Hertfordshire County Council NI185 Energy Data Collection

Background

Local Authority Areas (LAA) are required to select 35 of the National Indicators and to propose reduction targets. For LAAs that select NI185 (% reduction from local authority estate and operations), measurement against this indicator requires each local authority within that LAA (County, Districts etc) to annually calculate its CO2 emissions from analysis of energy and fuel use in their buildings and transport. It is therefore desirable to have accurate, evidenced gas and electricity meter readings to support measurement of NI185 CO2 emissions and to monitor progress against any targets set.

In addition, the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) a new mandatory emissions trading scheme affecting large private and public sector organisations including large local authorities, starts in April 2010. This will also require participating local authorities to accurately measure and record their energy use and subsequent CO2 emissions from all property that it is responsible for paying the energy bills for, schools and possibly street lighting, and importantly there are significant financial penalties for failing to do so.

What was the problem?

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) needed a better picture of its energy consumption from its property in order to meet the requirements of NI185 and also to prepare for the introduction of the CRC. The installation of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters will meet the requirements of the CRC and NI185; however the planned installation of AMR meters across HCC’s property portfolio will not be complete until the end of 2010. Therefore, in the meantime the alternative solution was to manually take meter reads from all relevant HCC properties (circa 1000) on or around 1st April 2009, to obtain historic meter reads on or around 1st April 2008 and to calculate consumption between these two dates, and to plan to do this again in April 2010.

HCC has a strong tradition of leading by example, and in order to meet the NI185/194 data submission date of 31 July 2009 invited Spatial Intelligence, their data consultants to advise on how the meter reading project could be delivered.

How did Spatial Intelligence help?

Spatial Intelligence (SI) has worked closely with HCC Property since 2003 and is responsible for the continued management of floor plans and associated property data for all corporate and education properties. This data is used throughout the Authority and their partners to make key investment and other asset management decisions. This specialist and intimate knowledge of the buildings as well as the understanding of the role of accurate data was seen as key success factors of the project. The scope, risks and challenges of the project were worked through with SI’s HCC Project Manager, Ed Ivison, following which SI sprang into action

The Project

The meter reading data had to be collected between 23rd March 2009 and 7th April 2009 and due to this short timescale SI implemented a streamlined process of visits equipped with a letter of authorisation and a HCC photo ID.

During this short period, our experienced SI Site Team Technicians visited 990 properties. This success was helped by the fact that a good number of the properties had a high quality, up to date floor plan already provided and managed by SI so the addition of data was made simpler.

On site our technicians verified meters against the supplied list, updating the list with additional meters (several hundred across all the properties) discovered. Readings were then taken along with the time stamped and referenced digital photographs. Once the data had been gathered, SI began the complex task of collating and verifying the consumption figures from the meter readings. This was the data that HCC needed to input to the property section of NI185 submission.

HCC completed the rest of the NI185 submission by collating consumption data from the other sectors to be reported on under the NI185 requirement (Outsourced Services, Street Lighting & Transport). Working together HCC achieved the submission deadline of 31st July 2009.

What were the benefits of this project?

Hertfordshire County Council had a better and clearer picture of their consumption and CO2 emissions. This was essential to determine a NI185 CO2 emission baseline and to also monitor progress against meeting CO2 reduction targets.

Furthermore this information would prepare HCC for the introduction of the CRC scheme in April 2010 and aid understanding of the potential amount of CRC allowances to be purchased in April 2011.

The project also provided valuable updates to the Property department which would greatly benefit future exercises. With almost 1000 properties to visit, there were inevitably some anomalies uncovered with the data, for example; the property had been sold and the site recently redeveloped with new housing. Therefore, an additional benefit of the project was improving and updating HCC’s property list.

The accurate capture of energy data is essential and looking to the future, HCC are undertaking an installation programme for AMR meters which will replace all billing meters by the end of 2010. Knowing how many of each type of meter HCC has and where they are positioned in or around the property has obvious advantages for the AMR project.

The Challenges ahead on the Energy Agenda

There will be increased focus on energy efficiency as financial budgets are squeezed and in monitoring progress against targets. HCC has a corporate target to reduce its CO2 emissions from its own property, transport and street lighting by 25% by 2013. .

The introduction of the CRC this year further focuses attention on reducing CO2 emissions from energy use, as participants will essentially have to pay for the amount of CO2 used. The financial burden could increase exponentially in future years if CO2 emissions are not reduced. Furthermore with 70-80% of HCC’s emissions coming from schools, a significant challenge will be achieving reductions in schools.

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