ENERGY & UTILITIES
Everything to gain from gain-share funding
Bob Wilson, director of Anglian Water Business, explains how public bodies can get help to make savings, freeing up resources to be invested elsewhere.
T
hese are tough times for public sector organisations across the country, as they
face mounting pressure to make financial savings. Set against the backdrop of a growing population, public bodies are having to find ways to do more with less.
We’ve been helping customers to do exactly that – by finding ways to reduce their water use and decouple growth from consumption. And by developing an innovative approach to funding, we’ve allowed customers to invest in water efficiency measures without any upfront costs.
Spotlight on education
The Local Government Association recently warned that councils have had to fill a £1bn shortfall in new school places funding, using money that had been earmarked for building and maintenance projects. Norfolk is no exception – with plans for over 4,000 extra school places within the next four years, it’s unclear whether the funding received from the Department for Education will be enough. Fortunate then that the local authority has been making great strides in reducing its utilities costs.
It was during last year’s World Water Day that Norfolk County Council pledged to reduce its water consumption by 15% over four years. This followed a ‘baselining’ study, where we reviewed water and wastewater consumption at 800 of the council’s premises to provide a better understanding of what savings could be achieved and to create a benchmark for improvements.
The baselining exercise flagged two schools as particularly high water users – one in Norwich
50 | public sector executive Oct/Nov 14
and one in King’s Lynn. Since schools account for 77% of the council’s total water use, helping them to make savings will be crucial for meeting the 15% target.
The two schools were prioritised for closer investigation and fitted with smart meters to provide a more detailed picture of water use. The smart meters revealed overnight usage at both sites, indicating a leak or faulty equipment. Having recently undergone extensive renovation at their site, the King’s Lynn school found it hard to know how much water they should now be using, which is where our expertise came in handy. On investigation, a leak was found and quickly repaired, saving over half their annual water bill.
A helping hand for a Norwich school
For the school in Norwich, things were not so straightforward. As a first step we sent in a specialist assessor to undertake a water efficiency audit. We found there was little that could be done to save water from fixtures and fittings, but there must be a substantial underground leak somewhere on site.
The next step was to send in our leakage team during the school holidays to identify the culprit. The school was now facing a hefty repair bill – a bill they could not afford to foot. Keen to help the school fix the leak quickly, we came up with an innovative approach that would allow them to do this without any upfront costs – problem solved.
An innovative approach
Through our ‘gain-share’ scheme we paid the upfront costs of the repair work, which will later be recouped through the savings achieved.
This scheme allows customers to benefit from a reduction in water charges without having to invest any capital.
Once the leak was isolated we saw an immediate drop in consumption of about 90%. Next we sent in our repair team, who fixed the damaged section of pipework whilst at the same time finding and fixing a smaller leak elsewhere on site. This looks set to reduce the school’s annual water bill by around 80%.
And there were further savings to be had. With the school’s lower consumption, we advised that they could switch tariffs, saving even more.
A win-win
Although Anglian Water Business operates nationally, the company originates in East Anglia – the driest part of the country and an area with higher than average population growth – so we’ve learnt a lot about water efficiency over the years. Now we can share that experience with our customers.
It’s thanks to the work Anglian Water has done, such as reducing leaks on the supply network, and thanks to our water efficient customers, that this year we became the first water company to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for Water. It just goes to show that it’s really in our best interests – as well as our customers best interests – to use as little of our product as possible.
Bob Wilson
FOR MORE INFORMATION W:
www.anglianwater.co.uk/business/
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