London – taking a leading role
June 21st 2009

For a number of years, the UK’s capital city has been leading the way with groundbreaking initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.The city is currently working to a challenging target set by the Mayor to deliver a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2025.Andy Stanton, Head of Sustainable Buildings at Transport for London and ESTA Energy Manager of the Year, outlines some of the initiatives being taken to achieve this

To achieve a 60% cut in carbon emissions (on 1990 levels) in just over 15 years is a significant challenge. London will have to use all the means at its disposal to attain this target and reducing the emissions from buildings will be a major part of the strategy.As one of the main London-wide agencies, Transport for London has responsibility for over 50 head office buildings as well as some 3000 other commercial premises. In addition, there are a large number of smaller operational sites. The head office portfolio alone has an electricity consumption of more than 33GWh a year, as well as 19GWh of gas.

As a major international capital for hundreds of years with a rich architectural heritage, the city has many historic buildings of note. These include a number of buildings in the Greater London Authority estate, including the TfL sites, but these still have to contribute to the planned emissions reductions.The TfL property is incredibly diverse, with on the one hand state-of-the-art new structures incorporating the latest renewable energy technology, like the Palestra building in Southwark, but on the other older, iconic edifices like 55 Broadway.

Decarbonisation

Decarbonising electricity supply is one of the ways in which TfL is seeking to reduce its carbon footprint. And cutting edge developments like the Palestra building are an example of the innovative thinking that is creating a way forward.This incorporates a hydrogen fuel cell – the largest building-integrated system of its type in the country. With a maximum output of 200 kilowatts, the fuel cell provides electricity, hot water: it is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 10%. A photovoltaic array and two wind turbines add to the zero carbon energy available to the building. In addition, the heat from the generation process (both from the fuel cell and from a conventional gas engine CHP plant on site) is fed into a roof-mounted chiller during the summer months to provide cooling, although on the hottest summer days a further six electric chillers are available if required.

The zero and low carbon energy sources are just part of the wide range of measures in the Palestra building enabling TfL’s fit out to enhance the building’s BREEAM environmental performance to achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating.

Energy efficiency

While decarbonisation may deliver a large percentage of emissions reductions required to achieve the Mayor’s target, energy efficiency and behavioural change will account for almost half of all expected savings.

Given the diversity within the TfL portfolio, this is where a range of different strategies need to be employed.The first priority, though, is finding out how much energy is used and where. We now have some 450 meters that have automatic reading (AMR) across our estate which provide us with a huge amount of data. But the key here is to determine how to use the data and – critically – to make it accessible and meaningful to people working in those buildings.

Most of our staff use the buildings between the hours of 7am and 7pm. Therefore it made sense to concentrate our short-term efforts on action between those times, and then to look at other consumption in the mediumterm. TfL regularly publishes a league table of energy performance across its estate on its own intranet – to give our staff ownership of this issue.This has generated a great deal of interest amongst staff: no-one likes their office to be at or near the bottom of the table. Indeed, one group within TfL now includes the league table position on the agenda of its monthly meetings. This activity alone has given us a 9% saving on energy consumption across the estate.

Empowering people to make a difference can do so much to engage them and to make them part of the process of greening London’s building stock. But just as information has to be presented in an accessible format, it is vital that the technology which enables them to contribute is not over-complex. Otherwise, people will not use that technology and the opportunity to improve performance still further will be wasted. Another consequence of over-specification is that the cost of energy efficiency measures goes up overall.

Careful and intelligent planning for efficiency in new and refurbishment projects can prevent spiralling costs.

Performance contracting

By engaging with clear-sighted and innovative specialists, TfL (as part of the wider Greater London Authority) can realise more opportunities for reducing carbon emissions. In the Buildings Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP), TfL is working with other agencies such as the London Fire Brigade,the Metropolitan Police, to retrofit 100 buildings with a range of energy efficiency technologies. The programme is being run as a pilot project in conjunction with the C40 group of major cities around the world committed to fighting climate change and also with the global Clinton Climate Initiative.Technologies include:Combined Heat & Power (CHP); variable speed drives (VSDs) on pumps and fans; voltage optimisation; lighting controls; heat recovery; and solar thermal among others. The programme is expected to reduce emissions by 3,700 tonnes a year, as well as reducing energy consumption by around a quarter with resulting cost savings of around Ł770,000 a year. The programme is designed to achieve a simple payback on expenditure within ten years.

Building operators and the public should see a tangible improvement in the ratings recorded on Display Energy Certificates (DECs) and also Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).

Among the many innovative features of the programme is the commercial model being used. Performance Contracting is widely employed across the Atlantic,and in parts of Europe, but is not commonly used in the UK. It leverages the operational, technological and financial expertise of energy management specialists to achieve guaranteed savings on utility spend. The BEEP programme has appointed service providers for the initial phase of 42 buildings. TfL are working with Honeywell, while the Fire Brigade and Police are working with Dalkia, to retrofit a wide range of energy efficiency measures with guaranteed CO2 savings of around 6000 tonnes.

The contract provides for audits to be carried out on the buildings to identify potential energy savings. A plan for retrofitting efficiency measures is then developed with the requirement that these deliver at least 10% savings over a 10 year period. The audits are carried out in line with CIBSE guidelines. The move to Performance Contracting allows TfL to drive an accelerated programme of energy efficiency measures and achieve a step-change in energy performance. This is being done using outside expertise but at less commercial risk to TfL and the GLA.

The next phase of the BEEP initiative is being led by the London Development Agency (LDA),another part of the GLA, and has started the procurement process to set up a framework of contractors to carry out guaranteed energy saving retrofit work for the wider public sector.

The framework is expected to be up and running towards the end of the year and the LDA team is looking to expand the number of early adopters already committed to taking part.

The BEEP is an exciting project. It places London at the forefront of combating climate change through reducing the carbon footprint of its buildings. The project should provide an exemplar for other major urban centres around the world, as well as improving the environment in the UK’s capital.

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