8.5 ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Description

Energy efficiency remains the cheapest form of greenhouse gas abatement in many situations, and it is recommended that energy use be cost-effectively minimised so that sizing and investment in solar and batteries is optimised. This is reflected in MidCoast Council’s past and continuing efforts to manage energy efficiently as described in Section 5.3. The following is a summary of the identified energy efficiency opportunities at Council sites:

• Lighting: office/indoor lighting is progressively being upgraded to LED technology. A prominent example of the potential is LED upgrades to

Council’s administration offices in Gloucester, and the Taree Library.

Lighting with medium to high utilisation can be cost-effectively upgraded to LED, while low use facilities can be upgraded to LED when lamps fail.

Lighting controls can also be considered when retrofitting lights to LED. • Lighting: residential (P1 & P2) and main road (Category V) streetlights are owned by Essential Energy accounting for a total of 7,957 lights across

Council. Council has recently replaced 5,369 lights to LED through Essential

Energy resulting in estimated savings of 1,003 MWh/annum. Additional future replacements are likely to save a further 1,134 MWh/annum by replacing the remaining 2,457 streetlights. • Swimming pool motor VSD controls: most recirculating pumps are fixed speed-controlled, in some cases reflecting older pools where achieving required water turnover requires pumps to run at full load. There may be opportunities to review the potential for VSD control at some pools where required water turnover rates are being achieved. • Design: Several WTP and STP are due for re-design in the future and Council should ensure that energy efficiency is incorporated into the design of these facilities. For example, Council has moved its main administration offices in Taree and Forster to a new centralised building in Taree (Yalawanyi Ganya) and incorporated energy efficient design into the new premises which will minimise lifetime costs for energy.

• WTP, SPS and STP motor VSD controls: most large pumps at Council are already VSD controlled, and council can continue to work towards optimising efficiency of blowers, pumps etc as part of its operations. • STP UV Treatment: UV-LED technology has recently been trialled by UK company United Utilities. The company is trialling technology created by

UK start-up company Typhon which claims to reduce energy costs by up to 90% compared to traditional bulbs. Council would look to upgrade if/when appropriate technology is available. • Air Conditioning / HVAC: except for office buildings and aquatic centres air conditioning is estimated to be a low proportion of energy demand. The main opportunities are to implement effective controls for existing plant, to specify energy-efficient replacement plant including packaged air conditioning, pool heating / conditioning systems, multi-unit splits and individual split systems, to design energy efficiency into new HVAC system,

Scope for abatement

and to implement effective passive conditioning measures such as insulation and shading. Efficiency plans and budgeting will be informed by regular auditing of facilities and equipment, and by operational budget and Delivery Program planning that considers projects that will continuously reduce Council’s energy footprint. The scope for energy efficiency across Council’s sites is estimated to be around 2,458 MWh per year, equal to more than 8.9% of current electricity demand. Around 7.4% of this potential is associated with upgrading all streetlights to LED.

While energy savings potential is significant, the design and construction of new facilities such as buildings and treatment plants may see increases in energy demand as well, even where these new facilities are energy efficient. Hence the net savings potential is likely to be less than 8.9% of current energy use.

Risks and mitigation

Costs and benefits

The risks associated with energy efficiency upgrades are generally low provided business cases, specification and contractor management processes are robust. Some of the main risks and mitigants will include: • Designing effective measurement and verification at an affordable cost that provides useful feedback about the success of projects • Persistence of energy savings – it is not uncommon, particularly for education initiatives and control settings to lapse in their performance and be changed back to poor practices or inefficient settings, and providing resources to sustain energy savings is also important

• Regular review processes for energy management is important. For example, design guidelines and procurement guidelines should stay at the level of development of new technologies, practices and services

Refer to Appendix A for the table of indicative costs and savings for energy efficiency for Council-operated sites.