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Will tech-enabled ESG be a global benchmark?

960 640 Stuart O'Brien

In the sphere of corporate responsibility, technology becomes the global benchmark for addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges. Leading tech companies, responsible for 2-3% of global emissions, are actively addressing climate concerns. Through innovative solutions and heightened efficiency, they not only reduce their environmental impact but also empower customers, emphasising the pivotal role of tech-enabled ESG initiatives in shaping a sustainable future.

That’s according to GlobalData, with Robert Pritchard, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services, stating: “Technology is at the heart of business and consumer life. The more tech companies improve their ESG performance, the better for their customers, the environment, and society as a whole.”

With energy costs having risen so much due to factors such as wars and increasing global logistical challenges, the drive for efficiency is driven by economic as well as environmental factors.

Pritchard added: “Tech companies continue to develop solutions to enable their customers to reduce their own emissions. For example, they can route their network traffic to reduce climate impact, or can recycle, reuse, and repurpose last-generation equipment and devices. This reduces strains on scarce resources, and can empower countries and individuals with technology that they otherwise could not access.”

“As we progress into 2024, further ESG challenges will be taken on. Artificial intelligence (AI) requires even more energy to power evolving applications, but at the same time is already being used to optimize electricity use in the latest generations of networks, thus offering net benefits.”

He concluded: “2024 will also see greater concentration on Scope 3 emissions (over which users/customers have no direct control) as they account for 60% to 90% of the total. Leading tech companies are building emissions reporting into their contracts with suppliers, meaning that reducing greenhouse gases will move from being a ‘nice to have’ to an essential requirement of doing business. This will also help to continue to converge ESG reporting with financial reporting, whilst integrating with leading business management software platforms.

“The climate crisis may have lost space in the headlines, but it remains the single most important long-term global challenge. Tech-enabled ESG solutions are making a substantial contribution to tackling that challenge.”

Photo by Copernico on Unsplash

HOW TO: Use energy usage data collection solutions to benefit your business

960 640 Stuart O'Brien

Understanding and managing energy consumption is a critical part of running a modern business. Energy usage data collection solutions offer an efficient way to achieve this, providing valuable insights that can significantly improve operations and drive sustainability. As we delve deeper, let’s discover how these tools can transform your business…

At the heart of energy usage data collection solutions lies the promise of improved efficiency. By gathering detailed data on your energy consumption, these solutions can provide a clear picture of how and when your business uses energy. Are there periods of peak usage that coincide with specific processes or times of day? Are certain areas or equipment using more energy than necessary? By pinpointing these patterns, businesses can identify opportunities for reducing energy usage and costs.

Moreover, energy data collection solutions often come with powerful analytic capabilities. Advanced algorithms can sift through vast amounts of data to identify inefficiencies that might not be apparent to the human eye. This could include patterns of waste, such as equipment left on outside working hours or inefficient heating or cooling cycles. By addressing these issues, businesses can make substantial savings on energy bills.

In addition, these solutions can facilitate regulatory compliance. Many regions require businesses to report their energy usage or meet certain efficiency standards. Automated data collection simplifies this process and ensures accurate, timely reporting. By removing the burden of manual monitoring and record-keeping, businesses can focus more on their core operations.

Energy usage data can also help in predictive maintenance. By analysing trends in energy consumption, businesses can spot signs that equipment may need servicing or replacing before it fails. This not only prevents downtime but can also extend the lifespan of your assets, saving money in the long run.

Furthermore, these solutions align with the growing trend towards sustainability. By reducing energy consumption, businesses can decrease their carbon footprint, contributing to global efforts to combat climate change. This can enhance your brand’s reputation and potentially open doors to new opportunities, as more consumers and investors prioritize businesses with strong environmental credentials.

Finally, data collection solutions can enable businesses to take advantage of flexible energy pricing. Some energy providers offer variable rates depending on the time of day or demand levels. With detailed insight into your energy usage patterns, you can shift certain processes or operations to times when energy is cheaper, further reducing costs.

In short, energy usage data collection solutions offer myriad benefits for businesses. From enhancing efficiency and reducing costs to ensuring regulatory compliance and promoting sustainability, these tools provide vital insights that drive informed decision-making. As businesses navigate an increasingly digital and eco-conscious world, leveraging energy usage data is key to staying competitive and contributing to a sustainable future.

Remember, the journey towards improved energy efficiency begins with understanding your current usage. With the right data collection solution, you can illuminate your path towards lower costs, enhanced sustainability, and smarter business operations.

It’s time to let your energy data work for you.

Are you on the hunt for energy usage data solutions for your business? The Energy Management Summit can help!

Image by günther from Pixabay

Is data the key to reducing power & meeting sustainability goals?

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By Chris West (pictured), Head of Managed Service, Keysource

A growing number of customers are committing to sustainability/Net Zero targets and asking us to help them understand the journey to achieving their IT and data centre related goals. 

Know what you’ve got

Our starting point is simple – organisations need to get visibility of the utilisation of their compute in order to then optimise it.  The deployment of DCIM (Data Centre Infrastructure Management) is the critical first step to see the compute, storage and networking, where it is and crucially what the hardware is.

Recent enhancements in software technology now allow us to interrogate IT (through management interfaces and industry standard monitoring protocols such is IPMI) to understand the actual utilisation of IT and this can present a number of opportunities for optimisation which can lead to a more sustainable solution. This could for example show that current servers are under utilised and that these could be consolidated, or that a technology refresh is needed to replace equipment with new more efficient hardware. Our findings show that on average, compute is only about 16% utilised and we are regularly able to make this as high as 60% once we have the data.

Accountability

If we can start to get visibility of utilisation, we can start to drive accountability for it. With optimisation statistics on individual servers, we can start to make platform managers and business segments accountable for their compute. Couple this with information on the power draw and we can start to monetise the cost of the inefficiencies.

The next stage is to leverage this information to keep driving efficiency. Currently, it is recognised as good practice to ensure that our data centres are scalable and have good levels of resilience so they are often designed for “day 2 load”  – meaning we can accommodate the ever expanding IT should we need to.

Get dynamic

“Day 1 loads” are invariably much lower than the capacity of the infrastructure, often resulting in a “low load” operation. Low load often means that we run with a greater level of resilience than we need (N+3 instead of design N+1), so we have more M&E powered than we really need. Another function of low load is that M&E systems are often not as efficient as designed and for example might be overcooling with low return air temperatures and reduced free cooling.

The technologies used to understand IT utilisation (including intelligent BMS) can also provide us with power draw information, giving us a clear picture of our IT load. If we leverage this then we can write dynamic programs to match our operating M&E to the requirements of the IT load – shutting down M&E we don’t need.

Predictive algorithms

We can also use these technologies to react quickly to failures in M&E including predictive algorithms to identify when systems are likely to fail and also to preempt operations.

These predictive technologies can in turn also contribute to sustainability goals. We can leverage technology to understand M&E equipment run hours and adapt our planned maintenance programs to service equipment when it is needed, not simply based on a calendar year. Consider your scope 3 emissions (which include your supply chain) and the savings that could be made against unnecessary travel and the replacement of consumables you don’t yet need.

The Future

Data can play a vital role in helping us to make informed choices by collecting and leveraging data and enabling the technology to drive value and reduce power usage and carbon. However, the software won’t do this alone as it needs to be part of a broader consistent approach.

ECIU: Data shows UK energy moving towards cheaper renewables

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Government statistics on UK energy trends in Q1 2022 show that the shortfall in gas generation is being filled by cheaper renewables, namely wind and solar, which have increased their share of electricity generation on the same quarter last year.

Commenting on the statistics, Jess Ralston, Senior Analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said: “For every megawatt of renewable power this winter, that’s basically a megawatt less of gas power we have to source and pay for.

“This trend is only set to continue with recently commissioned wind projects four times cheaper than current gas and new farms coming online every year. This will protect us from gas price shocks in the long term particularly as the North Sea is a declining basin and fracking is so unpopular with voters.”

Shares of electricity generated by fuel main table (%)
2021
1st quarter
2022
1st quarter
Change on year before (%)
Coal 2.8 2.9 +0.1
Gas 38.7 33.3 -5.4
Nuclear 13.7 14.9 +1.1
Hydro 2.1 2.2 +0.1
Wind, onshore and offshore 25.2 29.1 +3.9
Solar 2.0 2.5 +0.4
Bioenergy 12.2 11.7 -0.5
Other fuels 2.1 2.3 +0.2
Pumped Storage 0.6 0.6 +0.0

Source: Energy Trends, BEIS. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-section-5-energy-trends

Gas prices are currently six times more expensive than last year [2], adding at least £2,000 to the average household’s annual bill this year [3]. Offshore wind projects online today are over three times cheaper than current gas generation, and the latest round of renewables auctions saw prices that are around five times less than the gas price during the gas crisis. [4]

Renewables dominated global power additions in 2021

960 640 Stuart O'Brien

Data released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows that renewable energy continued to grow and gain momentum despite global uncertainties.

By the end of 2021, global renewable generation capacity amounted to 3 064 Gigawatt (GW), increasing the stock of renewable power by 9.1 per cent.

Although hydropower accounted for the largest share of the global total renewable generation capacity with 1 230 GW, IRENA’s Renewable Capacity Statistics 2022 shows that solar and wind continued to dominate new generating capacity. Together, both technologies contributed 88 per cent to the share of all new renewable capacity in 2021. Solar capacity led with 19 per cent increase, followed by wind energy, which increased its generating capacity by 13 per cent.

IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera, said: “This continued progress is another testament of renewable energy’s resilience. Its strong performance last year represents more opportunities for countries to reap renewables’ multiple socio-economic benefits. However, despite the encouraging global trend, our new World Energy Transitions Outlook shows that the energy transition is far from being fast or widespread enough to avert the dire consequences of climate change.”

“Our current energy crisis also adds to the evidence that the world can no longer rely on fossil fuels to meet its energy demand. Money directed to fossil fuel power plants yields unrewarding results, both for the survival of a nation and the planet. Renewable power should become the norm across the globe. We must mobilise the political will to accelerate the 1.5°C pathway.”

To achieve climate goals, renewables must grow at a faster pace than energy demand. However, many countries have not reached this point yet, despite significantly increasing the use of renewables for electricity generation.

Sixty per cent of the new capacity in 2021 was added in Asia, resulting in a total of 1.46 Terawatt (TW) of renewable capacity by 2021. China was the biggest contributor, adding 121 GW to the continent’s new capacity. Europe and North America—led by the USA—took second and third places respectively, with the former adding 39 GW, and the latter 38 GW. Renewable energycapacity grew by 3.9 per cent in Africa and 3.3 per cent in Central America and the Caribbean. Despite representing steady growth, the pace in both regions is much slower than the global average, indicating the need for stronger international cooperation to optimise electricity markets and drive massive investments in those regions.

Highlights by technology:

  • Hydropower: Growth in hydro increased steadily in 2021 with the commissioning of several large projects delayed through 2021.
  • Wind energy: Wind expansion continued at a lower rate in 2021 compared to 2020

(+93 GW compared to +111 GW last year).

  • Solar energy: With an increase in new capacity in all major world regions in previous years, total global solar capacity has now outgrown wind energy capacity.
  • Bioenergy: Net capacity expansion increased in 2021 (+10.3 GW compared to +9.1 GW in 2020).
  • Geothermal energy: Geothermal capacity had an exceptional growth in 2021, with 1.6 GW added.
  • Off-grid electricity: Off-grid capacity grew by 466 MW in 2021 (+4%) to reach 11.2 GW.

Read the full Renewable Capacity Statistics 2022 including the highlights, here.

What data are you missing? Manage the gaps in your energy data

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By Bill Identity

When it comes to energy usage, understanding your data is a crucial business function. It helps to balance the doing with the cost of doing it. Our experts have put together a critical guide, The True Cost of Mismanaged Data, to help make your energy data work harder for you.

Throughout this eBook, we will take you through the effects of poor data quality, benefits of electronic utility data and point out what metrics you might be missing.

What are you waiting for? Download our free eBook today.

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: ENGIE Impact

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By ENGIE Impact

Today, sustainability is a top priority for organisations around the globe – but while 84% have set sustainability goals, less than 30% are on pace to achieve them.

ENGIE Impact applies data analytics, multi-disciplinary expertise, and global reach to accelerate the sustainability transformation of corporations.

From strategy to implementation, actionable solutions help clients improve their bottom line, drive growth, satisfy stakeholders and meet sustainability goals.

Click here to find out more.

Flow informs to maximise energy efficiency and savings

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Being able to see how system components are performing in real-time is crucial if energy managers are to reduce costs and improve environmental performance of buildings. Without information on fluid flow, across the system, it’s difficult to diagnose and optimise efficiency. With accurate flow information, the picture changes entirely. 

Armstrong Fluid Technology has developed Active Performance Management to help optimise HVAC systems at any stage of a building’s life-cycle, responding to changing HVAC requirements. The combination of smart commissioning with real-time alerts and system transparency addresses performance drift and maintains occupant comfort. With Active Performance Management you can make annual energy savings of up to 40%.

One of Armstrong’s Active Performance Management solutions is Pump Manager, which ensures that pumps continue to operate efficiently and reliably throughout their complete lifecycles. Pump Manager is a cloud-based application that uses the embedded intelligence and connectivity of Armstrong Design Envelope pumps to provide performance reports to system operators. With this information, operators can make changes and address issues to optimise HVAC performance. 

Online trending and analysis across multiple parameters on single pumps, or on an aggregated basis for multiple pumps, assists in identifying performance degradation and facilitates a predictive and proactive approach. Pump Manager will, for example, report issues such as excessive vibration, pump in hand, risk of cavitation or a dead head should they start to occur.

Compatible with industry-standard BMS, EMS or CMMS solutions, Pump Manager helps reduce operating costs by providing data to support continuous optimisation of pump performance. Pump Manager also increases pump availability and reliability, reducing unexpected failures and providing early problem detection. Lastly it helps organisations report their energy use and environmental performance. 

To find out more about connecting your pump to gain greater visibility and control contact Armstrong Fluid Technology on tel: 08444 145 145, or email ukaftermarketsales@armstrongfluidtechnology.com.

Energy Monitoring and Targeting – Mapping data to gain more meaning

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Gathering energy data to measure the performance of your building estate is commonplace. With rising energy costs and a move towards reducing carbon it is of course important to monitor and report on the energy usage across your building estate. Automatic Monitoring and Targeting (AM&T) is a standard process for energy reduction, but what if there was another way?

A more intelligent approach to energy use in buildings

What if you were able to map your energy usage with occupancy usage, to tailor building services to demand? Resulting in an optimised, more efficient building. What if you were able to collate data from different building services to provide a more intelligent approach to usage? For example, you could map the BMS data with your lighting and your meeting room booking system. In this instance you could manage the energy around meeting rooms in an office location more effectively. When not in use you could power off all appliances in that space. You could even instruct for cleaning to be put on hold. But when a meeting is scheduled you could automate the HVAC to bring the room up to temperature in time for the start of the booking, you could initiate the lighting and instruct for cleaning to take place afterwards. Additionally, if the meeting was cancelled yet not updated on the system, the space if not entered in the first 15 minutes, could be relaxed and automatically made available for others whilst also saving valuable consumption. By mapping different services within one building you are then able to be smarter with your energy and service provision.

The AXON platform gathers big building data, to provide visualisations and reporting on energy, consumption, lighting, environment and occupancy, for estate performance analytics at all levels. By seamlessly integrating your building data onto the technology independent AXON platform you can optimise the performance of your estate today. There is no need to change or install different plant equipment, AXON is brand agnostic and can be connected to your existing BMS.

Providing fair and transparent recharging of utility costs to occupants

Another added benefit to gathering big building data is the ability to accurately bill energy costs to tenants, known as intelligent apportionment. With AXON this process can be automated and is something we have done for buildings such as London Bridge City estate including Hays Galleria, Cottons Centre, No 1 London Bridge City and 2 & 6 More London. Broadgate Estates were looking for a platform that was technology independent, a platform that could integrate disparate data streams from the technologies installed within the estate. Broadgate Estates wanted to reduce the overall energy consumption of their clients’ building stock, whilst also provide fair and transparent recharging of utility costs to occupants. 

Broadgate Estates have experience in using the disparate technologies within a building to reduce consumption and deliver occupier bills. Yet existing solutions, in their opinion, were not integrated or automated sufficiently; or there was a commercial bind between the software platform and a specific brand of hardware. Importantly they wanted to combine data from both the energy management system (EMS) and BMS to identify energy reduction opportunities, to then also prove the outcome of the remedy.

Working with AXON they were able to achieve a significant reduction in operational hours per annum resulting in identified energy savings of 1,935,876 kWh.

If you wish to take a more informed approach to your building management then please get in touch with the AXONteam to learn more. CONTACT US

The energy storage market ‘paving the way for next energy revolution’

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The energy storage market has caught the eye of a number of stakeholders involved in the power industry, leading to its considerable growth and opening the way for the next energy revolution.

So says GlobalData’s latest thematic report, Thematic Research: Energy Storage, which highlights the present scenario and emerging market trends across electrochemical, mechanical and thermal energy storage.

The report says demand for energy storage system (ESS) devices in the power sector is increasing rapidly, particularly after the increase in the renewable energy integration into the grids. Intermittent power supply led to demand for the storage of electrical energy and supply during peak load periods. ESS devices can help make renewable energy – whose power output cannot be controlled by grid operators – smooth and dispatchable.

With the global energy storage market becoming one of the rapidly growing segments within the renewable power mix, GlobalData says equipment manufacturers or technology providers of energy storage technologies are focused on innovating their energy storage solutions and offering advanced energy storage systems.

Sneha Susan Elias, Senior Analyst of Power at GlobalData, said: “Battery energy storage system (BESS) is regarded as a crucial solution for overcoming the intermittency limitations of renewable energy sources (RES). The battery energy storage market reported cumulative deployment of 4.9 GW at the end of 2018 and is expected to reach 22.2 GW in 2023, with the US accounting for 24.7% of the global capacity. The deployment is expected to grow, due to a large number of countries opting for storage utilization to support their power sector transformation.

“The expansion in battery manufacturing capacity and falling costs resulting from the electric vehicle (EV) industry are driving growth in energy storage services and new markets. This fall in battery prices has favored the battery energy storage market and has speeded the deployment of energy storage projects globally.

“Currently, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries dominate the electrochemical energy storage market but other battery energy storage technologies such as sodium-sulfur (NaS), lead-acid and flow batteries are now getting deployed. While, thermal energy storage utilizing molten salt is among the most widely used technology in association with concentrated solar power (CSP) projects, among mechanical energy storage technologies, pumped hydroelectric storage systems is among the most mature energy storage technologies and offers a number of benefits such as energy-balancing, stability, storage capacity, along with ancillary grid services which include network frequency control and reserves.”

Image by Bert Braet from Pixabay

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