By David Lloyd, General Manager of Connected Energy Performance at Johnson Controls UK&I
As UK businesses battle to keep the lights on and make headway on climate change goals, we have a fresh opportunity to seize the full potential of energy efficiency. It has long been recognised as the mainstay in building the low carbon economy of tomorrow. But despite the potential, the sluggish pace of progress and poor public awareness of the benefits across our built environment is leaving us playing catch up on climate change goals and exposing us to soaring energy bills in the process.
The urgency cannot be overstated but there are fresh concerns that energy efficiency is taking a back seat. The government’s new support package for businesses will see gas and electricity prices fixed for six months, providing a short-term safety net, but questions arise around what further longer-term reforms are needed to seize the energy efficiency opportunity and drive down costs.
A new thinktank report by the Institute for Government sets out the scale of the challenge. It finds that the UK’s buildings are among the least efficient in Europe. These findings make a loud and clear point that a robust long-term plan tackling the underlying issues is critical and “could deliver significant savings within a year.”
But the onus to take action doesn’t just rest on the government. It relies on business leaders, facilities managers, and individuals like us to make the buildings we inhabit much more efficient. The evidence is clear, as commercial buildings use around 40% of global energy, emitting nearly a third of the world’s greenhouse gases. As commitments to sustainability are encouraged through both policies and public opinion, businesses may be put at a disadvantage regarding talent, incentives and profits if they fail to make their buildings more efficient. This begs the question – how can businesses improve efficiency without investing millions or harming workforce productivity?
Harnessing energy efficient tech
At first glance, ‘energy-efficient technology’ might seem like an oxymoron. After all, when we think of the relationship between technology and energy, we often picture large commercial city landscapes fully illuminated deep into the night, or rows of office PCs and screens consuming power for up to 12 hours a day. But in recent years, technology that is truly energy-efficient has advanced far beyond incremental changes.
Now, businesses can employ various optimisation software platforms to predict and directly monitor workplace energy costs, and automatically optimise cooling, heating, and power generation. They can use AI-powered data analytics to monitor building performance, enhance tenant experience, and meet sustainability goals. Building managers may still assume that the implementation of such powerful, energy-efficient technologies would be a long, costly process. But the truth is they can be installed into buildings quickly and efficiently, and managers can start seeing results and returns immediately.
Utilising software for energy use and costs
What if you could predict the future? And better yet, what if your central plant could automatically adjust your energy usage and costs to prepare for that future? Meet central plant optimisation software. Central utility plant (CUP) technology uses predictive algorithms to maximise buildings’ energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions while delivering reliable utility services. And it dispatches decisions every 15 minutes based on a myriad of ever-changing inputs.
First, it looks at equipment performance models. Every major piece of building equipment, such as chillers, boilers, and cooling towers, is tuned into the system to monitor performance and cost, and optimise efficiency under operating conditions. Next, it pulls seven-day local weather forecasts for temperature, humidity, and cloudiness to predict loads, equipment performance and ambient conditions. For example, if a particularly mild Wednesday was predicted, CUP technology would prepare to reduce the building’s heating output, ensuring the central plant runs at the lowest possible cost, and far more sustainably, too.
Then, the software combines the forecasts with existing data on historical loads, days of the week, time of day, building schedules, maintenance calendars, and special events to adjust operations and automatically make decisions that guarantee the reliable delivery of workplace utility services. CUP software can also model the simplest flat rates to the most complex real-time pricing and market-based incentive programmes. So, even in the event of high demand, such as the current UK energy crisis, buildings and occupants using CUP technology enjoy lower tariffs, optimised efficiency, and retain a much larger utility budget.
Enhance building management using AI platforms and data analytics
Installing comprehensive building management platforms are another way that businesses can achieve energy efficiency. These AI platforms give managers a virtual birds-eye view of buildings and inform decision-making that delivers stronger sustainability practices. They constantly scan workplaces, pinpointing inefficiencies, diagnosing equipment problems, and advocating the corrective action needed to fix them. They also enable managers to monitor not only energy usage, but also assets, space, health, and occupant comfort parameters, all to improve Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores.
Many platforms even offer an eco-system of cloud-based apps, which enable managers and tenants to instantly adjust heating, water supply, HVAC systems and more in different areas of a building. These self-service apps also mean managers can monitor real-time spending, efficiency insights, and progress straight from their smartphone, helping regularly update stakeholders on sustainability results. So, they’re not just gathering data—they can share it, too.
Thousands of buildings worldwide have already installed smart interconnected management platforms. These enterprise management tools are used to enhance the comfort of all occupants, by monitoring and improving energy efficiency, tenant satisfaction, asset performance, and maintenance operations, and space performance. They are designed for facilities including commercial offices, healthcare, mixed use high-end, transportation, retail, and school systems.
Grabbing opportunities
If best practices are adopted worldwide, businesses can achieve their individual journeys towards reaching net-zero carbon emissions, while helping the planet for all. As bills soar and businesses grapple with multiple goals, technology offers a wholly improved way of managing utilities. Without smart tech we can’t hope to make impactful changes for themselves, the environment, and our health.
Legacy infrastructure and gas heating within buildings can also be a huge barrier to reaching the government’s net zero goals by 2030. Improved technology can range from the local to the global, such as switching from gas boilers to air source heat pumps, installing solar panels and implementing LED transformation. As a result, carbon emissions will drop, and this reduction in energy use can translate to a 50% reduction in cost, with on-site energy production and the use of LEDs able to offset the increase in electricity use. With millions of us facing fresh energy pain and climate change pressures mounting, there’s never been a better incentive to walk the walk.