Produced in Association with SERIES 24 / Module 03 The Business Case for Energy Management


In many cases this leads to it being overridden/disabled by fitters placing it ‘in hand’. It isn’t uncommon for at least one-third of the BMS at many organisations to be disabled as working ‘in hand’, at which point you’ve lost many opportunities to provide comfort to occupants and to achieve energy savings. The fan law shows just how sensitive


energy consumption is to control settings. It states that the energy used by a fan or a pump, such as in heating and ventilation systems, which represent a large portion of energy bills, is related to the cube of the speed. In other words, doubling the speed of a fan or pump results in eight times the energy consumption (2x2x2=8). Conversely, halving the speed is nearly a 90% energy saving (0.5 x0.5 x0.5 = 12.5% of the energy use remains, i.e. an 87.5% saving). Hence the very high level of impact of leaving parts of the BMS ‘in hand’. Recent visits to a large plantroom


for a London-based University showed that all air handling units in that zone had been left running ‘in hand’ for over 3 years. This disabled the BMS control and it was estimated that this failure cost the University around £50,000


per year, or £150,000 over the three years, in unnecessary and easily avoided energy costs. 9. What FUNDING opportunities


are available to your organisation? There are many diverse funding opportunities available in the form of grants, low cost loans, or ‘no win no fee’ energy savings services. With an appropriately resourced energy team, you’ll be well placed to track and make the most of these. Here are two examples of the sorts


of funding that your Energy Manager can seek out: ● AG Barr plc won a grant for £2,181,664 from the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) for energy efficiency and decarbonisation of industrial processes through heat pump technology. https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/industrial-energy- transformation-fund-ietf- competition-winners


● Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was awarded a grant of £4.2m to install an 11,000-panel solar farm, saving them about £250,000 a month in energy bills. https://www.england.


nhs.uk/greenernhs/ whats-already-happening/ harnessing-solar-power-at-hull- university-teaching-hospitals-nhs- trust/


10. What LEADERSHIP


opportunities are available to your organisation? Finally, looking beyond best practice, many organisations are building upon their ISO systems of 9001 for quality, 45001 for safety, and 14001 for environment, by extending them into ISO 50001 for energy. Doing so offers many benefits, such as delivering competitive advantage and cost reduction, new business via enhanced tender returns/meeting customer requirements, enhanced reputation, employee engagement, regulatory compliance and risk management, increased efficiency and significant contributions to net zero targets. An example of how this leadership


approach can help foster progress and investment is that one requirement of ISO 50001 is to appraise energy costs on a lifecycle basis. This is a significant improvement, as things that are cheap to buy tend to be expensive to run. A good energy manager with basic engineering knowledge can make


an estimate of lifecycle costs and should be able to add significant value to the discussion by helping their organisation: ● save money ● support investment in new equipment


● improve reliability ● reduce carbon emissions and ● open up discussions about savings available by implementing demand- led control. Hopefully the ten questions


explored here can help you identify the opportunities that proactive energy management can offer your organisation. Hopefully it is also clear how important it is to have an appropriately sized energy management team, with the relevant experience and knowledge that is located within the right part of your organisation. Remember that it is very hard to


stay still. The opportunity cost of not committing to this approach won’t be nothing, it will be steadily rising energy costs and compliance risks. Whereas a suitably sized and appropriately staffed energy team will deliver ongoing savings and continuous improvement year on year.


Produced in Association with


EIBI | SEPTEMBER 2026


23


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