Case studies

We know our Major Business customers are keen to reduce their energy costs and below you can read about some of the ways we have helped our customers in doing just that.

• The Save It Easy trial at the Fonterra Head Office
• Advanced Meter rollout underway
• Keen to Reduce Overheads
• Gilmours Energy Audit
• Energy Efficiency The Ports Way

The Save It Easy trial at the Fonterra Head Office.

A recent trial of a new lighting product combined with selective relamping at Fonterra’s head office in Hamilton has revealed large energy savings.

ecoBright’s Save-it-Easy ‘Plug & Save e-Ballast’ T5 adaptor offers a guaranteed 25% minimum reduction in energy usage, and when combined with a reduction in the number of tubes replaced (selective relamping), consumers can achieve even greater savings.

A test area at Fonterra’s head office was identified where ‘before and after’ power measurements could be carried out to calculate energy savings.

As well as testing for reductions in energy usage, light fitting temperatures were taken before and after fitting the new T5 adaptors. Before the test, a temperature of 30.1°C was recorded. Afterwards, this had reduced to 28.5°C - a significant reduction in the ambient temperature surrounding the fittings and a benefit resulting directly from the T5 adaptor technology.

Before the test, energy usage across the test area stood at around 1,150 watts. As the T5 lamps were fitted using Save It Easy combined with selective relamping, usage dropped to just 400watts - an overall reduction in energy usage of a staggering 63% - See more

Advanced Meter rollout underway.

Our Advanced Meter rollout is off to a great start. This new metering technology enables us to provide an improved metering and billing service to all our customers.

As part of the initial rollout, we’ve been working with our key business customers to make the transition for multiple sites easier and New Zealand Post has now had an Advanced Meter installed at all of their sites nationwide.

New Zealand Post commented:

"The installation of Advanced Meters is a major step toward accurately monitoring electricity usage, with the penultimate goal being to synchronise calendar month billing for all sites, big or small. The timely measurement and reporting of site electricity usage forms a cornerstone component for meeting our energy reduction targets. Without timely and accurate consumption data, it is difficult to change behaviour or see the rewards of any energy reduction strategies. Information is power. Advanced Meters will give NZ Post Properties the power to make more informed decisions relating to energy management and help drive down energy usage and more importantly CO2 emissions."

The best news is that estimated bills and access issues will be significantly reduced, because our new Advanced Meter accurately measures and automatically reports energy usage. The benefits will keep coming too. In the future, the technology inside Genesis Energy’s Advanced Meter will also give you new ways to manage your company’s energy usage.

Find out more

Keen to Reduce Overheads

ECOSystems was established in 1995 with a corporate vision to ‘Save Energy and the Environment’. They have worked with a wide range of businesses, from Government departments to schools, airports, and retail chains nationwide.

After completing more than 100 energy efficiency upgrades throughout New Zealand, ECOSystems recognised the need for ongoing commissioning and fine-tuning of the building plant in commercial office buildings using more than 300,000 kWh per annum. They call this process Continuous Commissioning.

This Continuous Commissioning (CCECO) is typically carried out over a period of at least three years. The process involves working with commercial building owners, staff and contractors on site to develop a focus on energy management. In comparison, an energy audit only gives you a snap shot at one point of time. The process minimises energy costs for very little capital cost other than regular maintenance.

While most commissioning processes focus on bringing the building operation to the original design intent, the CCECO process focuses on optimising lighting, hot water, heating and cooling (HVAC) and controls for the current building conditions which is an important distinction.

Based on CCECO results from more than 300 buildings internationally, the average measured utility savings were about 20%, with simple paybacks typically occurring in less than two years.

The benefits of CCECO at a glance:

• Promotes understanding of your building systems, technology, processes and people.
• Increases the value of service and maintenance expenditure through better targeting, prioritisation, knowledge capturing and reporting frameworks.
• Helps get to the root of persistent or recurring problems where people are either too hot or too cold.
• Reduces your carbon footprint and promotes general resource efficiency and conservation.
• Embedded measurement tracks energy consumption on site and allows you to benchmark areas, periods and processes against each other, as well as keeping track of wider organisation energy expenditure and invoicing.
• Encourages tenants and landlords to work together to implement efficiency improvements in leased situations.

The WelTec Story

The mission of the Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) is to be an internationally recognised centre of excellence in vocational education. They have campuses in Wellington, Lower Hutt, Christchurch and Auckland.

ECOSystems has been involved with WelTec for more than a decade, helping reduce energy costs and improve sustainability. Alex Cabrera, Facilities Manager at Weltec challenged ECOsystems to propose new opportunities.

ECOSystems worked together with WelTec to implement a system called Adaptive Thermal Comfort (ATC).

The most common source of energy waste in commercial buildings is heat / cool fighting, where the cooling system is trying to cool an area while the heating system is trying to heat it to meet the temperature set point. This often occurs as a result of complicated heating and cooling programming in the building management system working against each other.

ATC is all about giving users control of their work environment. Now instead of a programme attempting to maintain ‘suitable’ space temperatures, users have simple ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’ buttons to provide input.

ECOsystems implemented ATC as a trial on two floors of the main tower block at WelTec and found that complaints to building services dropped dramatically and the energy savings were substantial. This control philosophy is now being implemented throughout the block.

When ECOSystems suggested we develop our Continuous Commissioning process at Weltec, we got a ready reception and the site is already benefitting.

For more information please contact Frans Plugge at ECOSystems. www.eco.co.nz

Gilmours Energy Audit

Genesis Energy is committed to providing service and adding value to major customers. Gilmours is a company with an ongoing desire to reduce operational costs through savings in energy and maintenance. A willingness on the part of Gilmours to undertake energy efficient projects made them a perfect fit for an energy audit.

Two Gilmours facilities were included in the audit - an office building and a warehouse, with electricity (via a 400V commercial supply contract) the sole energy source. Total annual energy cost for 2006/2007 was $82,960.59 (up 5% on the previous 12 months).

The audit process enables us to break down these figures to give a clearer picture of just where cost-cutting measures can best be implemented. Not surprisingly for a grocery-based operation, this breakdown revealed that refrigeration was accounting for a substantial 38% of energy costs. At the other end of the scale, 7% was going to warehouse and factory equipment and 10% to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC). This left a whopping 45% of energy costs being spent on lighting.

The audit identified several areas where there was potential for savings, particularly in the area of lighting. For example, just by being more energy aware, savings of $4,000 could be made with absolutely no financial investment. There were a number of other opportunities identified which required an investment of $6,905 and would provide an annual saving of $9,620. This investment covered installation of occupancy-sensing and daylight-sensing control equipment and retro-fitting existing lighting with more energy efficient alternatives. The average payback is less than one year. (Refer to the tables below that show the energy savings achieved by implanting different energy saving options.

These measures alone could cut electricity use by 11% and go close to meeting our benchmarked Energy Use Index (EUI) in terms of usage per square metre of floor area but the benefits go much further. That 11% saving also represents a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 60 tonnes per year.

Energy Savings - No Cost

Energy Savings - Less than one-year payback

Action	Investment ($)	Savings ($) per annum	Savings (kWh)	Payback (Years)
Warehouse Aisles Daylight control of manually controlled fittings	$2,400	$2,950	21,700kWh	0.8 yrs

Energy Savings - One to five-year payback

Energy Savings - For all options

Energy efficiency the Port's way

The Ports of Auckland is a great example of what happens when the right people get together. Genesis Energy's Auckland Relationship Manager approached Ports of Auckland to help them reduce energy costs and arranged for audits to be undertaken.

The audits highlighted a number of opportunities where efficiencies could be gained. Genesis Energy and the Engineering Management team at the Ports of Auckland identified two key areas for a more in-depth look.

The first audit concentrated on power factor correction and the second focused on lighting - particularly floodlighting.

We were also able to get the right specialists together in both of these areas - Metalect Industries, who carried out a power factor audit, and Philips Lighting who conducted a lighting audit.

Improving the site power factor correction allowed Ports of Auckland to increase the number of reefers (refrigerated containers) supplied by each 750 kVA transformer from 90 to 150, and Philips identified a new fitting that could reduce the number of floodlights from 1300 x 1kW lights to 650 x 1kW lights. The result reduced Ports of Auckland’s lighting costs and site demand costs enormously, saving approximately $300,000 per annum.

Additional benefits have included reducing the maintenance and lights held in stock, a reduction in glare from the lights, which had previously irritated both the harbour pilots and city residents and a significant improvement in lighting at the ground level, with lux levels increasing from 22 to 56.

Tomas Jonsson of the Ports of Auckland (POA) said, "A good supply partner should help keep their customers competitive - that’s the challenge for all our suppliers. Neil Brumfit of Genesis Energy and the POA Engineering Management team identified floodlighting and power factor correction as the key focus areas for energy efficiency gains. Industry specialists Philips Lighting and Metalect Industries provided expertise in the identified areas and together we were able to make significant energy efficiency gains. The results speak for themselves."