighting schemes, for instance.

The first EDR auction took place in January 2015 with 22 projects awarded contracts and grants, and an announcement on the second phase of the project is imminent.

The rise in non-commodity charges demands action and smart businesses will take advantage of opportunities to earn as well as save from shifting consumption. A final piece of advice: we all know how the wholesale market can quickly change, so don’t be tempted to take your eye off commodity costs completely.

A holistic strategy encompass and prioritise all aspects of business energy, and demand management is playing a bigger role than ever before.

POLiCY & LeGiSLATiOn

The case for an ‘Office of Energy’ The UK’s energy institutions have not been able to deliver consistent, balanced and clear analysis, according to npower. The energy giant is calling for a new body to help create energy policy “on a complete foundation of fact and reliable analysis”

e

nergy and economic consultancy Vivid Economics has published a report commissioned by npower that calls for a new institution to hold energy policymakers to account.

Entitled The Case for an Office of Energy, the report suggests how impartial and transparent data and reliable analysis could be provided, covering all parts of Britain’s energy sector. This could be similar to the way that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) provides data about Britain’s public finances. This Office of Energy could either sit within one of the current institutions or be set up as a completely new organisation that works alongside existing institutions.

The Office of Energy would ensure that there is clear analysis of the performance and impact of all actions in delivering affordable secure low carbon energy. It would also look at how changes to policy, regulation and the market affect the delivery of key policy goals.

An Office of Energy would not dictate or criticise legislation and regulation, in addition it would not seek to actively replace existing government bodies or institutions. In fact, it could be one of the existing bodies with updated responsibilities.

Its aim would be to support government and the regulator by making, among other things, the consequences of legislative and regulatory actions clear, a similar role to the OBR. Currently, the energy sector features a complex

12 June/July 2015

Supported by

relationship between consumers, markets, the state and third-parties. This results in competing policy priorities, most notably the ‘trilemma’ of affordability, security of supply and decarbonisation.

For these priorities to be balanced in a way that delivers much needed trust for consumers and confidence for investors it is essential that discussions and decisions are grounded in accurate, reliable facts and analysis.

Current UK energy institutions have many good qualities but their current scope of responsibilities means they have not been able, in the view of many stakeholders, to consistently deliver balanced and clear analysis of key issues across the whole of Britain’s energy sector.

Successive governments have a track record of establishing institutions in other fields that excel in similar roles, such as the aforementioned Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) and the Committee on

An Off ice of Energy would support and empower a continuing open and transparent debate about the competing issues of the trilemma

Climate Change (CCC). This track record gives confidence that success could also be achieved in the energy sector, especially if the characteristics of these bodies are reflected in an updated or new institution.

Robin Smale, director at Vivid Economics, commented: “The UK energy market has been subject to criticism and controversy, due in part to a lack of analysis that is both trusted and clear.

“There is a case for a new role to enhance consumer and investor confidence by providing much-needed trusted and clear analysis across the whole of the energy sector.

Many stakeholders see value in this new role, and in identifying options for how this role could be delivered. With the CMA about to report, now is an opportune time to consider it.”

Paul Massara, CEO of RWE npower, said: “Earlier this year I asked Vivid Economics to look at whether there could be a new way to build the debate about energy on a complete foundation of fact and reliable analysis. From this foundation, we hope the energy dialogue can be reinvigorated so that we can all discuss the fundamental changes taking place within the energy industry in a way that builds consumer trust.

“An Office of Energy would support and empower a continuing open and transparent debate about the competing issues of the trilemma. It will provide greater certainty for consumers and ultimately de-risk investment decisions and new capital.” te npower.com/business

theenergyst.com

Viewpoint

Turning up the heat A new regulation on heat networks was passed just before the general election. The UKAEE’s Andy Clarke discusses this little heard of regulation

J

ust before it went into “Purdah” for the general election, Her Majesty’s Government passed a short piece of legislation through parliament called the Heat Networks (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014, which most people – even within the energy industry – seem to be unaware of.

That is probably because most casual observers think that a heat network is something akin to a district heating scheme with lots of buildings connected to an energy centre or centres.

However, the legislation is rather more wide-reaching.

It potentially covers almost every instance where a central plant supplies more than one building or customer (even inside the same building) and includes both heating and chilled water supply.

To add to that, you don’t even have to be the operator of the plant to be involved, if you purchase heat/cooling from a third party and then resell it (perhaps within their rent) to someone else –you are included.

So a single office building with multiple businesses supplied with heating and/ or cooling from a rooftop plant room, for example, falls within the regulations (they define that as ‘communal heating’ in the guidance document) – and there are thousands of those in the UK. Similarly blocks of flats with central boiler plant or even houses in multiple occupation (HMO) could be included within the regulations. It specifically includes things

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The return is probably not something that should be left until the last minute, especially as there will be fines for non-compliance

like sheltered housing and university halls of residence, so it applies to both the public and private sectors.

However, prisons and nursing homes where all services are provided communally are excluded.

So it is a lot more than district heating schemes that the regulations apply to and many of us will have a site to which a return at least will be required.

The objective seems to be focused on giving the end-users more visibility of their actual energy usage and to ensure that they are correctly billed, and as far as possible, to reflect actual usage rather than just the space they occupy.

The regulations are therefore promoting the use of heat meters to measure consumption and are asking for financial cases to be made for installing (or

justifying why they are not installed). But heat meters are expensive and notoriously unreliable, especially if installed incorrectly.

The regulations originally had a submission date of the end of April 2015 for the first return. This has been extended till 31 December 2015 but as you need to produce a return containing information about your heat meters and the energy delivered to each of your “customers” (there doesn’t have to be a contract in place) – which may take some significant effort to calculate.

So the return is probably not something that should be left until the last minute, especially as there will be fines for non-compliance. te ukaee.org.uk More information on the regulations can be found at gov.uk/heat-networks

Heat network regulations (metering & billing) 2014 UKAEE is hosting a seminar on Heat Network (Metering And Billing) Regulations 2014 in Oxford on Tuesday 8 September where it will have a range of speakers from end-users to metering specialists.

The seminar will disseminate information and practical next steps on the impacts for organisations, energy managers, facilities managers or those whose responsibility it is to manage heating and metering within the organisation.

It will provide information on the regulation’s requirements, who is affected and what needs to be undertaken by organisations by December 2015. It will benefit those that provide multiple occupancy/users with heating, cooling or hot water regardless of contract type.

Date: Tuesday 8 September. Time: 1.30 to 5.30pm. Venue: The Long Room, Oxford Town Hall. Please register your interest with secretary@ukaee.org.uk

June/July 2015

13

Cover story

Meeting future water and carbon c Water and energy delivery is fundamental to human activities. To meet the needs of secure and sustainable supply leading environmental services company Veolia is taking the initiative by reshaping its offering with the focus on helping its customers to reduce their carbon footprint, become more resource efficient and improve sustainability

V

eolia is pioneering SMART technologies that mark a step change in how water networks are managed and will reduce water losses and energy use.

A good, reliable and sustainable water supply from an efficiently managed network is vital to support towns and cities and the activities on a wide range of sites including airports, campuses, defence establishments, manufacturing sites and hospitals. Water networks need to be managed and optimised to maintain water supplies to facilities, control costs and reduce energy usage and carbon emissions. Veolia provides a range of water management services with an energy focus, backed by the latest smart metering and digital mapping technology. Investment can be offset by improved performance to deliver energy, water and financial savings and environmental benefits.

Many facilities have extensive water mains networks. Service contracts with Veolia deliver optimised water network management and maintenance services that will both reduce the risk of water leakage and ensure networks are operated in line with today’s water industry standards and aligned with carbon targets. Under these contracts sustainability performance is improved by more efficient operation of the distribution system that also reduces energy usage and CO2 emissions. By taking responsibility for managing

14 June/July 2015

the risk of maintaining and operating the water network, monitoring water quality and billing end users, Veolia can enable customers to focus on delivering their core business.

Low carbon energy from water Water industry operations are relatively energy intensive, requiring large amounts of energy for pumping, water treatment and waste management giving rise to greenhouse gas emissions of about 4 million tonnes.

The UK water industry is increasing the use of low carbon and renewable energy achieved mainly through significant investment in combined heat and power (CHP) and in generating

biogas from the anaerobic digestion of sludge.

Many water companies have increased renewable energy generation to offset the impacts of increased energy prices, to use their resources (eg sludge) as efficiently as possible, and to increase revenue through the sale of Renewable Obligation Certificates on renewable electricity sold. By harnessing energy management and CHP project skills developed on more than 600 UK customer sites, Veolia is uniquely placed to enable major carbon reduction initiatives and is committed to helping deliver these long -term benefits.

Resourcing the world Veolia’s global strategy is to ‘Resource the World’ by

preserving and giving access to existing resources and producing new resources and energy from existing materials. Implementation of this approach requires the adoption of the best practices from around the world and integrating them to maximise long-term sustainable benefits.

Globally, Veolia supplies 94 million people with drinking water and manages 113TWh of energy. As a result, Veolia is able to draw on unparalleled experience, delivering the expertise that will help customers drive their businesses forward.

The key to getting the balance right is integrating the benefits of new technology with operational expertise.

Groundbreaking schemes are

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n challenges in the UK now demonstrating that we can deliver major advantages in water asset management and energy reduction, and by working in partnership with our customers we can ensure that water can take a step change in terms of infrastructure support.

By taking a lead, Veolia is helping make this move for the future and reducing the ecological footprint of distributing and treating water.

A wide range of operational services are available to manage a water supply.

These include developing and maintaining a smart meter infrastructure across a campus and mapping all of the water assets on a geographic information system (GIS).

Close management of these two systems can ensure that the customer has access to live data on both water use and on the status of its water assets. To reduce the requirement for reactive maintenance, Veolia can also develop a long-term asset management plan to ensure that the network is always kept in a good condition.

The latest sensors and data analysis systems are able to detect potential leaks before the pipes burst and provide a significant step forward in water mains management and avoid the disruption caused by a loss of the water supply.

On average about 22% of water flowing through Britain’s water mains is lost to leaks or unauthorised use – the new technology can reduce this to as low as 5%, saving billions

of litres of water, tonnes of carbon and millions of pounds as well as increasing the resilience of the water network to the challenges arising from drought and climate change.

Veolia, is working with IBM, the technology company, to develop the advanced, automated water management technology which will provide the industry’s most data-driven smart approach to water infrastructure management.

The sensors are able to monitor the flow of water in real time and predict bursts before they occur, allowing engineers to prioritise fixing pipes before they burst, preventing damage and helping to ensure that the supply is maintained. Veolia is currently installing the technology across the town of Tidworth and are generating data into the new, Smart Water Box IT Platform being jointly developed by IBM and Veolia.

The technology is simultaneously being implemented in Lyon, France, a city of 1.3 million inhabitants who are benefitting some of the most advanced and automated water management technology available today.

By integrating data across municipal water management systems to spot the trends and make predictions from a systems-level view of operations, Veolia will provide a more efficient water management service, reduced water leakage, lower energy consumption and resultant carbon emissions. This means less disruption caused by bursts, better control of costs

Veolia is able to draw on unparalleled experience, delivering the expertise that will help customers drive their businesses forward theenergyst.com

can be made. The benefits of the process are then fully realised with the reduction in carbon emissions through consumption management operating the future and increased production Veolia has the scale of of renewable energy. operations and demonstrable As this type of programme experience to ensure the can be rolled out smooth deployment of across multiple water and energy sites, an technologies to additional both above and performance below ground benchmarking assets. To of water is lost process can be support this through leaks or implemented approach, which enables Veolia focuses unauthorised comparisons on providing use with Veolia operational operational sites optimisation services, throughout the world and ensuring existing assets aids in identifying areas to have maximum efficiency. It drive even greater efficiencies. can provide a legitimate link Veolia’s core strength between in-house operations lies in its global operations and capital delivery entities to and this focus will deliver a ensure that the asset creation differentiated offering in the teams are closely aligned UK market place where we with asset management. can harness the best practices from similarities in delivering Innovation for the future operational optimisation – happening now services to worldwide clients.

Advances in metering and In the near future, there smart networks and increasing will be more than 73 million resource scarcity will result people in the UK. Demand in emerging opportunities for is growing and the world intelligent water infrastructure needs new resources, this operations over the long term. means we need to be more Veolia can improve inventive, more responsible performance management and more sustainable. through the innovative tools Veolia’s purpose is to that consolidate all network optimise, assets and drive low information, automate key or no build solutions. Veolia processes and analyse trends. can do this with managed The company has already risks and innovative tools successfully developed its which have been validated global OCEAN software, which throughout the world and be complements its water2energy the water and energy partner audit process and this of choice for the long-term. identifies cost savings and Using this approach Veolia efficiencies, and opportunities is set to meet the changing for energy recovery. needs and support the Using data analysis carbon users of the future. Veolia emissions and operational – resourcing the world. costs are identified and then analysed to determine For more information see where operational and veolia.co.uk/contact-us investment interventions for its clients and improvement of accountability and resilience to end-user customers.

22%

June/July 2015

15

Finance

Utilitywise banking on SME energy Utilitywise aims to drum up SME business after striking a deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland to provide energy audits to its business customers. Brendan Coyne reports

U

tilitywise has struck a deal with Royal Bank of Scotland to perform energy audits for the bank’s 14,000 SME business customers and recommend energy efficiency and energy procurement measures.

The move represents a smart step given the apparent disconnect between abundant project finance and actual uptake of energy efficiency measures.

Part of the problem, says Utilitywise head of European services Tim Hipperson (pictured), is that while energy managers know what should be implemented, building business cases that will be approved by boards or banks can be difficult.

But by designing a process and audit (based on European energy audit standard BS EN 16247) for individual premises based on actual data, the bank’s technology risk is reduced should customers seek finance for recommended measures.

The three-year partnership is part of RBS’ Mentor programme, through which it gives advice to small business customers.

Hipperson said the SME sector represented an untapped resource in terms of energy efficiency gains but underlined that the bank’s customers were not obliged to implement measures, nor seek finance, nor to use Utilitywise should they chose to invest capital in equipment.

“It’s not a hard sell. RBS relationship managers discuss energy with their customers.

Those that are interested are passed on to Utilitywise

16 June/July 2015

who set an appointment, gather the energy data and RBS will deliver the audit then send an engineer on through the relationship site to assess the building,” Hipperson explained. manager and it is up to the “It is a full energy audit client to decide what they to the European standard. want to do. This is a consultancy We create a matrix which piece for the customer shows the business how well it is managing its energy, Tim Hipperson how well it is training staff in that regard, and where it is strong and weak in energy management.”

Energy savings of between 3% and 10% can typically be delivered through no or low cost “tweaks”, such as ensuring proper use of building controls and the way the building is used, said Hipperson.

Then the firm makes asset recommendations, typically around lighting and controls, refrigeration and onsite generation. It also benchmarks the firm’s energy tariffs against market rates.

“We then calculate the savings using real market prices for the measures,” said Hipperson, which means the audit delivers “a Typical energy pretty close” saving that can be estimation take both a credit risk and a It is to give of return on technical risk. But because the customer delivered investment, the RBS Mentor audit has the information thereby reducing been built with the bank they need to make technology risk. over the last 12 months, and an informed decision What happens next, the measures are based on about what to do next.” said Hipperson, is up to actual audited data, that That said, should the the RBS customer. technical risk is reduced.” customer seek financial “RBS will deliver the audit Would measures be offered support, RBS has through the relationship on an energy performance mitigated its risk. manager and it is up to the contract (EPC) basis?

“RBS has an energy client to decide what they want “They could be. It is efficiency fund. The problem to do. This is a consultancy specific to the customer,” said we have is how the projects piece for the customer,” he said.

Hipperson. “Utilitywise started are presented to the bank, “It is not a bank selling loans. to see if we could deliver a one because the bank has to

10%

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rgy efficiencies

There are no free meals – free energy procurement services are just a myth!

By Martin Jaehme, Director, TEBS

size, off-the-shelf product into the energy service company but learned very quickly that the simple answer is no. There are far too many variables, too many balance sheets and too many technical and credit risks. You have to treat every project as individual.”

Bar the transport and group elements of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, Hipperson said Utilitywise follows exactly the same methodology with the RBS

theenergyst.com theenergyst.com

Mentor audits as its Esos work. But given Esos does not usually apply to smaller SMEs, the programme presents a major opportunity to address energy efficiency in the sector.

“The SME market is drastically under-tapped,” said Hipperson. “There is an awful lot that can be achieved with SMEs and hopefully this is one way that we can start to engage with them.” te utilitywise.com

Last year one of our long-standing clients, a multinational manufacturing company, advised us that energy procurement for its UK property portfolio was being handled by its newly centralised procurement team based in Europe. We duly submitted our fee proposals for managing UK electricity and gas procurement with a modest four-figure fee included.

After a few weeks, we got a Dear John letter advising we had been unsuccessful.

No problem. In business you win some and you lose some. But what really set alarm bells ringing was the statement in the email that a broker had been appointed who was prepared to carry out tender action at no cost to our client!

While our client’s local FM manager whom we have worked closely with for years understood there would be a brokerage charge included in the new supply agreement, it seems the central procurement team did not. It transpired the brokerage fee was a sixfigure sum.

Consultant's Casebook...

We are finding that more and more electricity and gas suppliers want independent consultants like us to sign up to brokerage-style agreements before we can obtain energy prices for our client’s.

In fairness to the suppliers, their T’s & C’s explicitly require brokerage fees to be transparent and to be clearly stated to the client.

Clearly not all brokers are as transparent as they should be.

Maybe we are a little old fashioned in our view that when a client pays us fees, we act only in the client’s best interest, completely independently of the supplier thereby ensuring we obtain the best deal available for the client and do not choose the supplier who pays us the best brokerage fee.

The corollary to this story is that this year our client has advised that UK energy procurement has again been returned to the local UK FM team and we are once again in discussion about the type of energy procurement support we can offer.

Martin Jaehme, Director Teamwork Energy Bureau Services Ltd Web: www.tebs.uk.com E: martin.jaehme@tebs.uk.com T: 01275 859100

energy Finance

How to get energy efficiency projects signed off and financed Lack of finance and board level apathy are cited by energy managers as barriers to improving energy efficiency. Yet financiers are keen on green projects. So why the disconnect? The Energyst decided to find out. The result is the 2015 Financing Energy Efficiency report

F

or the 2015 Financing Energy Efficiency report’s research component, we surveyed more than 100 readers. Respondents were mostly energy managers, directors and consultants across the public and private sector, from SMEs to large corporates. Then we interviewed them and also interviewed four financial institutions: the Green Investment Bank, SDCL; Société Générale Equipment Finance and DLL. What energy managers said The Energyst’s survey data found that almost half of respondents feel energy efficiency is not a priority at board level. More than a quarter think that boards lack confidence in the savings promised by technology and service providers.

The survey also suggests a lack of financial knowledge among respondents, of which roughly half were technical or energy managers. Some 48% of respondents did not know their organisation’s accounting preferences.

Board interest, M&V issues, knowledge gap But Nando’s energy manager Julie Allen disagreed that the board was to blame. “I think a lot of the problem is actually getting in front of the board,” she said. “It depends on how many hoops you have to jump through to get there. It could

18 June/July 2015

be any number of touch points within that hierarchy that prevent it getting through.”

The survey data also suggests a lack of trust or understanding of third party finance. But Allen believes the inability to create compelling business cases is a bigger barrier to project sign off. She added that Nando’s had never refused to back a project if it was proven to be beneficial.

The survey pointed to a lack of trust in the claimed savings of energy efficiency technologies and services.

Allen said that the ability to manipulate data to create the desired outcome within some measurement and verification standards contributed to that distrust. But she did believed that a lack of financial knowledge was holding back energy managers.

Peter Wilson, UK technical services manager at Reed Elsevier agreed that financial acumen would help energy managers drive forward energy efficiency.

“The people who are presenting [energy efficiency projects] at grass roots level don’t have all the necessary financial knowledge and skills,” he said. “Absolutely it would help.”

Leased buildings Wilson said that one of the barriers to investing in energy efficiency for companies like Reed was that many of its buildings are leased. “So if the payback is any longer

than three to five years, with leases being shorter you can’t depreciate investment over the length of the life of the lease.”

Equally, many firms are at the mercy of the building owner or managing agent. “Whether they have any appetite to install measures, given they are often incentivised on utility expenditure, is another issue,” he said.

The people who are presenting [energy efficiency projects] at grass roots level don’t have all the necessary financial knowledge and skills

Too much for too little Wilson said he had explored third-party financing options for projects on owned building stock, but that Escos and financiers were often asking for too high a level of commitment.

That level of commitment, given the guaranteed returns were often overly conservative, was part of the problem with energy performance contracts, said consultant Mervyn Bowden, formerly head of energy at Marks & Spencer turned md of Intuitive Energy Solutions.

“From my observation, the contractors will be overly cautious. If the end user has the potential to save 30% of energy consumption, they will probably get a guaranteed saving from the contractor of about 10%.”

This, says Bowden, “is a doddle you could do with your eyes shut. It’s to make life very easy for the funders and contractors, not to achieve stretched targets for the end users and clients.”

theenergyst.com

Why do you think financing energy efficiency projects is a problem in general?

Bowden said that whether financed internally or externally, they will not even reach sign-off stage without a strategic, long-term view.

What the bankers said Financiers agreed that shorttermism was a problem.

Miles Alexander, director, energy efficiency at the Green Investment Bank, said businesses should look at internal rate of return (IRR) rather than

Is there a lack of trust and understanding of utilising 3rd party finance for energy efficiency?

simple payback metrics.

“If it is a positive rate of return, then they should be going ahead with it. If it doesn’t reach their internal criteria on IRRs then that is a different story and they can get third party financing in.”

Companies that select only the low-hanging fruit such as lighting and BMS projects also risk making bigger savings unobtainable later, warned Alexander, because the projects then cannot be bundled

together to bring down the overall payback period.

Michael Bavington, clean technology specialist at DLL, thought part of the problem in signing off financing agreements was contract treatment. “There is a desire to make them [purely] revenue contracts as opposed to part capital, part revenue,” he said.

Others remain unconvinced that contracts can be constructed entirely off balance sheet. Some think it is down to equipment vendors to embed finance as a core sales offering. Some still think that it is down to

the finance industry to make products and services simple enough to negate the need for granular financial knowledge.

But virtually all the financiers and energy managers interviewed agreed there was a need for energy managers and finance to become more conversant so that projects increasingly make it to the board and ultimately receive sign-off.

The free, 32 page Financing Energy Efficiency report aims to facilitate that process. te Download it at theenergyst.com

Financing Energy Efficiency 2015 Report

Financing

Energy Efficie ncy

Download your copy of the new report at theenergyst.com Produced by

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2015 report

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June/July 2015

19

Gas & electricity

P272: are you ready for the change?

Inenco chief commercial officer Dave Cockshott explains what you need to know about the new half-hourly settlement code

P

272: mandatory halfhourly settlement for profile classes 05-08. It sounds like a fairly innocuous change to some industry code, and unlike an obligation on end users such as Esos, it is probably something that you don’t need to worry about.

Does that sound like your reaction to the latest piece of regulation? A quick poll of energy professionals showed many are unaware of this impending change, yet P272 will impact some 160,000 business sites, increasing metering costs and impacting the way medium energy users are charged for the electricity they consume.

For some businesses, half-hourly settlement will be introduced as early as November this year.

P272 – what is it?

P272 changes how business energy usage is metered and billed. Originally scheduled for April 2016, the implementation date has been brought forward for some business sites under amendment P322 and delayed for others to gradually phase in the change of measurement class. It impacts businesses using electricity meters in industry profile classes 05-08.

Under P272, all affected sites must use accredited, automated meters that can send regular half-hourly usage data to energy suppliers so that they can calculate and bill them accordingly.

Currently, these sites are not settled half-hourly, regardless of whether they have an AMR. Instead they are settled against

20 June/July 2015

an average profile shape with charges effectively smeared against all sites in these classes. P272 changes this.

Under the change, halfhourly data collected through the automated meter will be used to calculate how much it costs to supply each individual site and used to calculate its individual charges.

The change should mean more accurate charging, but it also means that it won’t just be high energy users impacted for peak time consumption.

Load management will be a big priority to those affected sites to reduce consumption during peak periods

The new changes under P272 means that suppliers will be able to identify exactly when electricity was consumed, and sites will be charged more accurately to reflect that.

Who is affected?

From 5 November 2015, those businesses in profile classes 05-08 who already have accredited, automated halfhourly meters installed on site will be priced and settled halfhourly. For those who don’t, suppliers have until April

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2017 to ensure affected sites have a half-hourly meter and associated meter operation and data collection contracts.

It’s simple for businesses to find out whether they have a site affected: the Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN) is printed on energy bills and starts with an S, followed by six different sets of numbers. The first number on the left in the uppermost row is the profile class. If it is between 05-08 inclusive, it is captured by the scheme.

Mandatory meter upgrades P272 relies on a feed of half-hourly data to calculate charges appropriately. For energy suppliers the impact is two-fold. For many it will mean changing the way in which their IT systems manage data flows from affected sites. Secondly, they must ensure that customers have the right meter in place to allow half-hourly data to be collected.

Who benefits?

While P272 will bring more accurate charging, there will of course be some who end up paying more, such as those sites that consume more during peak times. Conversely, there will be some winners.

Sites that were paying more than they should have been will find that the more accurate method of calculating their charges works in their favour. Load

management will be a big priority to those affected sites to reduce consumption during peak periods.

Minimise additional costs Those 160,000 impacted sites need to appoint meter operators (MOP) and data collectors (DC) ahead of the 2015 or 2017 deadline. These MOP and DCs will maintain and run the meters, and collect and send the new readings to energy suppliers for settlement purposes. This means new metering charges for each individual affected site which could be significant for some businesses.

The market is competitive and shopping around for DC and MOP contracts early can provide businesses with annual cost savings in excess of £700 for every metering point. Across all businesses affected that amounts to a potential saving of £116m a year.

Don’t be caught off guard What might seem like a simple industry process could actually have a big impact on the bottom line. At a time when business energy users are focused on finding efficiencies wherever possible, it pays to take action now and find out how your organisation will be affected. te To find out more about p272 visit Inenco’s information hub at p272.co.uk

P272 – the facts 1. All businesses using electricity meters in profile classes 05-08 must supply energy usage data on a half-hourly basis. Timescales vary, but those with a half-hourly meter already installed will be charged half-hourly from November 2015. Others must be registered by April 2017.

2. Half-hourly data should mean bills will be more accurate.

However, depending on the existing pattern of usage, some customers will see a fall in costs, while others will see a rise.

3. Affected businesses must change their metering processes and appoint an accredited Data Collection (DC) agent and Meter Operator (MOP).

theenergyst.com theenergyst.com

TPI secrets revealed Ask any business “Do you currently work with an energy consultant?” and nine times out of 10 the answer will be yes. Many businesses reading this may well have strong views or extremely negative view of TPI’s based on past or present business transactions.

We would like to introduce CUB UK, an energy consultant that originally began as a home-based business and was single-handedly managed by Royden Fairfax.

However, over the past 20 years the company has grown significantly into a market leading business. The company’s reputation has been built on a core of family and ethical values, a keen interest in helping the local community and a successful training scheme. Last year, the company became the first UK consultant to offer tiered packages rather than a ‘one size fits all’ service.

A customer-orientated culture led the company to implement a ‘Five Star Customer Promise’ to ensure all staff remained committed in providing excellent service at all times. This resulted in customer satisfaction reviews and ratings on the website of 94%.

CUB UK aims to lead the industry by operating ethically and have therefore disclosed some of its operational methods to educate businesses on the importance of partnering with the right energy consultant.

1. We charge for our service – every consultant does. We place a commission which is included in the quotations we provide. If preferred we offer direct invoicing to our clients. WATCH OUT FOR consultants who say “Our service is free” – catch consultants out by contacting the supplier as they are obliged to disclose the commission included in your quotation.

2. We approach selected suppliers – CUB sends quotation requests to

20 energy suppliers. Some consultants send requests to more and most often fewer suppliers. So be clear what the tendering process for your portfolio involves 3. Every quotation has charges – CUB will disclose all charges within the quotations provided that may be applicable to your business such as CCL (Climate Change Levy), FIT (Feed in Tariff), RO (Renewables obligation). Leave these charges out of a quotation, and the price appears cheaper when in actual fact your business will end up paying more!

4. Fully inclusive and fixed term contracts are labelled differently – there are fully inclusive and fixed price contracts on 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 month terms.

However, most suppliers tend to offer their ‘standard’ product as a default. CUB discloses the product type upon quotation.

Fixed contracts can come in as any of these three separate products which can cause confusion and are as follows: – Pass through – certain non energy costs are excluded and will be passed through at the time of billing.

– Standard – non energy costs typically increase during the life of the contract if they rise above the supplier’s threshold.

– Fully Fixed – Non energy costs have been guaranteed not to increase during the life of the contract.

The only way to be sure of what you are signing up for is to ask for a price breakdown.

gas & electricity

Optimising your assets DONG Energy Sales managing director Jeff Whittingham explains how to finding new ways to save costs without investment

T

he need to minimise energy cost and consumption is well documented, and businesses are leaving no stone unturned in the quest to find new ways to curb costs. As risk and energy management evolve and merge, businesses have never been more strategic in their approach to energy. Yet the increasing scope and pressure of business energy is also growing the workload of business energy professionals.

Efficiency takes on a double meaning: finding ways to use energy more efficiently also means optimal time and resource management.

Curbing costs doesn’t have to mean investing in new equipment. Now that energy management is as critical as securing the best price, energy reduction is a top priority for all businesses. Yet once the quick wins are identified and implemented, most new energy efficiency measures require investment, and there can be long payback periods before benefits are realised.

Such investments can make good business sense, but it’s important for businesses to look at every option available.

Optimising an energy strategy means optimising all available options before investing in new equipment and measures. Asset management and flexible operating strategies should be as integral to a business’ energy strategy as risk management and energy reduction projects, but to date they remain under-utilised.

Many large energy users already have on-

22 June/July 2015

site generation and large consumption assets such as heating and ventilation that offer major opportunities, from decreasing costs to generating new revenue streams. New demand-side initiatives introduced over the past 18 months have created new revenue streams for those energy users able to turn down in periods of peak demand, yet these often require an absolute commitment to turn down consumption within very tight timescales - and this can be at odds with rigid production schedules or other constraints.

Exporting on-site generation already provides businesses with a revenue stream, but is often under-utilised due to a lack of time and resource to interpret market prices and forecasts and identify the best times to switch import to export and take advantage of short-term windows of opportunity in the market.

Harnessing value from existing assets can decrease overall energy costs, improve export revenue streams, avoid peak costs through better load management, and enable businesses to capture shortterm market opportunities. It’s a compelling case for action, yet the barrier of time and resource means that many businesses aren’t currently taking advantage of what they already have available.

To help businesses unlock the full value of such assets, DONG Energy has spent four years developing Power Hub, a cloud-based technology that is delivered as part of the commodity contract. It assesses a vast array of data including wholesale energy

Harnessing value from existing assets can decrease overall energy costs, improve export revenue streams, avoid peak costs through better load management, and enable businesses to capture shortterm market opportunities

prices, operating constraints and asset availability, to recommend granular, halfhourly run schedules. It also identifies the optimal times to switch between import and export, taking into account operational constraints as well as market events and periods of high system demand or forecasted triads.

Optimisation of assets isn’t just suitable for those sites with embedded generation or CHP plants. From manufacturers to offices with HVAC units and retailers with large-scale refrigeration, many industrial and commercial businesses are sitting on assets that could be generating value and delivering savings.

At a time when budgets are stretched, resource is limited, and business energy professionals are under exceptional pressure to achieve savings, optimising existing assets could be the key to unlocking value. te dongenergy.co.uk

theenergyst.com

Advertorial

Don’t let Esos costs go to waste With the clock very much ticking on compliance with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (Esos), organisations should be thinking about how they can get a return on the costs involved

B

y 5 December this year, all large enterprises will need to have conducted an energy audit under the new scheme.

These audits will look at energy use across buildings, industrial operations and transport with potential energy savings highlighted in a detailed report by an assessor.

For organisations, the cost of compliance will run into many thousands of pounds depending on the scale and the scope of their operations.

While the new scheme applies to all large enterprises, those that have a certified ISO 50001 energy management system covering all energy use are already compliant with the scheme.

Although by now it is likely to be too late for most organisations to embark on getting ISO 50001 accreditation ahead of the Esos deadline, there is still a significant opportunity to use the Esos process to help tap into the wider advantages offered by ISO 50001.

Given the assessments required under Esos are comparable to the energy

review element of ISO 50001, compliance will put organisations on the path to accreditation.

A growing number of organisations are already realising significant savings and reputational benefits by monitoring and reducing energy use through the ISO 50001 energy management standard.

It provides a comprehensive approach, requiring organisations to develop an Energy Management System (EnMS) to identify and monitor where energy is being used and continually improve processes to reduce energy consumption.

The standard follows the same “Plan Do Check Act” continuous improvement cycle as other ISO standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, but is the first to offer tangible returns on investment from achieving certification.

Savings and reputational gains ISO 50001 offers a number of potential advantages over the Esos scheme. Ongoing monitoring of energy usage and waste ensures that opportunities to save energy

are continually identified, offering greater financial savings than a one-off or occasional assessment.

The standard also insists on senior management involvement with sign off on the energy policy, energy review, and objectives and targets. This ensures that key decision makers are aware of the financial implications of acting, or not acting, to reduce energy use, and the progress being made against agreed goals.

Finally, certification offers organisations competitive advantage both in terms of commercial reputation and a reduction in operating costs.

Organisations are able to demonstrate to clients and customers that they are fully committed to energy efficiency and reducing their environmental impact, not just complying with another mandatory government scheme.

At a time when procurement for major organisations and public sector bodies is increasingly taking account of the sustainability credentials of those bidding for work, being able to demonstrate

commitment to reducing energy consumption can be an important advantage.

Harnessing opportunities According to a number of recent surveys, despite the looming compliance deadline many businesses have not yet got to grips with what is required under Esos.

That means the coming months are likely to see a rush to get audits completed in time. But as organisations work to ensure they meet that deadline, it is important not to lose sight of the opportunities Esos presents beyond simply complying with a mandatory scheme.

Harnessing the process to implement a more comprehensive approach to reducing energy consumption through ISO 50001 can help unlock significant long term savings and enhance competitive advantage.

Gemserv offers consultancy services to organisations seeking to gain certification to ISO 50001. If you would like to understand more about ISO 50001 or Esos, please contact us at iso@gemserv. com or on 020 7090 1022.

RPI X-Factor 2015 RPI X-Factor is back for the sixth year running for a spectacular battle of the bands! If at least one member of your band works in the Utilities or Environment sector, you can upload a demo (audio or video) to the RPI X-Factor website and a public vote will decide on the five finalists to fight it out on the night at London’s Bush Hall on 7th October 2015.

23 June/July 2015

All proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer Support and the For Jimmy Foundation. Closing date for demos is 10th July.

Please visit the website for any further information: www.gemserv.com/rpi-x

theenergyst.com

ESOS

Build your own energy plan Jes Rutter, managing director of energy specialist JRP Solutions, considers life after the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme

M

ost organisations that qualify to take part in the UK’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (Esos) will have already taken steps to comply with the requirement to carry out energy audits by 5 December this year.

But how worthwhile will the whole exercise prove to be and what happens now? If all an organisation does is a tick box exercise to achieve compliance and then once done it is then put on a shelf to gather dust, it will not only have been a

Esos is just the beginning and should be seen as a catalyst for change

waste of money but will also waste the potential to save costs and carbon in the future.

It must also be remembered that Esos is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of energy saving opportunities.

Anyone who thinks that their compliant audit will give them a comprehensive and complete list of energy saving opportunities, think again. Esos only requires you to survey a representative selection of sites.

We recently had an example of a client with four department stores who

was being told by another consultant that each of the stores had to be fully audited as they were of differing size, age and construction.

As the stores were using energy in the same way through HVAC, lighting and point of sale equipment, only one of the stores actually required auditing.

Yes, the opportunities for saving energy in each would be different and yes, auditing each of them to identify energy saving opportunities would result in the most potential savings, but this

The building blocks of an holistic plan

24 June/July 2015

theenergyst.com

Sponsored column

Taking full advantage of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme

is not what Esos requires.

This means that in an Esos-compliant audit the opportunities to save energy identified could be only a relatively small percentage compared with how many there actually are and many significant ones may well be missed. Anyone serious about energy saving should be looking to go beyond compliance and be auditing all their assets to identify the maximum opportunities possible.

Esos is just the beginning and should be seen as a catalyst for change and only one step on an energy savings journey which ideally ends with an holistic energy plan delivering sustainable energy savings.

If you don’t know where to begin, the energy management standard ISO 50001 is a great practical place to start as it providesa framework of requirements, even if you are not aiming to achieve certification. Although, if you do attain certification, this will give you automatic compliance with Esos the next time around. If this seems like a daunting task, don’t forget, you don’t have to do this all at once.

You can use the building blocks of the standard and implement these progressively

starting with the areas that give you the biggest return on investment.

Using these building blocks you can put together your own specific two- to threeyear plan that suits your business, which should encompass both technical and behavioural projects.

When looking for ways to save energy, there is a tendency to look at facilities services and processes but behavioural change is absolutely critical to achieving results.

As an example of just how significant behavioural change can be, we have a client that implemented a £480,000 LED lighting improvement project and achieved a very respectable energy saving of 7.5% of total site consumption.

The same client then invested a tenth of this amount in energy training and achieved the same verified savings (confirmed using IPMVP).

The government is not going to achieve its carbon savings targets if organisations do the minimum. Esos is the tip of the iceberg of energy savings opportunities.

I would encourage all organisations to explore below the surface and see this as just the beginning of their energy saving journey. te jrpsolutions.com

Anyone serious about energy saving should be looking to go beyond compliance and be auditing all their assets to identify the maximum opportunities possible theenergyst.com theenergyst.com

As the deadline for ESOS submissions approaches, energy managers have the opportunity to present at board level the technologies and the business cases to increase their organisation’s profitability.

As with so many regulations, the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) can be viewed as a half empty glass, or a half full one.

The positive aspect is that it should provide a clearer picture of where energy is being wasted and identify areas where both financial and energy savings can be made and this will be tabled at board level.

However, as with all such cases, one of the key factors is the ability to produce a strong business case for the organisation’s financial team, looking beyond simple payback to assess the full cost benefits.

For example, when boiler load controls such as Sabien’s M2G are installed, the primary financial benefit is a reduction in fuel costs.

However, when reduced carbon tax costs (e.g. the CRC) are taken into account, the business case becomes compelling – both from a payback and an ROI point of view.

Consequently, the energy efficiency project may deliver a better internal rate of return (IRR) than other projects within the organisation. Once the financial team and board see this (in their language) it will be hard for them not to allocate the budget and prioritise the project.

Business case benefits Of course, once the technology has been identified it is important to include a business case realisation phase of the project. To that end, it is vitally important during the planning phase that the client and the technology provider invest time into the measurement and

verification plan to demonstrate the ROI to the board following the completion of the installations.

Using the criteria of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) ensures requirements are fully captured and any variables that are specific to that project are understood by all parties in advance.

One area to focus on is how the savings are being measured and exactly what is being reported as an energy saving. For instance, in the case of boiler controls a percentage reduction in boiler run time is sometimes presented as a saving – this obviously has no correlation to actual kWh or £ saved.

Similarly, a direct comparison of boiler gas consumption between two years (e.g. the most recent winter and the one before it) requires adjustment using degree day data to allow for weather variation.

Where two different periods are being compared, it is also important to assess whether there have been any changes in building usage or any improvements made to the thermal performance of the building fabric during that time.

Exploiting opportunities Many of the ESOS reports will recommend boiler optimisation controls due to their compatibility with other building and boiler controls that may be in use – and the level of savings that can be achieved. Across an estate M2G can deliver average savings of 12% with a typical payback in less than 18 months. With more than 9,500 units now installed within the private and public sectors, M2G has the track record and proven capabilities to be a key technology to drive down energy costs.

www.sabien-tech.co.uk

Gas & electricity

Time to make the switch to LPG? Keith Higginson, commercial marketing manager at Calor Gas, explores the benefits of choosing liquefied petroleum gas in place of oil as a viable and low carbon energy solution for off-grid applications.

A

s organisations become increasingly scrutinised about their environmental performance, it pays to consider the full range of fuel and energy options available that can help mitigate their carbon footprint.

In off-grid applications, where clean-burning, natural gas is not an option, the issue is even more prevalent.

With about 250,000 business establishments in the UK located off the mains gas network, there are a significant number of managers faced with the challenge of choosing the cleanest, viable energy solution.

The positive impact of all of these businesses collectively reducing their impact on the environment by selecting a low carbon fuel source is substantial.

But carbon reductions aren’t the only benefits. Businesses that choose to switch to LPG will also benefit from improved profitability by lowering their energy bills.

Switching fuel The decision to switch fuel sources is often made when specifying a new heating system and here, businesses will need to consider carefully the cost and environmental performance of their fuel supply.

In this scenario,

organisations have traditionally had the choice between an oil-fired or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system to provide a combination of process heat, hot water and space heating.

However, the vast majority of new boiler installations continue to be specified on a like-for-like basis, with oil typically remaining as the default option.

The reasoning for this is two-fold. First, energy consultants and specifiers are likely to opt for the path of least resistance and choose to remain with a fuel source they perceive to be easier and simpler to install.

Second, and a point reinforced by Calor research, is that most specifiers and installers of off-grid fuel solutions believe that LPG is more expensive than heating oil. As a result, there is limited awareness of the many benefits of the fuel source.

For example, LPG emits 11.7 per cent less CO2 per kWh than oil, and is frequently cheaper in real pence per kilowatt terms. In addition, oil storage tanks are highly susceptible to damage from theft. Oftec, the trade association for the oil heating industry in the UK and Ireland, recommends that insurance be taken out to cover all of these elements.

The financial and

LPG emits 11.7 per cent less CO2 per kWh than oil, and is frequently cheaper in real pence per kilowatt terms 26 June/July 2015

reputational damage of an oil spillage can be extensive.

Not only is there the cost of replacing the lost fuel but also the likelihood of an expensive clear up operation – no doubt resulting in increased insurance premiums.

In contrast, gas theft is almost unheard of, as technically it is very difficult to steal from an LPG tank. In addition, LPG in its gaseous or liquid state harmlessly evaporates so poses no ground or water pollution hazards.

To renew or not to renew?

While LPG is the cleanest burning fossil fuel for CO2, sulphur oxides, nitrous oxides and particulates, most energy consultants will

invariably consider renewable technologies as an option for their clients looking to switch.

For commercial premises, a range of technologies already exists, such as heat pumps, solar thermal, wind and, in the farming community, biomass is also gaining traction.

In most cases, in order to make renewables both available and viable, subsidies are required in the guise of the UK government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

The introduction of the RHI offers a fixed subsidy for 20 years as an incentive to switch to lower carbon technologies, with tariffs calculated to offer a decent return on investment, usually in the region of 12 per cent.

theenergyst.com

G? Calor takes to new depths As a business with a commitment to selecting low carbon energy solutions, the National Trust decided to upgrade one of its rented properties to LPG to avoid potential issues with oil pollution.

LPG from Calor was specified to fuel a privately et residential dwelling on Derwent Island situated off the shore of Derwent Water. The property had previously used oil that was pumped through copper pipework under the lake from the mainland.

The combination of converting from oil to LPG, and the installation of a high- efficiency boiler sees fuel consumption for the heating and hot water system reduce by around 27 per cent, while CO2 emissions reduce by about 36%.

There is limited awareness of the many benefits of LPG

However, for UK businesses where the performance of solar, wind and heat pump technology is so weather dependant, relying solely on a renewable energy source can be problematic. The options available may be too expensive or simply not viable as a standalone solution for an existing building’s heat and hot water demands.

In addition, degressions to the RHI tariff, as more companies adopt renewable heat technologies, may also mean the rate of return may reduce over time and may not be as quoted in the original business case.

Unlike oil, LPG is the logical fossil fuel to partner with renewable energy systems

theenergyst.com

Logistical challenges The National Trust was understandably concerned about the potential pollution hazards associated with running a copper pipeline under the lake as Tom Slater, project manager for the National Trust explains: “We needed an alternative energy source that and can be integrated easily to compensate for their sometimes-intermittent ability to deliver the heat load required – especially during periods of peak demand.

Gas is also the only off-grid fuel capable of powering miniCHP installations, delivering almost free base-load electricity and cheap base load heating requirements. MiniCHP systems are configured typically with additional, conventional condensing boilers that deal with heating demands above base load, so it makes sense to specify LPG condensing boilers too.

And businesses looking for a hybrid system will find that they invariably use gas.

After all, what’s the point

could overcome the logistical challenges we faced in providing heating to the mansion on the island. Heat pumps, biomass, mains gas, electricity and mainland-to-island heat mains were all considered, but LPG was ultimately selected as being the most robust and reliable option.

“A specialist dive team was used to sink the new, high-strength polypropylene pipe under the lake, which now supplies cleanburning LPG to heat the property and fulfil all domestic hot water needs.”

of investing in renewable technology to reduce carbon then backing it up with a high carbon fossil fuel solution?

Gas (or LPG) powered boilers are the most logical option.

In summary There are many reasons why LPG is the ideal fuel source for off-grid commercial installations.

Carbon savings, improved environmental performance, lower risk… they all add up to offer a compelling range of benefits that oil installations simply cannot deliver.

Where price remains a concern, Calor has introduced a lower price guarantee to help challenge the common misconception that LPG is

more expensive than oil.

This ensures that its supply of LPG will be cheaper than an end-user business’s current oil price on a penceper-Kilowatt-hour basis.

So where capital is being invested to achieve carbon reductions it makes sense to seek a low carbon, reliable fossil fuel such as LPG in place of a high carbon emitter such as oil, or as a partner for a renewable technology solution. Clean burning, environmentally proven and at a lower price. Maybe it is time to make the switch?

For further information on how Calor can help you make the switch to LPG, visit www.calor.co.uk/business te calor.co.uk

June/July 2015

27

HVAC

Counting the whole life cost UK industry is being increasingly squeezed but it’s not all doom and gloom, according to AmbiRad marketing manager Simon Garratt

C

urrent industry regulations obviously RAF Coltishall saw insist that staff a 64% reduction in cannot work in heating costs and a 55% cold temperatures but with emissions reduction factory and warehouse owners faced with an ever increasing overhead, the temptation is to resort to finding the cheapest heating system available, even though it is rarely the most energy efficient.

Most manufacturers of heating systems are now looking to systems that deliver whole-life costs as a way of making real energy savings. a building over a period of Short term, a cheap system time, based on the functional might seem the right way to requirements of the building. go but don’t be deceived.

It is effective for new buildings, Although paying for more including design and build energy efficient heating projects, and is a pre-requisite systems may not be a popular for all PFI contracts. idea in the current economy, The technique was originally it makes tremendous sense used by the accountancy when true value is looked at, profession to compare rather than initial costs. outcomes when income varies According to government over time, using today’s information, the most reliable value or net present value indicator of ‘value’ in the as a starting point. Today, construction industry is the the methodology is used relationship between widely in many long-term costs industries, although and the benefit uptake in the achieved by construction the end-user. industry is ‘quite And when saving that can small’, according it comes to be achieved with to the BSRIA. the heating Using these system, whole-life cost calculations, best value is analysis modern gained from manufacturers the system that have proved that they achieves the required can deliver energy savings functionality at lowest cost of up to 70%, a significant when calculated over the reduction in running costs. whole life of the equipment.

It is a technique that has Whole-life cost analysis been in existence for decades. is an economic evaluation With more and more people process solely for the purpose seeing the benefits of wholeof assessing the true cost of life cost analysis, its popularity constructing and running

70%

28 June/July 2015

in construction is increasing.

Rather than focusing on the cost of instalment and payment for the system, it focuses instead on the building’s requirements, how well each solution tackles them and the costs of doing so.

Going cheap might look good in an initial payment.

But compare its whole-life cost to that of an energy efficient system, and the difference can be thousands, wasted money that businesses cannot afford to lose.

When considering each building’s needs, it shouldn’t be simplified to just simply ‘the building must be heated’, as the full requirements are far more specific. Value management and value engineering are indispensable factors in finding the more efficient solution.

The system should match the needs of the occupants, as well as the building’s shape and size. This means knowing exactly where and when heat will be needed and how it can best be delivered.

In specifying a heating system, it is important to base requirements on output and

functional needs, rather than describing the process by which these will be achieved.

This allows for flexibility and perhaps more thoughtful or innovative approaches to a heating solution, one that will fulfil needs over the system’s life. For example, it should respond to alterations in the work pattern, downsizing or expansion.

As an example, an RAF air base in Coltishall has displayed genuine energy saving benefits of this method of heating system. Whereas it previously had a highly inefficient high temperature hot water distribution system, it turned to reducing its extensive fuel consumption.

Following an investigation into the options, taking into account whole-life costing, radiant tube heating was found to be the best solution for long-term value.

After just a few months of instalment, energy consumption was found to have reduced dramatically.

Compared to its previous boiler system, the base saw a 64% reduction in heating costs and a 55% emissions reduction.

Over a 10-year period following the system’s introduction it was calculated that the base would get discounted savings of near £150,000.

This is something that every sector can benefit from.

And, with forward-thinking companies strongly backing the system, there can be nationwide savings of millions of pounds. With fuel prices looking to never back down, it is a saving that no one can afford not to make. te ambirad.co.uk

theenergyst.com

HVAC

Efficient heating and cooling Fläkt Woods’ Recooler HP is fitted with the latest generation of Semco hygroscopic wheel, but also with DC inverter scroll compressor technology and electronic expansion valves, maximising efficiency and comfort

F

läkt Woods’ Recooler HP is designed as an integral component to Fläkt Woods’ range of air handling units.

Recooler HP incorporates a reversible heat pump and a recovery wheel to provide a host of benefits, including quick and easy installation, high efficiencies and all-yearround energy recovery.

Using a DC inverter scroll compressor, the Recooler HP can achieve a Coefficient of Performance (COP) of up to 6.5, as well as full control of output from 10% to 100%.

This enables the air handling unit to deliver the exact temperature required and maintain end user comfort levels more effectively than recovery, with efficiencies traditional fixed speed over 83%. Plus, with the systems. In addition, the capability to operate at lower inverter drive allows the temperatures and still recover unit to work at part load, energy in winter mode, the ensuring the perfect balance unit ensures reduced heat loss between reliability and during colder weather and less efficient heating and cooling. maintenance for defrosting.

The innovative integral David Black at Fläkt recovery wheel within Woods explains: “Recooler the2015 Recooler offers a HP02/04/2015 has been designed to 1 S&P adverts onlineHP quarter wide_CADB/T-N 10:39 Page maximised level of energy seamlessly integrate with an

air handling unit, allowing installation on site, without the need for groundwork or additional preparation.

“Crucially, we wanted to design a compact ‘all in one’ product that ensures quick and simple installation, as well as high efficiencies that will ultimately reduce end user energy bills.

“With Recooler HP, there is

no requirement for additional chillers, boilers or to install any pipework, which means the unit is quickly ready to operate once the electrical connections have been made.

In addition, noise and energy consumption is further reduced as there is no need for an outdoor condenser fan.”

For even further efficiency, the Recooler HP is supplied with a sophisticated adaptive control unit, loaded with intuitive software that has been developed to maintain the ideal operating map. This manages two expansion valves for full control of cooling and heating modes, as well as refrigerant charge. The control unit also incorporates electronic transducers for temperature and pressure to maximise reliability and efficiency.

Recooler HP is available in seven sizes with nominal cooling capacities (rotor and compressor) from 35kW to 175kW and nominal heating capacity (rotor and compressor) from 21kW to 57kW. te flaktwoods.co.uk

CADB/T-N ECOWATT n Unit height down to 360mm n Airflows to 8,000m³/hr at low SFP n EC motors with high-efficiency backward curved impellers n Electric, LPHW and no heat options n Plug and Play controls

The most compact heat recovery unit

T: 0845 4700074 | sales.uk@solerpalau.com | www.solerandpalau.co.uk

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theenergyst.com

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Lighting

Extending LED benefits As LED lighting systems prove their worth in a wider range of applications, it is important to be aware of all of the factors that impact on the performance of the system. Simon Miles of Carbon8lighting highlights the key issues

A

nyone who has even a passing interest in lighting will have noticed the rapid emergence of LED lamps, which are now the light source of choice for many commercial lighting applications.

What is not so well known is that the latest generation of LEDs, combined with luminaires optimised for use with LEDs, can now deliver sufficiently high light outputs for many other applications, including high bay and exterior lighting.

The popularity of LED lighting is largely the result of significantly improved energy efficiency – combined with much longer lamp life and the cost of ownership benefits that delivers. In addition, LED lighting will typically provide better quality light with improved colour rendering compared to traditional lighting to enhance support for visually demanding tasks.

In outdoor applications, whiter light with better colour rendering engenders a feeling of security while also delivering significant energy savings. For example, we recently upgraded exterior lighting for Cooper Tire & Rubber’s facility in Wiltshire to provide an annual saving in exterior lighting energy consumption of 630,000 kWh and a financial saving in the order of £44,000 per annum.

Return on investment The incentive for larger organisations to implement energy-saving initiatives

32 June/July 2015

theenergyst.com

is likely to be further fuelled by the new Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme regulations.

While Esos will not compel such organisations to introduce energy-savings the process will help them understand their energy performance, highlight potential areas for improvement and calculate the potential return on investment.

It is therefore important to fully understand all of the characteristics of such systems, from the choice of light source through to luminaire design and how the system will be controlled. All of these issues should be discussed in detail with any potential suppliers in the early stages of the specification process.

Unlike traditional light sources, with LEDs the wattage does not correlate to the light output. When specifying LED lighting, therefore, it is no longer meaningful to refer to the wattage of the lamps – the lumen output is what counts.

It is also worth bearing in mind that LEDs are directional, so that less of the light output is ‘lost’ within the luminaire.

This means that luminaires designed to work with LED light sources can provide higher light outputs. This in turn means that required illuminance levels can often be met with a lower lumen output.

This highlights the role of

the luminaire in optimising overall performance. The selected luminaires should be designed to take full advantage of the performance characteristics of the LED light sources. They should also incorporate thermal management to keep the LEDs running at optimum temperature as this will maximise light output and lamp life.

In addition, the luminaire manufacturer should be able to prove that the LEDs it is using are of high quality without variation in colour temperature between light sources.

Enhanced control One of the key constraints on optimising energy efficiency in these types of application has been the limited control capabilities of light sources such as metal halide and high pressure sodium that are typically used for high bay lighting.

In contrast, LED lighting is highly controllable and this opens the door to many opportunities for improved control.

In a warehouse, for example, aisles between racking are often unoccupied but remain fully lit throughout the day.

By using simple occupancy sensors, LED lighting can be configured to dim or switch off in unoccupied areas and then

The latest generation of LEDs, combined with luminaires optimised for use with LEDs, can now deliver sufficiently high light outputs for many other applications including high bay and exterior lighting

ramp up to full output as soon as the presence of a person or fork lift truck is detected.

By using photocells, LED lighting can be dimmed in relation to levels of natural daylight entering the space.

These controllability benefits can also be used to provide more sophisticated control of exterior lighting, going beyond the traditional timebased control. For example, in a pedestrianised area with coffee shops and restaurants the lighting might be on at full light output until around midnight then dimmed to a percentage of full output for the rest of the night.

The important thing here is that LED lighting offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of control, so that the exact control strategy can be precisely tailored to the requirements of each project.

Without a doubt, the right combination of LED light sources, luminaires and controls provides building operators with a perfect opportunity to improve the quality of their lighting while also significantly reducing their energy consumption, carbon emissions and cost of ownership. The important thing is to be aware of all of the criteria that should be taken into account when determining the best solution. te carbon8lighting.co.uk

ControlZAPP

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THE SMARTER WAY TO SAVE ENERGY ControlZAPP is the new energy saving lighting controls range with Bluetooth ‘Smart’ interface.

ControlZAPP can be used to remotely set-up, adjust or override settings such as occupancy detection, time lag, short visit mode, respond to daylight, override ON or OFF etc at different times of day to an accurate schedule, even different holiday and shut down settings. ControlZAPP is easy to install and configure and is ideal for flexible energy saving and end user comfort.

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DANLERS Limited, Vincients Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6NQ Email: sales@danlers.co.uk Fax: 01249 443388

www.danlers.co.uk

theenergyst.com

June/July 2015

33

Lighting

Smart technology barriers Research by GE Lighting and the Carbon Trust suggest that the UK public sector risks locking-In outdated technology

R

esearch by GE The public sector is Lighting and the realising the potential of smart Carbon Trust finds technologies for delivering that most UK public public services cost efficiently bodies have begun to adopt and intelligently. However, intelligent technologies, executives face clear challenges, in order to drive social, due to budget cuts, as well economic and environmental as the lack of clear long term benefits within their estates. implementation strategies.

Some 87% of public sector This can often lead to a sustainability professionals ‘lock-in effect’, leaving estates have begun to embrace stuck with old, inefficient smart technologies, but equipment that is more future projects are stymied expensive over its life span. by lack of finance and poor Almost two thirds of the implementation strategy. sample (64%) cited availability The most common areas of funds as the biggest barrier where there has been some to the implementation of smart measure of smart technology technologies. This was despite adoption are building efficiency the existence of self-financing (77%), LED lighting (57%) and models, such as Special water and waste technologies Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which (24%). The smart technologies many estates are employing respondents have installed to obtain capital. In addition, include intelligent features, such concessional finance available as sensors, which combined to the public sector such as the with internet connectivity Public Works Loan Board, as and control systems, enhance well as the Green Investment performance and efficiency and Bank, provide options to get reduce resource consumption, projects off the ground.

J1285_MEGAMAN_Q2_HP_190X74.pdf 1 other 28/05/2015 15:28 costs and carbon emissions.

The key barriers

to adoption beyond finance included: • Lack of an agreed long-term strategic plan/model for technology adoption (34%) • Procurement know-how and capacity (30%) • Lack of internal ownership of smart technology projects (26%) • Implementation risk in moving away from existing technology (22%) The top three barriers – related to finance, organisational strategy, and procurement know-how –can be addressed via enhanced communication and training, skills and internal support to help public sector employees understand how to build and procure investable projects. Without this skill set, adoption of smart, low carbon infrastructure in the public sector will be held back.

Agostino Renna, president and ceo of GE Lighting Europe, Middle East & Africa, said: “Technology is no longer

the key barrier for adoption of smart technologies, the barriers are now related to procurement and skills. The good news is that innovative business models exist, such as self-financing, allowing estates to de-risk procurement, prevent lock-in and benefit from major efficiencies, for example from intelligent lighting, which can cut energy bills by up to 80%.”

Looking specifically at lighting, the research finds that nearly three quarters of the sustainability professionals surveyed (71%) are planning to invest in lighting systems within the next five years. The largest proportion of those planning to upgrade lighting (25%) planned to replace lamps using LEDs, plus to install control systems. There is clear value proposition to transition to LED and those who do it in the coming two to three years will have an available platform to implement smart city solutions commenrs GE Lighting. gelighting.com

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Viewpoint

Esos: The clue is the name Businesses should follow up on their Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme audit recommendations and implement energy efficiency measures, says Energy Institute chief executive Louise Kingham

B

y now, I would hope that anyone who is responsible for managing energy in their workplace is aware of the government’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (Esos) and what is expected of the approximately 14,000 large organisations affected in the UK to achieve compliance.

Estimates of total energy consumption and audits to identify cost-effective energysaving opportunities must be submitted to the Environment Agency by 5 December.

There is no obligation to do anything about saving energy once the audit is completed, save for doing another audit in four years’ time.

Surely, to get the most out of Esos, and to obtain a positive return on investment from complying, businesses should follow up on the audit recommendations and implement energy efficiency measures – to focus on the ‘opportunities’ in Esos, that its name suggests?

This work must be carried out on behalf of organisation by an accredited Lead Assessor listed on a register approved by the Environment Agency.

Lead assessors can be either in-house employees or consultants. Those worth their salt will be able to identify and make detailed recommendations for reducing energy usage throughout the organisation being assessed.

The uptake in hiring lead assessors is proving sluggish.

A rough estimate is that, depending on the number of sites involved and the size of the organisation, an

36 June/July 2015

No one wants to be facing a potential penalty of up to £50,000 for noncompliance and it becoming public knowledge

energy audit could take up to six months to complete.

Many businesses are hiring consultants to help them get to grips with Esos and make sure that they will comply with the regulations.

The Energy Institute’s energy management professionals featuring on the Register of Professional Energy Consultants and list of chartered energy managers are approved as Esos lead assessors. All of our consultants are chartered, have a track record of energy audit, assessment and advice, and are bound by a code of conduct and customer guarantee.

In addition, since the launch of the scheme last year, the EI has been publishing free guidance and briefing notes, and now also offers an advice service,

providing a free 20-minute consultation with RPEC consultants to new customers.

No one wants to be facing a potential penalty of up to £50,000 for non-compliance and it becoming public knowledge. On the other hand, buying an audit on a price that ultimately doesn’t help you reduce your energy bill is a false economy.

For companies to make the most of Esos, they need to act on the advice that they get, and focus on the opportunities made available from this opportunity scheme. te The Energy Institute is the professional body for the energy industry, delivering good practice and professionalism across the depth and breadth of the sector. For more information, visit energyinst. org/energy-efficiency energyinst.org

Finding the right energy consultant Working with an energy consultant will be a new experience for many companies and here are our tips to check they are right for your business: • Are they a qualified Lead Assessor? Lead Assessors must be listed on a recognised register.

Only qualified lead assessors can sign off Esos paperwork.

• What qualifications do they have?

• Do they have satisfied customers? Ask them about their previous clients – can they provide references?

• What skills and technology experience do they have? Think about the plant or equipment you have – are they familiar with this?

• How do they plan to work? What information will they be expecting you to provide? What is included in their services and what is not? What timescales do you want them to work to?

• What do they charge? Is this a set fee or a daily rate? Does this include VAT and expenses?

• Do they have professional indemnity insurance to cover you if something goes wrong?

theenergyst.com

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Smart grids

Being first off the grid National Instruments is helping National Grid prepare today for the grid of tomorrow

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s National Grid, the transmission system operator for nearly 20 million people in the UK, faces the combined challenges of rapidly increasing demand, downgrading of fossil fuel plants and growing integration of renewable energy sources, an advanced measurement system was developed to provide real-time data on power supply trends.

The system, developed using National Instruments’ solutions, will help National Grid handle emerging challenges through better monitoring of the health of the overall grid. The ability to gather operational data from a wide range of measurements will help National Grid identify potential problems early, prevent power disruptions and better manage risks.

Flexible measurement

Traditional measurement systems did not provide adequate coverage to overcome the challenges of the modern grid but NI’s software-designed systems enabled the creation of a customised solution that offers the flexibility to be upgraded in the future as measurement needs and data volumes evolve.

Danson Michael Joseph, strategy, competition and productivity team manager at National Grid, explains that the organisation has two primary roles in the UK. “On the one hand we’re the transmission owner,” he says.

“We own about 10,000km of overhead lines and

38 June/July 2015

cables, which connect about 330 substations together.

These operate at 275kV and 400kV. Our second role is as the system operator for Great Britain. In this role, we balance the demand for electricity with the supply of electricity on a second-bysecond basis. Our vision at National Grid is to connect UK consumers to their energy supplier today and be trusted to connect them to their future energy suppliers.”

Among the challenges faced

by National Grid is that almost 7GW of onshore and almost 4GW of offshore windpower are now being generated and the figures are growing at a rate of about 20% per year.

“Onshore and offshore wind are great forms of clean energy but when we combine these with HVDC interconnections, they present us with significant challenges,” explains Danson.

“These types of devices are based on power electronics and they create power quality issues for us. When we combine this with our increasing use of high-voltage cables in the UK, and our decommissioning of old fossil fuel plants and nuclear plants, we’ve got quite a task, and we can’t manage what we can’t measure so we know we need better data in this new era of electricity transmission.”

However, the organisation’s existing instrumentation was not sufficiently flexible to scale with National Grid’s requirements. “One one hand the data was inaccessible and uncoordinated, and then the equipment itself just couldn’t detect what we needed it to.

We can look at trends; both geographical trends and also trends over time. This enables us to plan and operate our system more efficiently than ever before

For instance, wind farms produce high frequency harmonics and that equipment just couldn’t detect it.”

Looking at a harmonic spectrum plot from a particular location, for example, the previous instrumentation only provided visibility up to the 23rd harmonic. With the new system, engineers can see data all the way up to the 100th harmonic, which is crucial in light of the high frequency harmonic currents injected into the network by new energy sources.

National Grid selected the NI platform to develop a flexible, powerful and connected measurement system capable of gathering and analysing large amounts of data to better detect grid-wide trends.

Compared to its existing infrastructure, implementing a smarter, more connected system allows National Grid UK to manage change, optimise energy sources and plan for the future grid.

With an open, flexible, software-designed instrument, National Grid engineers can customise the information

available for grid operation and easily make upgrades as needs change. This approach improves grid monitoring and reliability while reducing the amount of equipment needed.

National Grid adopted a platform based on the CompactRIO system that can provide more measurements and adapt with the evolving grid for generations to come.

This interconnected network includes 136 systems, with 110 permanently installed in substations throughout England and Wales and 26 portable units that provide onthe-go spot coverage as needed.

The software application running on both versions is identical, which minimises the impact on system integration, training and support.

The system produces a large volume of analytics and statistics, which are stored locally in a TVS file format, and can then be pulled through a ruggedised industrial network into a central database, where it is accessible to engineers globally as long as they have the required VPN connection.

Peter Haigh, senior power systems engineer at National Grid, says: “It’s possible to view a heatmap of England and Wales, with a colour scale that is a map of total harmonic distortion of our voltage waveform. This is just one measure of the quality of the power that we’re delivering to our customers. As we deploy more and more of these units on our system, we’ll be increasing the resolution with which we can view these

theenergyst.com

system-wide trends. But it’s not just a national view that we can have. On the South Coast, for example, we can see an interconnect to the European grid. We’ve also got a large offshore windfarm and a nuclear power station, so this site is particularly important to us. We can look at how this part of the grid is performing right now.”

However, it is the ability to generate historical averages that is proving most valuable.

“Mostly we use this to ensure the grid code compliance of new connections to our network but the additional value we get from this system is that we can look at trends; both geographical trends and also trends over time,” said Peter. “This enables us to plan and operate our system more efficiently than ever before.”

Commenting on the growing use of smarter measurement systems across numerous industry sectors, Rahman Jamal, global technology and marketing director of NI, said: “Data gathering and analysis has always been vital to the decision-making process but in today’s highly connected world, the volume and speed of data is growing exponentially.

Traditional hardware systems not only struggle to cope with today’s data flows, but can soon become outdated as our needs change. If you are building a system today, you need a foundation to stand on that adapts to, and even anticipates, changing system requirements.

We think that foundation is a platform-based approach.” te uk.ni.com

Monitoring & targeting

Looking for leaks PA Energy shows in this case study how water leaks can be identified and located using gas detection and a constant monitoring system

L

arge infrastructure sites such as ports, airports, large shopping centres and industrial estates can suffer from notable water leakage, often without realising that such costs can amount from a few pounds per day to hundreds of pounds per day and also the adverse environmental ramifications from water scarcity.

PA Energy has since 2007 been involved with several British ports located to provide automated water consumption monitoring, water demand analysis and water leak detection services. The REDSTS system is providing a platform to provide a 24/7 water consumption tracking, daily automated alerts and ability to verify the water supply bills.

At some ports, PA has deployed several remote monitoring devices that allow the port maintenance team and PA staff the ability to view water demand across the site and also sub meters.

Monitoring water leaks The REDSTS system collects daily data that is relayed to the Fuze Insight platform where the data is stored securely and then made available to users on demand via the REDSTS portal.

The visualisations can from time to time indicate notable and significant water leakage; this information is then provided to the port maintenance team who can then take remedial actions to resolve.

PA Energy systems have identified significant instances of abnormally high demand as well as leakage and have worked remotely and onsite with the port engineers to find the leakage.

Use of gas detection The pipeline route and location is verified by the use of electronic pipeline tracing equipment and acoustic methods. Once this has been verified, sensitive

PA Energy systems have identified significant instances of abnormally high demand as well as leakage and have worked remotely and on-site with the port engineers to find the leakage 40 June/July 2015

site engineers in consultation with PA Energy engineers and verification undertaken to ensure that no water was passing through the valves and filling the tank.

Once confirmed isolation has taken place, the water meter can be ‘timed’ to determine the exact time taken to pass a unit of water.

Any reading over 50ppm will trigger an audible and visual alert on the gas analyser highlighting that a potential leak has been located.

Readings were obtained in the hundreds of ppm at a PA Energy customer port and its location almost directly ground microphones are on the expected pipeline used to detect the presence of route would suggest that this underground sound signals is the source of the leak. and frequencies in the leak Due to the possibility that detection range. If no sound there is a small error in the signals are detected then leak location due to gas hydrogen tracer gas mixed in a escaping into the drainage safe ratio of 95% nitrogen/5% system, it may be necessary hydrogen and housed in to extend the search along the cylinders that can withstand pipeline between the 200bar will be injected two grid locations at a variable showing high pressure of up gas readings. to 4bar into Both grid the suspect locations were pipeline at a Ration of hydrogen revisited on suitable point. to nitrogen used for a subsequent Highly day and sensitive gas detection readings retaken gas analysers before hydrogen will be used was injected. This to pinpoint the activity showed that location of gas escaping. there is no hydrogen naturally Should a leak be located, present in the grids due to acid the location of the leak shall reacting with other materials be marked on the ground (cleaning fluids dumped for and its location shall be example). Following completion reported to the company of activities, all joints and and a brief report shall be connectors were remade and prepared listing the findings. lagging was replaced at the In order to confirm the point of gas injection. te water demand findings, pa-energy.co.uk isolation valves are shut by

5%

theenergyst.com

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VIEWPOINT

What do energy profesionals know?

The Energy Barometer report is the result of an initiative to survey energy professionals on an annual basis to identify priorities and trends, and monitor progress over time

T

he first Energy Barometer report, published by the Energy Institute (EI), was launched in London on 23 June. It is the result of an initiative to survey energy professionals on an annual basis to identify priorities and trends, and monitor progress over time.

Energy is a complex system and energy professionals have a unique perspective into how it operates and how industry stakeholders and policymakers can effect change. The EI has called upon its members to provide insights on the industry’s current and future challenges, which are reported in the Energy Barometer.

Professor Jim Skea, president-elect, Energy Institute, says: “The aim of this project is to solicit the views of EI members on the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector, and inform the conversation between industry, policymakers and the public.

“With a primary focus on the UK energy system, the Energy Barometer will be produced annually from surveys of the EI membership, covering both topical issues and regular subjects for year-on-year comparison.

This report is intended to be a helpful resource for policy development and a useful gauge of industry trends.”

EI members were asked to identify the biggest challenges facing the energy industry in 2015. The most commonly cited span all sectors and demonstrate the broad range of issues facing the energy

42 June/July 2015

industry. They are framed within four key themes: • Policy continuity – EI members call for policy continuity, particularly recognising the role of nuclear power, energy efficiency and renewable energy to meet UK emissions targets. The perception from professionals working in energy is that investment risk, due to policy uncertainty, has increased, particularly around CCS and onshore wind.

The co-benefits in energy security, health and wellbeing, and longterm prosperity alone justify the investment of funds needed for these exciting innovations

• Low carbon investment To maintain supply security and meet environmental goals affordably, energy professionals recognise the need to increase levels across low carbon technologies, particularly highlighting the need for increased energy efficiency and smart grid investment.

When asked further about the greatest scope for efficiency improvements, EI members deem changes to the building stock should be made the top priority.

To underpin these developments, EI members believe there is great need for innovation across low carbon technologies, but single out energy storage as having the greatest need.

• Forward planning and knowledge transfer To coincide with these opportunities, EI members perceive there to be shortages of skilled and qualified workers across the low carbon energy system, with shortages more likely to be seen in areas of high political uncertainty.

This report highlights the need to do more to capture the knowledge of retiring professionals, with mentoring schemes seen as being particularly effective.

• Engaging the public 70% of EI members recognise the energy sector is ineffectively communicated to the general public. This is seen to lead to apathy towards, and a lack of understanding of, energy issues. This coincides with an acknowledgement that public perception, acceptance and trust are factors influencing the success or failure of new energy projects.

When asked which single government measure would be most effective to reach the UK’s emissions targets, EI members prioritised the development of nuclear energy, energy efficiency, and energy from renewables.

The report also examines UK investment risk, the impact of policy uncertainty on investor confidence and changes in investment levels.

The Energy Barometer voices a consensus among EI members that greater levels of investment are needed across all technologies and sectors to enable security of supply and the transition to a low carbon energy system.

Sir David King, special representative for climate change, Foreign Office, echoes this consensus: “The most pressing need in the world today is for a global focus on the development of energy from clean, reliable, competitively priced primary sources.

theenergyst.com

“Climate change, very largely attributable to fossil-fuel burning, provides a looming but avoidable catastrophe, but the cobenefits in energy security, health and wellbeing, and long-term prosperity alone justify the investment of funds needed for these exciting innovations.”

Malcolm Brinded, chairman of Shell Foundation, adds: “The Barometer suggests modest support for increased North Sea

theenergyst.com

oil and gas investment compared with other areas, but there remains a strong need for sustaining high investment into this sector.

“This is critical because there is only a short window of opportunity to maximise output from existing producing fields, and to find and develop remaining small prospects, while the ageing production infrastructure is still in place and operable.

“And however successful our renewables programme,

the UK will now be a major net oil and gas importer for many decades, so maximising our own North Sea production has huge economic and employment benefits.”

EI members hold a wealth of expertise and experience, which the EI uses to enhance understanding of energy issues. The Energy Barometer provides a means to communicate the views and insights of energy professionals to help inform the energy debate.

To enable the Energy Barometer project, a College of 850 energy professionals was established, representing a wide range of sectors, disciplines and levels of seniority.

A total of 543 participants fully completed the online survey in February this year. te For more information and to download a copy of the full report, visit: energyinst.org/energybarometer-2015-report

June/July 2015

43

Building controls

Automatic savings A Northern Ireland hotel is among a growing number of facilities to leverage the benefits of Priva’s Blue ID building automation solution. The simple to install, easy-to-use system has helped generate impressive electricity savings of £10,489 in its first three months of operation

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ocated within the historic walls of Derry, Northern Ireland’s second largest city, the Maldron Hotel is a 90room facility with restaurant, bar and grill, 300-delegate conference theatre, banqueting suite, mini gym and sauna.

Like a growing number in its industry, the hotel wanted to update its existing boiler house and AHU control panels to the latest technology, a move that would help drive considerable energy efficiencies.

The hotel’s owners engaged the help of building services consultant Beers Engineering and M&E contractor Pipeline Services Belfast to provide the strategy and solution to meet the project objectives.

First choice solution Serving the bar and function rooms, as well as the restaurant and kitchen areas, the existing control panels were manually operated and outdated. To turn the hotel’s vision into reality, ACS Controls, a specialist in the configuration and installation of energy management systems were engaged to deliver the controls strategy. The building automation system of choice at ACS is Priva’s Blue ID, an innovative, modular solution that is quick and easy to install and program.

ACS Controls has a proven track record in identifying competitive solutions to energy management by looking at a building through the eyes of the occupier and tailoring the desired level of controls around the end user’s requirements.

The company deemed Maldron Hotel Derry was ideal for Blue

44 June/July 2015

All front office staff have access to the controls and can easily operate the heating, ventilation and hot water ID, which has been developed in accordance with the ‘best fit’ principle. Thanks to its modularity, Priva Blue ID is suitable for every application, from a small hotel to a large hospital, and from a university complex to a data centre.

Priva Blue ID hardware consists of a base on which individual functional modules, containing all mission-critical components, can be installed.

The wiring takes place on the base, which is robust and insensitive to failures.

Easy access ACS designed the front end controls system with ‘non-engineers’ in mind, making them simple to use by all front-of-house staff.

In fact, Blue ID requires no more than a computer with

an internet connection and a standard browser. The browser provides access to a web server in each controller.

Although each controller has its own IP address, access to one controller provides access to all others — unlike other systems which require each controller to be accessed individually.

The software provides a complete overview of the system’s status, allowing users to analyse the behaviour of the building. For example, the effects of a particular setting of indoor temperature can be examined —as can the relation between indoor and outdoor temperature.

“The system was designed in such a way that all front office staff have access to the controls and can easily operate

the heating, ventilation and hot water,” states Mike Gatt, general manager at Maldron Hotel Derry. “This allows us to maintain operating levels where required and, importantly, provides the option to switch off energy to areas within the hotel when they are not needed.

Historically, these areas would have been served by systems running excess to requirement. Since installation, we have seen significant reductions in energy bills.”

Following installation, the first three months showed that electricity consumption at the hotel had reduced by 76,007 kWh compared with the same period in the previous year. In financial terms, this equates to a saving of £10,489.

“The new equipment establishes best practice at the hotel in terms of relating energy consumption to occupancy and reliability of supply,” says Mr Gatt. “The fact that this was achieved with the project fully funded by the Carbon Trust Interest Free Loan Scheme is a testament to the technology’s potential in terms of cost and environmental savings.”

Mr Gatt confirms that the hotel is on track to achieve a project payback of less than four years, with an environmental saving of 320 TCO2e per annum.

“This is tremendous performance given the level of capital investment involved and establishes a terrific platform upon which the business can trade for the next 15 years,” he concludes. te priva.co.uk

theenergyst.com

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Event news

Look and learn The Energy Event (15-16 September, NEC, Birmingham), has unveiled a series of fresh initiatives for 2015, in what it states is critically important year for the UK energy sector

I

n 2015, The Energy Event will see a stronger conference programme, a new hosted meeting programme with energy suppliers, closer collaboration with the industry and an impressive roster of participating energy providers and organisations focused on showcasing new technologies, best practice advice and driving innovation in the sector.

“The Energy Event takes place at a key time in the calendar to help examine its aftermath and assess the new political landscape’s likely impact on UK energy policy.

Meanwhile, the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme, global issues around the security of supply and UN climate talks scheduled for late 2015 will also affect how energy business is conducted in the UK and beyond. The Energy Event will be the place for end-users to find the best procurement solutions, make sure they’re complying with legislation and identify new ways to manage their energy consumption as efficiently as possible,” says Russell Bacon, portfolio director at i2i Events Group.

Formulated in close partnership with key industry and event stakeholders to address the important issues, The Energy Event’s popular conference programme is a strong focus for 2015. More than 60 free-to-attend CPD sessions are scheduled to feature at the event across three show theatres in what will prove to be one of the major attractions for visitors.

The key themes that will be

46 June/July 2015

discussed during the sessions this year include EMR, ESOS, top business saving tips in energy and environmental strategy, commodity pricing updates and innovations in energy management.

The Energy Event will also provide access to the services, products and advice of more than 160 exhibitors. Significant organisations and new companies signed up for 2015 include Corona The number of Energy, Philips free-to-attend Lighting, BIU British CPD sessions Independent Utilities, InTouch - IS, Lucy Electric, Clarke Energy, Airedale International Air Conditioning, ASL Holdings, Lark Energy, Lightsource RE, Siemens Financial Services, Waterscan, Wingas, SSE, National Grid, Carlo Gavazzi, and many more.

Key themes during this year’s conference sessions will include EMR, Esos, energy and environmental strategy and innovations in energy management

60

The organisers will also be extending the 121 Professional Services, launched at last year’s show. This provides the chance for senior level visitors to gain guaranteed face time with must-see companies.

Visitors can fill in a short survey pre-show, enabling the chosen exhibitor to prepare in advance and progress the conversation from enquiry to a more concise, tailored meeting at The Energy Event.

Online registration has now opened for the Energy Event, the Renewables Event and the Water Event, which all take place at Birmingham’s NEC on 15-16 September 2015.

Organised by i2i Events, the Energy, Renewables and Water Events are the UK’s largest and most comprehensive exhibitions focusing on energy, renewables and water procurement and management for large scale industrial and commercial end-users. te theenergyevent.com

theenergyst.com

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Event news

Renewables and water Marks & Spencer and Bentley Motors lead the debate on the procurement and management of large-scale renewables for business and industrial end-users

T

he Renewables Event (15-16 September, NEC, Birmingham) has announced its full, free-toattend seminar programme, supported by headline sponsor GE Intelligent Platforms and associate sponsor Lightsource RE. The Renewables Theatre will feature headline presentations from government together with sessions from a range of large blue-chip companies, including Marks & Spencer, Bentley Motors, Greggs, Land Securities, Nestle and Tesco, alongside a special keynote talk from Jem Stansfield, engineer and presenter of the BBC’s science show, Bang Goes The Theory.

“The free seminar programme at the Renewables Event is renowned for the quality of practical advice on offer for large industrial and commercial end-users,” says Russell Bacon, environment portfolio director at i2i Events.

“This year’s content builds substantially on this reputation under the watchful eye of our expert chair, professor Rob Holdway, from Giraffe Innovation. Jem Stansfield leads a dynamic line-up of speakers who’ll be addressing topics and issues, ranging from government renewables policy and legislation to solar strategy, energy storage and the key financials, all brought to life by real-world applications from end-users at the cutting edge of on-site renewable deployment.”

Stansfield’s keynote in The Renewables Theatre, taking place on Wednesday 16 September, will outline his

48 June/July 2015

thoughts on the future for renewable energy and assess the likely impact of these changes for the business world.

Among the headlines sessions delivered by thought leaders in commerce and industry will be: • Indeer Poonaji, head of sustainability at Nestle, will talk about the company’s renewable strategy, including its onsite anaerobic digestion plant, the largest in the UK; • Lydia Hopton, property project manager (plan a) at Marks & Spencer will outline how solar is an integral part of the retailer’s approach to business; • Andrew Robertson, head of site planning at Bentley Motors, Neil Pennell, head of sustainability and engineering at Land Securities and Paul Rhodes, group safety, health and environment manager at Greggs, will debate how to successfully implement large scale solar projects; • Richard Clothier, managing director at Wyke Farms and Bernd Leven, group energy manager at Tesco, will discuss how on-site

renewables can meet the heating needs of a business.

The programme will also feature a government presentation on future policy for the UK renewables sector and a panel discussion exploring the renewable incentive and regulatory landscape for industrial and commercial end users.

The Renewable Energy Association, the British Photovoltaic Association and the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association will all be playing an active part in the programme.

Top five suppliers support The Water Event In a significant year for the water industry ahead of planned deregulation in April 2017, The Water Event is the only exhibition where visitors can meet with the UK’s top five water suppliers.

As a leading event within the industry, The major water suppliers who will be setting out their offering to large commercial and industrial end-users.

Anglian Water, Business Stream, Severn Trent, Thames

Water and United Utilities will all be sharing their advice with visitors on how their water services can help businesses and manufacturing companies improve efficiency, reduce cost and comply with best practice and regulations in the new environment for the water industry.

Rupert Kruger, head of business services at Thames Water, said: “There has never been a more important time for businesses to understand their water use, to improve efficiency and reduce their impact on the environment.

Thames Water – with its proud heritage – has a tremendous depth of knowledge and range of valuable, costeffective services, which we’re enhancing and extending thanks to on-going investment in our people, systems and processes. We’re delighted to be attending the Water Event and meeting a wide range of businesses looking to transform their relationship with water and wastewater retailers.”

The Water Event will feature a range of exhibitors with relevant services and advice for large industrial and commercial end-users.

It will also include a packed seminar programme designed to highlight topics such as pricing tariffs, added value downstream services and customer service provision.

Significant organisations and new companies signed up for 2015 include Dart Valley Systems, Water Direct, Kelda Water Services Retail, Source for Business and Waterscan. te therenewablesevent.com thewaterevent.com

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drIVes & moTors

WEG powers up New drive promises to boost productivity in high power level applications

W

EG has added a new powerful and versatile frame size H variable speed drive to its CFW11 series to help optimise processes and boost productivity in high power level applications.

Available in two versions – covering the voltage range from 380 to 690V and the power range from 450 to 710kW in normal operation – the CFW11 in frame size H can control both squirrelcage and permanentmagnet motors and is designed for normal and heavy load operation in a wide range of industrial and commercial applications.

Users can configure device parameters simply, either individually or in defined groups for specific applications, and the control panel features a user-friendly navigation and control with programmable buttons.

In addition, a guide helps users through programming, helping them save installation and setup times. Many plugin extension modules are available for adapting the variable speed drives to users’ needs and are automatically recognised by the device for

plug-and-play operation. The standard model also features an integrated micro-PLC, enabling users to programme their own applications at any time using the included WLP software for relay logic.

CFW11 variable speed drives support both voltage vector (VVW) control and control using U/f control characteristics. WEG’s Vectrue technology provides precise torque and speed control, accurate positioning and high overload capacity.

For use in safety-critical applications, WEG also integrates numerous protection functions with fault and alarm indications in the variable speed drives, as well as EN ISO 13849-1 safe shutdown – Safe Torque Off (STO) Category 3/ PL d – as an optional module.

The CFW11 enclosure is rated IP20 in the standard version, and an IP54 version

is optionally available with through-hole PCB assembly for the power stage. The CFW11 series supports the Modbus RTU (RS232 and RS485), CANopen, DeviceNet, Profibus DP/ DPV1, Profinet, Modbus TCP, Ethernet/IP, Ethercat and BACnet communication protocols as standard.

An integrated USB port allows device parameter data to be backed up quickly a nd easily on a flash memory card or transferred to other devices.

“Our CFW11 VSDs are highly versatile and easy to use and are designed to help users across a wide range of industrial and commercial applications operate motors more efficiently according to the latest energy efficiency regulations,” says Marek Lukaszczyk, European & Middle East marketing manager at WEG. te weg.net/uk

Apps ease tuning and maintenance of VSDs ABB helps optimise and maintain variable-speed drives with two convenient smartphone apps, giving people more power over the devices that industry depends on to cut energy use.

ABB’s Drivetune allows service engineers and installers to easily connect to a drive via wireless Bluetooth connection.

Then, using a user-friendly smartphone interface, the installer can more quickly and efficiently commission and tune a drive’s performance, allowing quick resolution of any initial issues without being forced to take the drive offline.

50 June/July 2015

Drivebase, an ABB App that has been improved since its introduction in 2014, allows plant personnel to scan a dynamic QR code generated by a drive on its control panel.

The code provides information for registering the drive and about remedies for potential problems without resorting to maintenance manuals, while simultaneously drawing on ABB’s vast drive knowledge base via the cloud should further assistance be needed.

Leveraging technology of the Internet of Things, Services and People (IoTSP), the apps make it convenient for customers

to access rich new data from their drives that’s targeted to help improve their operations and make better decisions without overwhelming them with unnecessary complexity.

“You can now locate a drive in a factory and check

its health and performance with your smartphone just as easily as scanning a QR code or connecting a device via Bluetooth similar to those that consumers use every day,” said Barbara Frei, managing director of ABB’s Drives and Controls business.

“There’s going to be a sharp increase in the adoption of these technologies in both discrete and process automation as customers seek new ways to unlock the performance benefits of big data while lowering their total cost of ownership.” abb.co.uk/energy

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demand response

National Grid pushes DSR but businesses ignored National Grid sees demand side response eventually taking the lion’s share of system balancing.

Businesses are interested in participating, yet are being overlooked, writes Brendan Coyne

N

ational Grid has launched a major push to embed demand side response within the heart of the UK’s energy system.

The system operator has suggested that demand response could play a larger balancing role than generation within the next 15 years.

The system operator held an event in June to launch its Power Responsive platform, which it bills as a “framework for turning debate into action”.

The aim is to bring businesses, suppliers, policy makers and other stakeholders together in order to scale the demand side response market by 2020. National Grid said that the definition of scale by 2020 from balancing services (DSR) was 30-50%.

In the longer term, National Grid indicated that demand side response could play a larger role than generation in system balancing.

Growth market The market for demand side response is currently small.

For example, of the 48.6GW of capacity procured in the December T-4 auction, DSR firms represented 174MW, or around 0.35% of the total. However, it is beginning to grow rapidly.

National Grid announced earlier in June that it had procured 2.56GW of back-up power for the coming winter.

Of that derated capacity, demand response represented 177MW, or around 7% of the total balancing reserve. Overall,

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the amount of demand side balancing reserve procured was up 56% year on year.

Price is right Also, the price of demand side response is coming down.

Strategic balancing reserve (generation) and demandside balancing reserve cannot be truly compared. That’s largely because the generators contracted by grid have to take their plant out of the market all day during the contracted period. Demand-side firms are usually just contracted for the evening peak. Then the rates paid vary if either service is actually used.

But on a procurement basis, National Grid’s figures for the second round of SBR/DSBR suggest that per megawatt, the current premium on demand side response is about 17%.

However, that includes testing and validating, which National Grid suggested made up around a quarter of demand side procurement costs.

Decentralisation Once scale can be achieved and the technologies proven, demand side response is likely to be a far cheaper option. It would also create a market where the value is retained by a broader range of businesses.

However, that requires the energy system and policymakers to reverse their centralised mindset. It will also require programmes like the capacity market to be more flexible in terms of how businesses can participate.

Decc has acknowledged that

80% of readers polled would be interested in participating in DSR but have not been engaged by suppliers or aggregators

The survey is still open, and forms part of a report on demand-side response sponsored by National Grid and Open Energi. We value your thoughts. If you would like to participate and receive a copy of the report, please visit: theenergyst.com

demand-response participation will be part of its summer review of EMR mechanisms, and issued a tender earlier this year to scope out how big a role DSR might play.

But National Grid’s move to drive it up the agenda suggests that the market is already mobilising.

Tell us your thoughts The Energyst recently surveyed readers and initial findings suggested that almost 80% are interested in participating in demand response. However, the same percentage had not been contacted about it by aggregators or by their energy suppliers.

More than half of respondents, from SMEs to large corporates, said that up to 10% of their electricity demand could be flexible without interrupting their business operations. About a third said that between 10% and 25% of demand was flexible. te

June/July 2015

51

Compressed Air

The case for energy recovery From low-energy light bulbs to automated heating, manufacturers are acting in many ways to reduce their energy usage in the face of rising prices. But even after obvious steps have been taken, the challenge to find further savings remains, writes James Houseman

52 June/July 2015

A

ccording to a survey this year by the manufacturers’ organisation EEF, energy affordability is one of the most critical issues facing manufacturing today and is perceived as the biggest threat to growth. The survey of nearly 200 British industry leaders confirmed that “much of the low-hanging fruit has already been plucked” and with energy prices remaining among the highest of all major manufacturing countries, it’s no surprise that more than half of the respondents identify the need to continue reducing usage of gas and electricity as the biggest energy challenge of the next two years.

Addressing this challenge will require greater attention to less visible areas of energy usage such as compressed air, which, on average accounts for around 12% of total industrial

electricity consumption in Europe. In some cases, the figure is as high as 40%.

A greater willingness to consider innovative approaches to energy conservation is needed, such as energy recovery, a concept which enables waste heat from the compressor to be recycled as hot water.

Adoption of compressed air energy recovery is building gradually in the UK and there are a number of examples that demonstrate the savings that can be obtained.

However, the UK lags behind continental Europe in embracing energy recovery, perhaps as a result of poor awareness or doubts about the deliverable results.

So let us deal with those two issues upfront.

Firstly, what do we mean by compressed air energy recovery? When air

is compressed, the energy transforms from electrical energy to potential energy in the form of compressed air and thermal energy, or heat.

After compression, air typically reaches a high temperature and before it can be distributed into the piping system and delivered to the end process, the heat has to be extracted. Unless heat is recovered, it becomes waste.

As much as 94% of the electrical energy used by an industrial air compressor is converted into heat and lost through radiation in the compression process. The remaining 6% is unrecoverable due to the small amount of heat that remains in the compressed air or is dissipated into ambient air.

Therefore, a properly designed heat recovery unit can recover from 50% to 94% of this available thermal energy as low-grade heat. This can be

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used to heat water, up to 90°C. The heat energy produced by compressing air can be recovered and reused in other manufacturing processes.

In other cases, the heat can be directed into the heating or hot water systems of the facility itself, which can reduce reliance on external sources of electricity and gas, for example.

To understand how energy recovery works, it is important to remember the high temperature of the compressed air that is generated. To lower the temperature of the air, the heat is removed via either oil, water or air, depending on the compressor type. Oil injected screw compressors and oil-free water-cooled screw compressors offer the best potential for recovering heat energy from their cooling systems.

Most compressor installations feature a twostage design and come standard with an intercooler between the first and second stage, and an after-cooler, which is located after the second stage. The intercooler and after-cooler can either be air-cooled or water-cooled. As the air passes through either of these types of after-coolers, the heat is extracted and can be redirected to other uses.

Air-cooled systems are more common in small and mediumsized compressors, and heat recovery is often limited to the cool seasons, when the recovered energy can be used as heated air and is rerouted to nearby interior spaces for supplemental heating.

This type of heat recovery installation offsets the energy required to perform the same function and can help facilities save thousands of pounds on annual heating bills.

Water-cooled systems operate through one of three main principles: open systems without circulating water; open systems with circulating water; and closed systems with circulating water. The most recommended system

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is the closed system with circulating water, whereby water continually circulates between the compressor and some form of external heat exchanger, which then transfers the recovered heat to the intended process.

There are many benefits to a correctly implemented closed-water energy recovery system. Primarily, it requires little supervision and has low maintenance costs. Unlike an open-water system, where water is supplied by an external source such as a municipal water main, the closed-water system uses treated water.

Therefore, there will be little to no mineral deposit build-up in the cooling media components, which enhances the compressor operating conditions, reliability, and service life.

Once the compressed air has passed through a watercooled system, the water now contains the energy that was first used to compress the air.

This heated water can then be used throughout the facility to preheat process water, and the energy that would normally be used in these processes is offset. With energy recovery, the savings quickly add up, resulting in a short return on investment and ongoing cost savings from year to year.

There are numerous examples of how beneficial this technology can be from both financial and sustainability perspectives. One of these is Autofil, a Midlands-based manufacturer of textiles for the automotive industry.

The company achieved average energy cost savings of £37,000 a year and reduced annual CO2

emissions by 260,000 tonnes by adopting Atlas Copco’s energy recovery technology.

By recovering heat produced by the air compressor used in the manufacturing process, the company is able to raise the temperature of the process water it requires, which reduces overall energy usage.

This is made possible by the ER-S5 energy recovery unit, whereby hot oil from the compressor’s air end is diverted through a stainless steel plate heat exchanger. Heat from the oil is transferred to cool water on the opposite side of the exchanger, producing a continuous flow of hot water.

Based on the compressor running for 8,424 hours per year, the combination of the GA 250 and ER-S5 unit is recovering more than 1.4GWh of energy a year.

In Northern Ireland, the production plant of Greiner Packaging found a very different use for the excess heat from its compressor system, donating it to a neighbouring college as a means of reducing its £40,000 annual heating bill.

Dungannon Integrated College, a secondary school with 500 pupils, receives the heat into its central heating system via underground pipework, not only reducing costs but saving 200t of CO2.

The opportunity to generate heat for the college is fully exploited by the design of Atlas Copco’s Z-range of oilfree screw compressors with

energy recovery capability, whereby the total energy recovered as hot water can be over 80% of the electrical input energy, depending on the site conditions.

When discussing the potential of energy recovery, it is vital to balance the perceived complexity of installation, which could be another reason for relatively low adoption, with the quantifiable return-on-investment that can be achieved.

To illustrate the substantial financial savings and environmental contribution a ‘carbon zero’ compressor can make, a typical application scenario involves a 132kW compressor with a heat equivalent of 132 kJ/s, running for 8,000 hours per year.

In addition to the main duty of supplying compressed air, its hot water output can be utilised as pre-heated feed water to an oil-fired boiler, thus saving boiler fuel. These calculations are based on a boiler efficiency of 90%, the calorific value of heating oil at 41,200 kJ/l, and a fuel cost of 45p/litre: • Heating oil saved = 132 x 3600 / (41,200 x 0.9) = 13 litres per hour • Heating oil saved over the course of a year = 104,000 litres • Cost of fuel = £0.45/l x 13 l/h = £5.85 per hour • Yearly savings = £5.85 x 8000 hours per year = £46,800 per year • Equivalent CO2 = 104,000 x 2.518 kg CO2 per litre† = 261,872 kg or 262 tonnes of CO2 This carbon saving is approximately equivalent to taking 87 average cars off the road.

Based on these calculations, the case for greater takeup of energy recovery technology is hard to ignore.

James Houseman is product specialist in Atlas Copco’s compressor technique services division atlascopco.com

June/July 2015

53

compressed air

Screwing down energy costs Gardner Denver’s new screw blower, the Robuschi Robox Screw package, cuts energy consumption by up to 30%

G

ardner Denver has launched its Robuschi Robox Screw compressor and blower package for the wastewater treatment industry; designed to save customers up to 30% on their energy consumption.

The new Robuschi Robox Screw package is available in high (up to 2.5bar) and low pressure (1bar) configurations. Its robust, yet simple, construction delivers high performance in aggressive environments such as water purification, effluent treatment and biogas applications.

At the core of the new package is the RSW compressor, which has been designed for longevity and performance. The construction incorporates oxidationresistant coating on the rotor shafts, to ensure performance levels are maintained and, the

wide-diameter shafts help to reduce the deformation caused by internal and external loads, meaning the compressor can work efficiently in even

the harshest conditions.

The unit’s oil-free design provides clean air to the process, to avoid the risk of oil contamination in the water

supply or adversely affecting the biodegrading process.

It provides the maximum airflow, up to 10,500m3/h to deliver a consistent supply of air to the application.

To further enhance performance, Robuschi engineers have designed the package with a simple construction with the minimum number of component parts to help reduce maintenance and service costs and make installation quick and straightforward.

The compressor features a traditional belt drive in place of a gear overdrive and for applications with a reduced thermal speed, uses a simplified lubrication system.

Together with the low rotor rotation speed, these features combine to deliver very quiet running, keeping sound emissions to a minimum. te gardnerdenver.com

of concept designs. Once the designs are approved, Boge then begins manufacturing and testing the bespoke compressor before shipping it to the customer’s site, where it is installed by Boge and

commissioned. In addition, Boge offers post-installation servicing and support to ensure the compressor is consistently performing at its optimal level. te boge.co.uk

Custom engineered Custom-engineered compressed air solutions from Boge Compressors are helping customers meet their compressed air needs in complex industrial environments.

From conception through to manufacturing, commissioning and maintenance, Boge is helping to deliver a reliable and efficient compressed air supply in challenging applications or extreme ambient conditions.

The custom-engineered solutions available include both oil-free and oil-lubricated

54 June/July 2015

compressors, heat recovery and energy optimisation, compressed air treatment, and nitrogen or oxygen generators.

These solutions are available in a variety of housings to suit a variety of environments, including: turn-key systems, which include pipework, cabling and ducting; plug-and-play containers; and on base frames.

Boge offers both a full and partial service depending on customer needs. This includes an initial analysis of customer requirements regarding output volumes and compressed air quality and the production

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VSD+ - NOT JUST AN EVOLUTION, IT’S A COMPLETE REVOLUTION. The new VSD+ changes the way you look at compressors. With up to 50% energy savings, noise levels down to 62 dB(A) and a 12% leap in free air delivery. A vertical design format that shrinks its footprint and a unique, patented permanent magnet motor.

It’s enough to turn your world upside down.

Atlas Copco Compressors Phone: 0800 181085 Email: compressor.sales@uk.atlascopco.com Web: www.atlascopco.com/gavsdplus

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20/06/2014 09:14

Viewpoint

A market force for good Energy Managers Association CEO Lord Redesdale says water deregulation could herald an exciting time for the industry

W

ater deregulation in 2017 could be one of the most exciting marketplaces since the deregulation of electricity and gas.

Most people will disagree with this idea because presently the difference between wholesale and retail price means that there is little if any point in investing much time or effort in changing suppliers.

This would obviously be the case if the market was to be based only on price. However, volume of water is the key. If you could reduce the amount of water you use by 10-20% in a hospital and you had a contract for between five and 10 years, that contract, in theory, could be worth more than £1m pounds.

How complicated would reducing water by that volume be? The answer is simple.

Water efficiency would be based on three interventions: kit; behaviour change; and metering. Because there are only three interventions there is a clear case for this contract to be seen as off balance sheet, an Opex rather than a Capex solution, and very attractive to the public sector.

At present it has been assumed that companies that would be most involved in the retail marketplace would be the retail arms of the water companies that are already in the marketplace. But is this really going to be the case?

As mentioned, the difference between wholesale and retail price is marginal. The real value is in water services.

Not many of the water

56 June/July 2015

If the market is based on volume not price, contracts that aggregate a large number of properties together could be worth millions or even tens of millions of pounds

companies have experience in this marketplace and may rely on customers remaining with the brands they know, as was shown when electricity marketplace was opened up to competition. Consumers show little loyalty if there is a value added proposition on the table.

The major players in the marketplace will quite possibly be FM companies, simply because they could lose business to their competitors if they allow others to take charge of the water element of their contracts. This is not a small marketplace.

A rough estimate is that it is worth about £2.5bn over a fiveyear period with the upgrade in metering creating a possible £5bn marketplace. This estimate is based on costs from the electricity marketplace.

The issue of metering is a reasonably complex area. At present, all fiscal meters are owned by the water companies.

The water companies still seem to believe that they own the data on the meter; however, this is not the case.

Under the Data Protection regulation the customer, who creates the data, owns the data. The water company has a call on the data for billing purposes; however, the customer has first call. Here is the question. If the customer has no access to regular meter readings, in the electricity sector that is half hour readings, is the water company in breach of water regulations?

Up until this point this has not been an issue. There has been no real value in the data.

However, after deregulation there will be value in the data. Will it be acceptable

for water companies not to upgrade meters that supply automated meter readings?

Another interesting point is: who is the customer?

The wholesaler can only sell water in the non-domestic marketplace to a licenced retailer. As this is the case, surely the retailer is the customer. If the retailer has agreed with their customers to handle their data, should not the retailer own the meter as happens in the electricity sector? The meter would have to meet recognised standards but the retailer might introduce high quality AMR meters to allow their customers to monitor and save water. This is important as it is the basis of all efficiencies, knowing how much you are using in the first place.

Deregulation of the marketplace was seen by many as a damp squib. If the market is based on volume not price, contracts that aggregate a large number of properties together could be worth millions or even tens of millions of pounds.

It will only happen if Ofwat creates a marketplace that encourages new entrants but there is a greater price to aim for. Britain is on the road to have real problems with water supply; this will have a major impact on our environment and the cost of water.

Helping businesses to save 10-20% has got to be a good thing. te Lord Redesdale established the Energy Managers Association in February 2012 and it now represents energy managers from companies with a collective energy spend of about £3bn theema.org.uk

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water management

Optimising existing assets Tim McManan-Smith met up with Veolia chief operating officer John Abraham to discuss getting the most out of your assets

T

he water industry is changing through market reform, legislative changes and the pressures of cost, efficient use of resources and carbon reduction. Veolia is reshaping its water business for the future by focusing on service optimisation and introduction of new technology, according to COO John Abraham.

“With our experience in district heating such as the 43km network in Sheffield we are adept at using heat.

We are bringing these concepts in to water such as burning sludge or using biogas. Seafield wastewater treatment works generates 80% of its power needs and it will be 100% next year from burning sludge,” he says.

Biogas-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) technology has enabled Veolia to use renewable power from sewage treatment to generate electricity for wastewater treatment works. The hot water created by the CHP then heats the treatment tanks and speeds up the bacterial digestion of organic matter producing more biogas.

The trend in water is moving away from capital investment and more towards a focus on total cost of ownership.

Operational optimisation will be the key focus for Veolia’s UK water market interests going forward. Ofwat’s recent changes in the regulatory framework and a move towards total expenditure (Totex) will increase incentives for Water companies to focus on operational solutions.

“It’s all about optimising the assets that are already there.

58 June/July 2015

Seafield wastewater treatment works generates 80% of its power needs and it will be 100% next year from burning sludge After privatisation there was a lack of investment in the future and now there needs to be a lot of replacement with the sometimes 100+ year infrastructure,” says Abraham.

Ofwat’s move towards measuring water companies on Totex and customer outcomes during AMP6 is intended to remove the capital bias within the industry and will likely provide a greater incentive for companies to focus on operational solutions which have historically been overlooked. This change in regulatory framework coupled with increasing pressure on shareholder returns through a lower weighted average cost of capital is likely to change the way in which water companies view their investment options and priorities and will create a greater role

for private companies to support in operational delivery suggests Abraham.

Advances in metering and smart networks and increasing resource scarcity will result in emerging opportunities for intelligent operations over the long-term. Technological advances in smart metering and network control, a need to reduce leakage on an aging infrastructure and greater incentives to improve customer service will drive further advancement in network management explains Abraham. “In Lyon, France and in Tidworth in the UK we have a smart water network. Tidworth is used almost as a R&D site, the level of water metering and data acquired has created ‘the smartest water network in the UK’, according to Veolia.

Market reforms The industrial & commercial market will be impacted by market reform providing businesses with choice over their water supply. In 2017, Ofwat plans to introduce a retail market for water and wastewater supply to businesses. A retail market has been operating in Scotland since 2008 for businesses and the developments south of the border will create a £3bn UK market in annual water and waste supply. The Water Bill passed in March 2014 will allow for regulated water companies to exit the Retail business which is likely to drive a level of consolidation across Retail Operations.

Operational optimisation Operational optimisation will be the key focus for Veolia’s UK water market interests going forward. The firm is well placed to capitalise on this change, given its position as a global leader in water and wastewater operations. “We have the proof of concept,” says Abraham, “we also have the capital if needed. We just need to create that market.

There isn’t an optimisation market out there.”

An example of one such target is water losses through the infrastructure. These are currently around 22%; Veolia’s aim is to introduce technologies and provide optimisation services that will actively reduce these losses with a potential reduction in losses to 5%. This corresponds to a potential cost saving to the industry of over nine figures per year. te veolia.co.uk

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tion

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Vacuum and Pressure Solutions for Water and Wastewater Applications Gardner Denver Ltd Claybrook Drive, Washford Industrial Estate Redditch, Worcestershire B98 0DS, UK Tel. 01527 838200 | Fax. 01527 521140

er.uk@gardnerdenver.com www.gd-elmorietschle.com

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water management

Time for some smart thinking Better management of wastewater can have a huge impact on the bottom line. In fact, as Clwyd Jones of Siltbuster Process Solutions (SPS) explains, by changing their thinking and approach, some companies are not only saving money but also making it

O

ne of the ways in which a food company can save money when it comes to its waste treatment, is by finding a way to reduce its Mogden charges. The charges are calculated by a formula comprising: volume; suspended (or in some water companies, settled) solids concentration; and settled chemical oxygen demand (COD). These elements are weighted.

By using the formula and associated tariffs applicable to the local water company, along with information from effluent monitoring at site, savings can be found. For example, a 40% reduction in trade effluent charges may be possible (depending on waste type and local tariffs) by reducing suspended solids by 85% and COD by 50%.

However, companies mustn’t forget to factor in the cost of achieving this reduction.

Some reduction might also be achieved by switching a product mix away from one that makes a disproportionate contribution to Mogden charges. Equally, companies when assessing new products, should weigh-up their effect on effluent volume and characteristics. For example, a jam producer who starts producing pickles will generate a completely different effluent. Unless planned for, the now acidic waste stream could negatively affect the existing treatment process.

Efficiency and efficiency The characteristic of effluent can also impact on the

60 June/July 2015

Over 12 months, the AD facility will generate more than 7 million kWh, which equates to about 2% of the power used on the site

efficiency of a plant. Addressing this can be not just a cost saving exercise but a revenue generator. For instance, we were recently engaged by Ballyrashane Creamery to help it reduce the fat concentration being discharged to the site’s effluent treatment plant .

The high concentration of fat in waste water generated from its milk and cream processing operations made the effluent treatment process less efficient. So it needed a solution for removing the fat, and eliminating its effect on the treatment process.

Ballyrashane Creamery was also keen to see if it could get some benefit from the recovered fat. So we recommended that a dissolved air flotation (DAF) plant be integrated into the existing treatment system. This would ensure a more consistent feed to the plant, with none of the issues previously associated with high fat concentration.

The small footprint DAF units are designed to remove suspended solids and FOGs (fats, oils, greases) from waste water. Micro-fine air bubbles (white water) encourage the fat to float to the surface of the unit, for removal by an automated mechanical scraper. Up to 20m3/hr of waste water is continuously fed through the unit, with removal of the fat making a tremendous difference to the efficiency of the effluent treatment process downstream.

Interestingly, Ballyrashane then used the recovered highly calorific fat as part of its energy strategy, the recovered fat being mixed with other sludges

from the plant, before being pumped to the company’s offsite anaerobic digestion (AD) facility. Over 12 months, the AD facility will generate more than 7 million kWh, which equates to about 2% of the power used on the site.

Plan for seasonal changes Planning for production peaks is another way to minimise costs. Some businesses can be highly seasonal. The inevitable production surge can create big waste treatment issues – and therefore, cost implications.

The answer may be installing temporary equipment during busy periods. For instance, we have seen seasonal companies hire out a packaged DAF plant. This removes solids, fats, oils and grease from wastewater, decreasing the associated chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading on the biological effluent treatment stage by about 30 to 50%.

Alternatively, having a plant with enough ‘headroom’ so it can cope with known seasonal increases is an option. However, problems can still arise with this due to underloading in off peak periods. This can be prevented through a modular plant design with treatment stages brought online or offline as required, or by the plant being artificially fed during the off peak season.

These few examples show that while waste water treatment may seem to be simply a by-product of a production process, in reality, with careful planning, it’s an area for saving or even making money. siltbuster.com

theenergyst.com

‘Connect to better’ concept Wavin has launched a new ‘Connect to Better’ branding concept, which underlines the plumbing and drainage manufacturer’s promise to connect its customers to better technologies, partnerships and solutions whatever their project or challenge.

Wavin has built its reputation on 60 years of high quality and innovation.

To underline everything that Wavin offers for above and below ground projects, Connect to Better highlights six key benefits that customers receive: • innovation • performance • partnership • service • value

• sustainability Wavin combines technologies that deliver greater reliability with faster installations that provide long-term stability.

“Connect to Better gives clear benefits to our customers with Wavin as a single point of contact for above and below ground requirements,” said Wavin marketing communications manager Bex Hartlebury.

“By connecting to better we will solve complex challenges, offer longterm durability with faster installation and find the best solution, whatever our customer’s need.”

Save water.

Save energy.

Save money.

Discover the Cistermiser range of automatic washroom controls

wavin.co.uk

Sensazone Washroom Control Control lights, fans and water with just one system. Smart technology that delivers savings wherever it is used.

WC Flushing No-touch sensor-activated flush technology. A range of systems for both cistern-fed and direct-flush WCs.

DIn plus for pipes, fittings and couplings Hepworth Clay has announced that its products have achieved DIN Plus Certification from DIN CERTCO. DIN CERTCO is the certification organisation of TÜV Rheinland Group and DIN, the German Institute for Standardisation. This certification awarded to Hepworth Clay means that the quality of the company’s vitrified clay pipes, fittings and couplings, surpass the standards set by DIN Plus.

In order to gain DIN Plus Certification, the company’s products had to meet the enhanced test criteria and assessment set by the independent experts being over and above the requirements of EN 295-1

Urinal Flushing Reduce water consumption by up to 80% by installing a cistern control valve to your washroom.

Taps & Spouts

Vitrified clay pipe systems for drains and sewers.

Paul Wydell, Wavin’s product manager – Clayware (above) commented: “This certification mark which is proudly displayed on our pipes demonstrates the quality, efficiency and reliability of our systems justifying specifier and installer confidence to utilise the product for many applications.”

Improve hygiene and reduce water consumption with our range of no-touch sensor taps & spouts.

Call us now on +44 (0) 118 969 1611 or email sales@cistermiser.co.uk for more information about our products

hepworthclay.co.uk

www.cistermiser.co.uk theenergyst.com

Products A chilling tale Demand for green refrigeration is on the rise – that is one of the reasons why Cofely Refrigeration is expanding its existing water-cooled Quantum G chiller series, which uses the refrigerant R1234ze, up to a cooling capacity of 2MW. Later in 2015, Cofely Refrigeration will also be offering an air-cooled Quantum G chiller to complete the range. With the water-cooled Quantum G, Cofely Refrigeration is offering a solution to the rising demand for green refrigeration with a combination of high energy efficiency and the environmentally friendly refrigerant R1234ze. Like the classic Quantum, the Quantum G is also based on oil-free compressor technology.

Air cooled Quantum G available by end of 2015 During the course of 2015, Cofely Refrigeration will expand the Quantum G series with an aircooled Quantum G offering a cooling capacity of up to 1.25MW.

This air-cooled series will also use refrigerant R1234ze, which has a GWP (global warming potential) value of less than 1.

Thanks to this low value, the leak checks usually required under the EU F-Gas Regulation (517/2014) can be waived for the air-cooled Quantum G. As with the water cooled version, a magnetic-bearing centrifugal compressor is also used for the air-cooled Quantum G. Thanks to the position of the magnetic bearing in the compressor shaft, oil does not have to be used at all in the entire refrigerant circuit.

Furthermore, the refrigeration process is optimised by an open flash economiser, as well as the option of free cooling modules, to significantly enhance the energy efficiency ratio. cofely-gdfsuez.co.uk

Biomass boilers support Stroud school

Carbon8 Lighting aiming high LED luminaire specialist Carbon8 Lighting has announced the launch of the Discus range of high bay fittings, which have been specifically designed for use in industrial warehousing and factory areas.

Designed using the latest technology, the Philips LED chip incorporated within the Discus allows for complete stability in a wide range of temperatures, while ensuring that light level deterioration will be minimal during the life of the fitting. The luminaire is also powered using the Meanwell HBG Series power supply that contains built in power factor correction, temperature correction and surge protection to ensure

62 June/July 2015

excellent performance and reliability claims the company.

The Discus range is offered with various power outputs from 70W to 200W. Options include colour temperature, diffuser lens, sensor control, emergency and dimmable; all designed to suit individual needs and provide complete flexibility. In addition the fitting can be upgraded from IP40 to IP65 rating to withstand harsh environmental conditions.

The firm claims that Discus offers excellent performance and reliability at a very competitive price and is covered by Carbon8Lighting’s five-year warranty package which includes compensation cover.

As part of its drive to improve sustainability and reduce carbon emissions, Stroud School in Hampshire has installed Hoval biomass boilers to provide space heating and domestic hot water for the main school building and two new buildings. Installation of the new plant and an associated district heating network was carried out by Accolade Building Services.

“We were using LPG boilers and rather than introduce more LPG for new buildings we decided to look for a more sustainable solution,” recalled the school’s operations manager Keith Goldie.

“Having considered a number of options we chose biomass as being particularly suitable for a rural location while enabling us to take advantage of the Renewable Heat Incentive. It is also something we can use to help educate children about the alternatives to fossil fuels,” he added.

Specified by consulting engineer Henderson Green,

the two 160kW BioLyt biomass boilers, along with two 4000 litre buffer vessels also supplied by Hoval, have been installed in newly created plant rooms in the stable block.

The boilers are served by an external silo storing locally sourced wood pellets.

Craig Beisley of Accolade Building Services explained: “The boilers are linked to a new underground district heating network which supplies low temperature hot water at 80°C to both of the new buildings and also to the main building, Highwood House. In the new buildings the network provides underfloor heating and domestic hot water via heat interface units. hoval.co.uk

carbon8lighting.co.uk

theenergyst.com

Product & Services Directory Contact Robert Gouge Tel 020 3771 1267 Mob 07557 109724 ENERGY METERING & MONITORING SYSTEMS

PuMPING EquIPMENT aNd CONTROlS

IP67 rated temperature sensors

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Water Pressure Booster Sets Pressurisation Units Water Storage Solutions Tank Level and Temperature Controls Other products include Hydraulic Shock Control, Pressure Vessels and a Bespoke Design Service

Head Office: 01206 215121 Manchester: 0161 226 4727

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CalIBRaTION SERVICES

One of the main problems with temperature sensors is the ingress of moisture which can seriously affect the sensor performance – the weakest point often being the lead/sensor interface.

So ATC Semitec offers the AT-11 series of TPE encapsulated sensors where the leads and sensor are made from the same material. This creates a waterproof barrier which is rated to IP67 and

can operate upto 105°C. These cost-effective sensors ensure absolute integrity when used in outdoor locations (e.g. heat pumps) as well as in under-floor heating and other HVAC applications.

Accurate to ±0.3°C at 25°C and rated to 3kV, the AT-11 sensors offer peace of mind in applications where moisture ingress has previously been a problem. atcsemitec.co.uk

Destratification helps ‘costly to heat’ premises TrustFord, the world’s largest, dedicated Ford dealer group, is installing Airius Destratification Fan Systems as part of its new car showroom build initiative.

The installation also comes as part of a major refit programme, which involves replacing old A/C units.

Most car showrooms have a common design of high ceilings and glass walls which

are notoriously costly to heat, in turn creating poor internal environmental conditions for both staff and customers.

TrustFord has invested in Airius fans, which solve these issues by balancing temperatures within the showrooms and constantly maintaining the required temperature at floor level, as well as reducing heating costs.

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Rotronic purpose-built UKAS calibration laboratory.

Fast turnaround times and competitive prices ROTRONIC INSTRUMENTS LTD Tel: 01293 571000

Email: instruments@rotronic.co.uk www.rotronic.co.uk

airius.co.uk

To feature your company’s products or services on these pages call Robert Gouge on 020 3771 1267 or 07557 109724

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June/July June/July 20152015 63 63

Product & Services Directory Contact Robert Gouge Tel 020 3771 1267 Mob 07557 109724 aIR CONdITIONING

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June/July 2015

65

Q&A

Tim Riley Energy Assets Group’s head of marketing on punk rock, the assination of JFK and playing professional football for Sheffield United Who would you least like to share a lift with? Why? Tony Blair. His “New Labour” term was full of lies, misrepresentation and misguided economics and caused loss of life for unsupported rhetoric.

Socialist? Not someone my old man would have trusted and now being rewarded and paid handsomely for public service – unbelievable.

You’re God for the day. What’s the first thing you do?

Make the sun shine in a brilliant blue sky from 7am in the morning until at least 10am so we all start our working day with a dose of vitamin D that invigorates and gets the creative juices flowing.

If you could travel back in time to a period in history, what would it be and why?

Easy. 1976 and be old enough to have followed the Sex Pistols and be part of something that changed our music forever and more importantly to have been in the audience on 4 June 1976 at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester to say I was there...

Who or what are you enjoying listening to?

My music tastes are so eclectic, ranging from punk through to Northern Soul.

Depends on the mood I’m in. The tune I revert back to for uplifting is Move on Up by Curtis Mayfield as it’s something I sung badly to the kids when putting them to bed when they were

66 June/July 2015

a childhood should be full of honest, innocent adventure in our wonderful countryside.

younger. I suppose Paul Weller to be cheesy has been “the soundtrack to my life”, from my first single purchase aged 12 in July 1977 of the Jam’s All Around The World.

What unsolved mystery would you like the answers to?

The assassination of JFK. Mesmerised by Oliver Stone’s biopic I hang onto every conspiracy article I can. I luckily caught a travelling JFK exhibition in Pittsburgh on an afternoon off – the artefacts, videos, stills and facts hooked me in.

What would you take to a desert island and why?

Bear Grylls. Got stories to tell, he can make a shelter, make fire and catch dinner. I could boil the water....Once we have eaten he can leave by boat and come back the next day and do it all over again whilst I top up the tan..

What’s your favourite book and why?

Oh so many but I guess one that has stayed with me and now both kids have read it, is Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Escapism and how

If you could perpetuate a myth about yourself, what would it be?

That I turned down a professional football contract from Sheffield United as the lure of marketing gas control equipment was just too much.

What would your super power be and why?

Duplication. The ability to create physical duplicates of oneself. This way I can create someone to do the work for Energy Assets while I head off to St Bees on the Northumberland coast and attempt Wainwrights Coast To Coast.

What would you do with a million pounds?

Buy a house overlooking Crantock beach in Cornwall on the Gannel.

What’s your greatest extravagance?

Last year I was derided by the family for spending a substantial sum on a pan for Glastonbury that charged my iPhone while boiling water for my morning cuppa. Who was laughing at the end as the queue to charge their phones was out the bell tent.

If you were blessed with any talent, what would your dream job be and why?

Play no 10 for Sheffield United just like my hero Tony Currie,

who was the most gifted footballer I have ever seen. I would bring back to the team his mantra of creativity, flair, goal scoring and be a maverick just like him and take us to the promised land away from the drudgery of the First Division.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Get out while you can.

What irritates you the most in life?

Standing still. Businesses need to evolve, we need characters that create this environment and the empowerment of staff to take those steps, without it we stagnate.

What should the energy users be doing to help itself in the current climate?

Look at technology to change human behaviour. Energy users are awash with consumption data and still rely on employee initiatives to reduce usage. We need to tie consumption to control and do it simply with ROI by better use of what is out there. It does exist and doesn’t need to be an expensive BMS – just look.

What’s the best thing – work wise – that you did recently?

We have taken LYNKswitch, a product that has been on the drawing board for 10 years plus, as part of a company acquisition and made it a reality and a hub of the newly launched Energy Assets MU&C service. This will make a real difference to energy users in the years to come. te

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