NEWS UPDATE ENERGY EFFICIENCY New Appointments


● Looking to strengthen its provision of energy transition solutions, AGGREKO has appointed Alan Dunne as its new MD for the UK and Ireland. Alan, who first joined the company in 2014, brings 30 years of commercial experience to the role and will be tasked with developing strategic partnerships with customers in the region to deliver flexible energy solutions and help to balance their commercial goals with net zero targets.


● The new vice president of research & development at DISTECH CONTROLS is John Sublett. Prior to joining the Distech Controls leadership team, John was vice president & chief technology officer of products and solutions at Resideo. He has additionally held roles as vice president of software platforms, engineering and technology and vice president of technology at Honeywell, as well as chief technology officer at Tridium.


● UK solar technology specialist NAKED ENERGY has announced the appointment of Chris Strange as its new partnership business development lead. Chris has over 20 years of experience in the energy efficiency and decarbonisation sector, and has previously held senior positions at Honeywell, Schneider Electric and Engie. Before joining Naked Energy he spent six years as the decarbonisation director at Mitie Energy.


● The RO GROUP has announced the appointment of Tom Sater as its new head of energy. Tom will be based at the company’s Potters Bar office and will work across the Group’s extensive land and property portfolio to address climate change challenges and energy consumption. One of the main goals of the company is to further build on its reputation for successful large scale ground mounted solar developments.


● The heating control systems specialist PREFECT CONTROLS has appointed Will Mills as its new managing director. Will joined the company in 2018 and was appointed commercial director in the summer of last year. Will’s appointment follows the retirement of the company’s founders, Glen and Sue Golding, who will continue to keep an eye on the business as chair and vice-chair, respectively.


08


Energy costs worse for poorly insulated households


As the UK enters the fourth year of the gas crisis, international prices remain volatile, meaning these prices are estimated to rise again in 2025, such that a typical household will pay £600 more over 12 months than before the gas crisis. This would result in average extra household energy costs of around £4,000 in total over the four years of the crisis, compared with the four years before the gas crisis. However, households living in homes with worse than


average energy efficiency have been facing even higher costs. Under Ofgem’s price cap from 1 October 2024, gas bills in homes with poor insulation, rated band F on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) scale, will be on average around £330 (around 50% more) worse off a year than homes at the government’s target for home energy efficiency of EPC band C, new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has found. When gas and electricity are taken together, the worst rated homes will cost around £630 (around 40%) more than EPC band C homes. While households living with the worst energy efficiency are facing the highest bills, even those in a more typical


home, EPC band D, are facing overall bills of around £230 (15%) more than if they had been upgraded to the government’s target of band C. Jess Ralston, energy analyst at the ECIU, says: “Fixing up the stalling insulation schemes is a no brainer that could see bills lowered in the immediate term. It remains to be seen whether there will be further support added for vulnerable pensioners who will now be missing out on the £300 Winter Fuel payment.” At times over the last decade, insulation rates have been


95% lower than their peak of 2.3 million measures per year in 2012. In 2023 just 295,000 energy efficiency measures were installed across multiple government programmes, around 85% lower than in 2012.


Council backtracks on heat pump requirement


The only Green Party-controlled housing authority in Britain has reversed an initial planning decision which required a large housing estate developer to make heat pumps available. In 2023 Babergh and Mid Suffolk


Council granted house builders Crest Nicholson permission to build a 9.1 hectare estate of 258 new homes in Stowmarket, 90 of which would be social housing. The Council had stipulated that “all dwellings within the development shall include air source heat pump installations as a paid-for option for purchasers at initial sale


Data centres putting strain on


energy resources Irish electricity consumption in data centres has risen from just 5% of the total generated in 2015 to 21% last year, according to the Dublin Central Statistics Office (CSO), statistics which reveal just how much strain data centre expansion can place upon electricity systems. CSO figures show the energy


consumed by the centres eclipsed the amount used by urban households in 2023, which accounted for 18% of total metered electricity consumption. Rural households accounted for 10%. Quarterly metered electricity


consumption by data centres increased steadily from 290 gigawatt


stage”. It instructed the developer to “maintain a register of installation requests for each dwelling plot, as it becomes available for occupation”. This, the Council stated, was “to


utilise air source heat pumps as an energy resource, in order to promote and secure sustainable development”. However, Crest Nicholson sought


to appeal against this requirement, maintaining that it went beyond local powers to override minimum government requirements, under the National Planning Policy Framework and Building Regulations.


Rather than facing the developer


in court, the Council has decided to unilaterally withdraw any requirement for heat pumps to be offered in any of the new homes. Instead they will be fuelled by traditional gas central heating.


Whilst it is anticipated that the new


government may soon outlaw such boiler installations in new homes, given that construction work has begun, there can be no requirement that any of the Stowmarket homes will include heat pumps during the entire development phase, up to 2027.


requirements hinders the ability to move away from fossil fuel-powered generation as demand grows faster than renewable sources of power can be brought online. Created to house computer storage systems, these centres are expected to account for 27% of all electricity demand by 2028. The Irish Climate Action Plan


hours in the first quarter of 2015 to 1,661 gigawatt hours in the fourth quarter of 2023, a jump of 473%, the Office said.


The findings come amid an


increasingly heated debate about data centres, their energy demands and whether playing host to so many of them runs counter to government climate policy. The concern is that the rapid increase in the sector’s energy


commits the government to review its policies on data centre growth to keep it in line with emissions, efficiency and renewable energy targets. The CSO figures indicated that total


metered Irish electricity consumption was 30,600 gigawatt hours in 2023, an increase of 2.5% compared with 2022. Large energy users with “very high consumption” – a group that includes data centres – accounted for 30% of that total, now exceeding the combined total of urban and rural households.


EIBI | SEPTEMBER 2024


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