RetailT
echnology
MATALAN INSTALLS WIRELESS ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Technology designed, installed and
commissioned by Wireless Energy Management Systems (WEMS) International is paying significant dividends for retail giant Matalan. The specialist provider’s web-enabled wireless
building energy management system (BEMS) is being installed at 206 of Matalan’s 216-store estate. Impressive average energy savings of 18% are reported from a recent measure taken across 141 completed stores, while the annual financial saving is estimated at £668,676. Like most modern businesses, a key driver
and strategy for Matalan is energy reduction. Combined with the regulatory pressures of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the company embarked on a ‘switch it off ’ campaign as the basic first step in better managing its energy use. Around the same time, the management team began to scrutinise more closely the company’s energy data. This led to some wiring changes and the replacement of high-bay lighting with more efficient T5 lighting. Another key requirement to emerge from this
scrutiny was for a more robust level of control over environmental comfort, varying levels of lighting and electromechanical equipment. With the Matalan estate registering a combined energy cost of over £12 million per year, energy consultants Inenco suggested the company consider the UK-manufactured WEMS International wireless system to avoid the installation disruption of wired alternatives. Matalan decided to implement WEMSystem at five trial stores. At the end of the trial phase in
www.retailtechnology.co.uk Matalan store front
May 2012, the company was suitably convinced that a full roll out would deliver significant savings. Obviously such an investment must compete with other important capital projects, but with “incredibly sharp payback periods” of up to only seven months, justification was straightforward. Another phase of 35 stores commenced immediately, before the final phase of the remaining stores now nears completion. The ‘WEMSystem’ directly controls and
monitors Matalan’s lighting, heating and cooling plant, removing the possibility of human error and minimising waste energy. This incorporates sales area lighting, back-of-house lighting, external lighting, air handling units (AHUs), over-door heaters, gas-fired heaters, split air conditioning units and electric panel heaters. Among the innovations at Matalan, is a
wireless key switch to ensure a minimal overnight base load with regard to lighting. When the keyswitch is unset, WEMSystem enables a level of lighting adequate for stocking and cleaning prior to the store opening. Modulating control also oversees any heating or cooling actuators and dampers with regard to the AHUs, while gas-fired heaters are manipulated on a trading time versus temperature dead band basis. This means that when the stock temperature drops to a level 2°C below the set point, the heating is activated to heat the room back to the required temperature. Aside from energy savings and carbon
reduction, Matalan was also attracted to WEMSystem because the technology costs were around 40-50% less than a conventional
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