NEWS DECC HQ SLASHES ENERGY USE T
he Department for Energy and Climate Change has been awarded a new, improved Display Energy Certificate (DEC) rating of ’C’ for its headquarters
building.
A DEC is measure of the energy efficiency of a building, which is rated on a scale of A to G, with A being the most efficient and G being the least.
On moving into 3 Whitehall Place in Autumn 2008, the building had a ‘G’ rating. Since then DECC has made improving its energy efficiency and carbon emissions a priority, including the publication of its first ever Carbon Management Plan in July 2011. Greg Barker, Minister of State for Climate Change said:
“The new higher DEC rating of “C” represents a great achievement for the Department over the last four years. Only 23% of commercial buildings are rated C or above. “Since 2008, the Department has cut its energy consumption by 60% and slashed carbon emissions by half. This is even more impressive when you consider that staff numbers in the building have risen since DECC took it on. With the right commitment, large organisations can make a big difference to their overheads and to their environmental impact, and DECC’s achievement is proof of that.
“Based on current energy prices, we estimate to have saved around £156,000 in 2011/12 on energy bills as a result of the savings achieved, and expect to see even higher savings in 2012/13.”
The Department has mainly achieved its new and improved rating through various building management projects, including:
• the introduction of more occupancy controls on lighting in the building:
• the installation of intelligent boiler load optimisation control units to two gas-fired boilers and;
• the installation of variable speed drives to supply fans.
The new DEC rating runs out in July 2013. In order to maintain this rating, there are a number of energy saving projects planned for the coming year that are estimated to shave a further 4% of the footprint of 3 Whitehall Place. To find out more about our carbon saving projects planned until March 2015, please refer to DECC’s revised Carbon Management Plan:
www.decc.gov.uk/media/viewfile.ashx?filetype=4&file path=11/tackling-climate-change/saving-energy- co2/5927-decc-carbon-management- plan.pdf&minwidth=true Two other sustainability reports published on the DECC website include: • DECC Estate Emissions Reduction: Projects and Achievements Document, which sets out the emissions savings DECC has made to date, and the approach taken to achieve them.
• Greening Government Commitments (GGC) - DECC Performance 2011/12. GGCs are the Government’s commitments for delivering sustainable operations and procurement for the current parliament. This document summarises DECC’s performance against the GGC targets for the 2011/12 financial year.
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Carbon Trust Wales consultant, DIO’s Utility Management Bureau Service designed and developed the tool to monitor individual sites’ performance against the MOD’s Greening Government targets. These 2015 targets aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared to 2009 levels. The new target is to reduce by 25% estate related non-operational greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 from a 2009/10 base year. Mike Batt, Manager of Carbon Trust Wales, commented: “This case proves the importance of a solid monitoring and targeting system to larger organisations with multiple sites to analyse. The new system will allow the MOD to focus its efforts by consolidating and continuing to build on its already impressive green credentials.”
The reporting tool has been developed with two formats – an overview Carbon Management Report and a Matrix Summary report – each of which has different practical uses.
The Carbon Management Report allows the MOD to monitor and report individual sites’ performances against the Greening Government emissions target. It will also allow the MOD to forecast future consumption, which assists with setting and managing utility budgets. The accuracy of this reporting is helped by taking in account variations in consumption usage and being able to input variables such as changes in utility unit prices and carbon emission factors into the tool. It will also allow the MOD to forecast future
consumption, which assists with setting and managing
utility budgets. The accuracy of this reporting is helped by being able to input variables such as changes in utility unit prices and carbon emission factors into the tool.
The Matrix Summary report is automatically linked to the Carbon Management Report. It presents all the pertinent monitoring information covering each site on a summary sheet. Because it is impractical to try and continually monitor every MOD site constantly a colour coded exception line highlights any areas where there are issues for remedial actions to be undertaken. The Monitoring and
Targeting tool was trialled at five MOD sites across Wales – including Castlemartin, Dering Lines, Sennybridge and RAF Valley – and the pilot programme is now being extended to include the 33
sites with the highest carbon emissions across the UK. Eventually the Carbon
Performance Report will be rolled out to cover 160 of MODs highest energy consuming sites. The DIO Utility Management Bureau Service team were chosen to assist with the development of the reporting tool because of its commendable track record for overseeing the performance of energy saving projects. The five Welsh sites are progressing well towards meeting their Greening Government targets by 2015. Reports in March 2012 showed that they have reduced their carbon
emissions by 3,857 t/CO2 since 2009, which is a 14.8% reduction.
www.carbontrust.co.uk/ wales.
www.mod.uk/DIO PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 2 ISSUE 6 13
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