Rocketing energy prices and hyperinflation hit all organisations hard in 2022, but the savviest organisations made use of smart energy technologies and data intelligence to gain cost and carbon advantage.
As an added bonus, these organisations improved energy security and operational resilience, while unlocking revenue opportunities from energy assets.
In this blog, we explore the four key ways in which our customers have benefited from sustainable energy management in 2022.
The cheapest, lowest carbon unit of energy is the one you don't use. That's why we saw customers double down on energy efficiency to ease the sting of higher energy bills in 2022.
By taking a data-driven approach to efficiency – using Internet of Things (IoT) energy insights technology – our customers took energy efficiency much further. They gained complete 360O vision of their site-wide energy use – right down to a process and equipment level. In this way they uncovered hidden opportunities to address energy waste and make big operational savings.
By attaching wireless IoT sensors to energy intensive assets at a circuit level and using our PowerRadar™ system to analyse and visualise that captured data, they could understand how, when and where they're using energy across their entire site or multiple sites.
Anomalies picked up by the energy analytics software identified deep-lying faults in equipment or weaknesses in operational performance - leading to big savings. Predictive alerts were also activated to identify and address potential equipment failures even before they happened. This led to reduced downtime, increased productivity and longer asset life.
Plastcoat, a division of Magna International, is using our advanced analytics to save nearly £1.6 million on its annual energy bill, while also improving predictive maintenance, operational efficiency and productivity.
Our technology is also enabling textile manufacturer Pincroft to dramatically reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. With a payback on investment in just 3 months, the project cut weekend energy spend by 94% and weekday energy spend by 29% and is forecast to deliver annual CO2 savings of 648 tonnes.
Altex Group is using our IoT energy insights solution to reduce CO2 emissions by 53,553 tons, while also cutting energy costs by 8%.
Onsite solar provided sunny relief from soaring energy bills for many of our customers in 2022 - also helping them accelerate their net zero goals.
With falling technology costs and higher energy prices, the return on investment for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects increased by around a third during the year.
Our customers made use of unused space on rooftops or spare land to site their solar panels and lock in long-term renewable energy cost savings over the technology's 25+ year lifespan.
Among many water companies that are using solar power to reach net zero, we worked with Affinity Water to generate nearly 1MW of renewable energy by installing solar panels at its Chertsey production site.
We're also installing more than 300 rooftop solar panels as part of our £4.7 million energy upgrade at Hereford County Hospital.
We installed 4,248 solar panels at the British Army's Defence School of Transport, which together with four other solar projects, is expected to achieve annual savings of £1 million and 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Construction has also begun on our 18MW solar farm in Wiltshire – the first of many in Centrica Energy Assets' net zero plan to build a 900MW portfolio of solar and battery storage by 2026.
Linking solar with battery storage systems can deliver even greater cost and carbon reduction by maximising solar utilisation and optimising energy use via peak power avoidance and Demand Side Response strategies, which can unlock flexibility revenues.
Over the past 12 months our Centrica Energy Assets team has partnered with Push Energy to roll out grid scale solar energy projects across the UK.
High efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) helped to ease the pain of higher energy prices for organisations across the public and private sector.
During the past 12 months we've seen a payback on investment within 1-2 years and our customers reduced their energy costs by as much as 40%. These organisations are protecting their budgets from market volatility, while reducing their dependence on the grid.
Some customers have further increased financial savings by using CHP to load shift energy consumption for peak power avoidance and to drive flexibility revenues from Demand Side Response.
How customers are saving money
Our CHP solution for pharmaceutical manufacturer Accord Healthcare's Fawdon site is reducing electricity spend by 10% and operating at 80% efficiency. Even higher cost savings are forecast at the end of our 5-year zero cost capital & maintenance financing agreement.
We've installed CHP as part of integrated sustainable energy upgrades across many NHS Trusts. Among them, London St George's Hospital is reducing energy costs by £1m per year and Whiston Hospital is cutting its yearly energy spend by £500k.
Our CHP partnership with a leading UK supermarket group is saving £1.28 million in annual energy costs, while Alton Towers has cut its energy bills by 12%.
By cogenerating heat and power, automotive supplier Continental is able to reduce its reliance on the national electricity grid and ensure production resilience – creating many financial benefits, as well as a reducing carbon emissions by 14%.
Many customers are reinvesting cost savings from CHP in sustainable energy projects with a longer return on investment. This is enabling them to make a cost effective and affordable transition to net zero.
As the UK’s leading supplier and operator of CHP units, we're developing a 20% blended hydrogen solution across a wide range of engines – with the switch achievable through minor changes to parts and software. Additional tests are being conducted in the 20-40% range. From 2024 we aim to supply 100% hydrogen fuelled CHPs via our partnership with MTU.
Despite fast payback on investment in CHP and solar, organisations don't always have the available capital. We are able to offer a number of flexible financing options, including wider costs, such as maintenance.
Power Purchase agreements on solar projects may also be available. For example, as part of our longstanding partnership with Vodafone we're helping them to deliver on their green procurement strategy with a 10-year solar PPA. This has secured the development of 3 new solar farms – supplying 110MW of additional renewable power by the end of 2022.
A raft of other grant support and finance options, such as our Energy Services Agreement, allow organisations to fund integrated energy saving projects as a coordinated package, which can be paid for over an agreed contract – often with guaranteed savings.
As approved suppliers to both industry and public sector grant programmes, as well as procurement frameworks, we support the accelerated delivery of approved projects within tight deadlines. We have vast experience of managing multi-asset, large and complex estate-wide projects, with a proven history as delivery partners across the NHS and the wider public sector.
The good news is that organisations don't need to choose between profit and planet – the two are firmly linked. Saving energy has always provided commercial and climate benefits, as evidenced by the progressive approaches taken by our customers during 2022.
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