Overview
Carillion Energy Services is a recognised leader in transformational outsourcing, delivering services that make a lasting and sustainable difference to the lives of customers. It is one of the largest national suppliers of heating and renewable energy and is at the forefront of the carbon economy.
In the government’s 2013 CRC league tables, Carillion PLC is ranked seventh in the country from thousands of companies thanks to the energy management programme delivered by Carillion Energy Service. The company, along with IMServ, a leading provider of business-focused advanced metering solutions, was instrumental in helping Carillion PLC meet its environmental targets and reduce energy consumption.
Carillion PLC provides integrated support services and has a substantial portfolio of Public Private Partnership projects. It has over 200 locations across the UK employing over one thousand employees. One of the major challenges of becoming more energy efficient was the company’s diverse mix of offices; from older buildings such as the head office in Wolverhampton, to more modern buildings in Manchester and Oxford. Each building presented different energy saving challenges.
In addition, as the company had grown year on year, so too had its energy spends. Coupled with increasing energy prices, Carillion knew it had to start tracking and reducing its energy consumption and streamline the company’s gas and electric usage to drive down costs and reduce its carbon footprint.
Dru Patel, Head of Carillion Energy Bureau at Carillion Energy Services explains, “Carillion positions itself as a leading sustainable business and a leading sustainable support service company. As the company grew and began operating in more competitive markets, Carillion’s management knew that its leadership in sustainability was a key area of differentiation and would make the company stand out from its competitors. Taking a more aggressive stance to its own energy use was a key element which was driven not only by CRC but also our desire to reduce our own energy consumption, both from a green point of view but also from a cost consideration.”
Aside from issues with older inefficient buildings, Carillion was also faced with the need to implement behavioural changes amongst staff who were not always conscientious about being energy efficient.
Dru explains, “Staff would open windows when the heat was on, or turn on the air conditioning rather than opening a window, or would leave equipment – computers, monitors, printers on at night and over the weekend. This was happening on a regular basis.
“It became apparent that we could only make changes if we gained a better understanding about our energy usage and look at ways of addressing the way we used energy.”
Metering Insight
In order to understand where its parent company was using the most energy, at what time in the day and in which location, Carillion Energy Services introduced a metering and data service, along with Sub Metering across the company’s gas and electric portfolio.
The company turned to Automated Meter Readings (AMR) to allow it to track accurate energy data, using IMServ, the UK’s largest independent energy management provider and supplier of business-focused advanced metering solutions.
IMServ works closely with many FTSE 250 organisations and companies within the commercial and industrial sectors, advising on effective energy management solutions. The company offers a range of monitoring, visualisation and control services that allow businesses to gain greater insight into their water and electricity usage.
Dru explains how AMR has impacted the business, “Advanced meters offer many benefits, from the easy integration of energy selling between Carillion and the power company, to greater flexibility on tariffs. AMR gives us improved forecasting, giving accurate estimations of future energy demands. It also makes managing our finances considerably easier.
“Using AMR has enabled us to have complete energy usage visibility and comprehensive information on our carbon footprint. We could see what energy Carillion was using across its portfolio rather than just holistically; we could identify which buildings were the worst offenders and which buildings were actually very energy efficient.
Metering Insight
“It has enabled us to drill down on our electric and gas consumption, producing detailed analysis and usage graphs on a daily basis. It has also helped us identify the company’s worst performing buildings.
“Armed with this information, it then made it easier to look at usage and trends in behaviour. We introduced a pilot behavioural change programme to drive down consumption which has been very successful. Carillion employees really got behind the pilot and have proactively been involved from the beginning to help the company reduce energy consumption.
“As a result of introducing AMR and the pilot behavioural change programme, Carillion has made critical reductions to its energy usage.
“Because we were bought on to tackle energy efficiency in 2005, early action metrics could be implemented and we followed a strict timeline of introducing AMR across our portfolio. It was this early action that helped us achieve a top ten position in the CRC league tables.”
Dru continued, “The relationship with IMServ has developed over the years to form a very strong and mutually beneficial partnership. IMServ’s team has a great ability to respond to requests quickly, often accommodating our needs within hours; it is this timeliness and its ability to go above and beyond time and time again that makes the relationship so successful.”