Produced in Association with SERIES 21 / Module 09 Energy as a Service


Think of energy as a service


James Brittain, director of the Discovery Mill and freelance energy consultant


B


ack in the late 1980s, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in the US first used the term ‘Negawatt’. The story


goes that he spotted a misprint in a utilities report and coined the term to describe the unit of power saved through energy conservation and energy ef ficiency activities, non- consumed (negative) MWs1. His premise was that this one concept could drive the change required to reduce our dependence on consuming excessive amounts of energy within our society. There is still so much opportunity


to reduce energy consumption today, particularly since energy prices have dramatically increased. The Carbon Trust has been saying for years that most organisations still waste at least 20 to 30% of the energy they buy. Many energy systems are still left ‘on’ most of the time to maximise service availability or for perceived better reliability. Engineers designing energy systems naturally err on the side of caution in their assumptions about operations, perceptions and behaviours, which means they often over-provide. For example, it has been found that UK buildings consume two or three times more energy than their equivalents in Melbourne, Australia, where the best buildings are using five or six times less energy than the UK average2. This inevitably means there is often


For details on how to obtain your Energy Institute CPD Certificate, see ENTRY FORM and details on page 20


EIBI | APRIL 2024


significant avoidable energy waste across our facilities and operations. This is much more widespread than most people think. Whether this situation stems from our energy supply models, design approaches, historic low energy prices or other barriers, our progress to be more efficient has been hindered. Somewhere along the line, energy and service have become disconnected. Amory Lovins’ point is that


customers want energy services such as lighting, heating, hot water, cooling,


entertainment, etc, rather than buying kWhs of energy. By concentrating on the overall service, the focus for energy then is shifted to delivering better overall value for the customer rather than just managing energy supply and consumption in isolation by itself. Focusing on continually better


energy service productivity is what generates the Negawatts that Amory Lovins visualised. If we get this right, this can bring about large social, economic and environmental benefits for both our organisations and our society. For the last 35 years, followers of Amory Lovins have been dreaming of a Negawatt revolution worth Gigabucks.


Delivering best value In its simplest form, Energy as a service (EaaS) is a philosophy that re-orientates an approach to energy management to focus on service and delivering best value. Partnering up with specialist energy service partners can help organisations enhance their energy management strategies, reduce avoidable energy waste, upgrade energy service assets, accelerate energy efficiency programmes and deliver large energy savings at scale. At its most extreme, EaaS can mean


an energy services company (ESCO) is providing specialist energy services, without the consumer needing to own the service systems or pay for the direct operational costs of those services, including energy. To understand the concept of


energy as a service a change in mindset is required. It doesn’t have to be complicated. This CPD article aims to explain the concept as well as give an overview of how approaches are applied in practice. Learning objectives include the following:


● understand the drivers for energy as a service


● explain total service life cost and value


● identify ways to partner with specialist service providers


● review key aspects to consider when setting up an energy services contract


The time has come The time for the Negawatt revolution is now. Pressures to reduce consumption have never been so strong including: ● we have increasing urgency to deliver our climate change goals (UN 2023 report);


● the UK’s Net Zero Strategy (2021) includes reducing emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037, compared to a 2017 baseline;


● we are ‘Powering Up Britain’ to enhance the country’s energy security, reduce high energy prices and deliver on our 2050 Net Zero commitment, all at the same time;


● increasing pressure on our infrastructure from electrification of heating, transport, etc, is also likely to lead to even higher energy prices in the long-run unless we significantly reduce our existing consumption. Many in the industry, like Amory


Lovins, have been arguing for years that we already have the technology and approaches to deliver huge savings across our economy. Many organisations have demonstrated savings in the range 10 to 30% by exploiting efficiency measures such as lighting, behaviour change, building system controls and optimisation, upgrades in motors and drives, etc. Most programmes pay back on


Produced in Association with


EIBI | OCTOBER 2022


17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36