Energy efficiency
One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is encourage people to use less energy. The Government's Energy Efficiency Commitment scheme requires us to provide energy efficiency measures to our residential customers.
Supporting our residential customers
Products
During 2006, our Energy Efficiency business spent over £53 million on domestic energy efficiency, saving residential consumers £143 million. We helped 349,148 customers through servicing and fixing their central heating systems; insulating 91,472 cavity walls, 59,307 lofts and 1,302 hot water tanks; and by installing 1,318 fuel-efficient boilers and heating systems, as well as providing 120 micro combined heat and power (CHP) products for domestic use. Together with the money spent on subsidising lighting, monitoring and control equipment, and household appliances, these measures will save around 6.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetime of the products.
Energy efficiency commitment Lifetime Carbon dioxide savings, %
 |
2006 |
|---|---|
| Insulation | 52.1 |
| Boilers | 1.0 |
| Lighting | 44.4 |
| New Tech | 2.5 |
Customer savings are calculated using the methodology devised by The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem).
We provide our residential customers with a range of ways to help them manage their energy consumption and, while still relatively low, the uptake of energy efficiency products and services is increasing. For this to keep increasing, we need to work with the Government to improve incentives for consumers to reduce their energy consumption, and to reinforce the message that the use of energy contributes to global warming, as well as providing better information to consumers about their energy consumption and how they can take action to reduce it. That's why we're continually finding new ways to help encourage customers to make more efficient use of energy at home. In 2006, we distributed over 800,000 low-energy light bulbs directly and a further 1.7 million through local authorities and charities, as well as subsidising the sales of a further nine million.
Advice
Knowledge is the enemy of waste. So we are dedicated to providing energy efficiency advice to our customers to help them avoid wasting energy and improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
Number of customers receiving energy efficiency advice, Number
|
2005 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | 20,316 | 27,450 |
| Business | 920 | 775 |
| Total | 21,236 | 28,225 |
Recent research by Ofgem has shown that consumers could reduce the amount of energy they use by up to 10% if they are given detailed information about the way they use energy. So we have begun to trial a system of 'energy statements'. Quarterly bills are accompanied by a simple chart showing the amount of gas and electricity used compared to the same period 12 months ago, together with average daily usage. We want to see if giving customers details about exactly how much gas and electricity they use each day will encourage them to cut down.
We are also investigating new technology to help our customers better understand their energy usage, so that they can make informed decisions to reduce their carbon output. We're currently trialling a device called 'Electrisave' that attaches to the mains cable in the home and provides information on levels and costs of electricity usage and carbon emissions at any given moment.
We trialed a small number of 'smart meters' for business and domestic customers in 2006 and now aim to install around 38,000 of these in 2007.
Supporting our business and industrial customers
We work with our non-domestic customers to determine how effectively they use the energy we supply and identify opportunities to reduce waste. This is supported by providing energy management information and trend reporting to customers based on the consumption data we hold.
For industrial customers, large-scale CHP can help to reduce carbon emissions substantially. CHP provides a secure and highly efficient method of generating electricity and usable heat in a single process at the point of use. Because it uses heat from electricity generation and has no transmission losses (because electricity is generated onsite), CHP typically achieves a 35% reduction in energy use compared with power stations and heat-only boilers. We have CHP customers in sectors as varied as paper production, chemicals and oil refining, with a total capacity of 359MW of electricity at the end of 2006. Our CHP capacity has reduced with the end of heat supply contracts at four of our sites, which have now been adjusted to operate on an electricity generation basis only but still operated by our CHP business.
Energy losses from distribution
Electricity Network Losses
|
2005 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity lost in transmission (MWh) | 3,116,795 | 3,095,990 |
| Network losses as % of electricity distributed | 5.4 | 5.4 |
We continue to focus on energy losses from our electricity distribution networks. The percentage of network losses remained stable at around 5.4% in 2006 compared with 2005 and continues to be among the lowest in the UK. In absolute terms, there was a reduction of 21GWh in electricity lost, mainly due to the reduced overall volumes of electricity distributed - equivalent to 8,946 tonnes of CO2.
We aim to put our own house in order in terms of reducing our low carbon footprint and we want to mobilise our biggest asset to help us: our people. So we are working with the environmental organisation Global Action Plan to engage employees from all areas of the business who are passionate about saving the environment and want to do something to help. During the latter part of 2006 we recruited over 300 volunteer environmental 'champions' who, from early 2007, will be involved in auditing the environmental performance of our locations and working practices, helping us reduce our environmental footprint by coming up with new ideas and giving advice to their colleagues about tackling the causes of climate change at work and at home. We plan to increase this number beyond 350 by the end of 2007 covering all of our locations.
Understanding our carbon footprint
If we are to reduce our own carbon footprint, we need first to understand what's causing it. So we enlisted the help of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM) to undertake an audit of our non-operational footprint, helping us understand the scale of impact of our activities and identify those areas which may deliver the greatest opportunities for CO2 savings. We have also begun to examine other areas, such as our fleet of vehicles, in more detail. Our target in 2006 was to reduce our non-operational emissions by 10% against our 2005 performance. Due to the growth of the business, we did not meet this target in absolute terms, with an increase of 4% on a like-for-like basis, but we did achieve a 15.5% reduction in our non-operational emissions per employee.
2006 achievements
Employee engagement
- CEO video highlighting our commitment to tackling climate change.
- Climate change presentation to top 800 managers.
- Climate Change Manager appointed.
- Carbon Champions appointed in each business unit.
- Fleet manager appointed.
- Partnership with Global Action Plan.
- Recruitment of over 300 environmental volunteers.
- Lower carbon behaviours added to behaviour dictionary for employee reviews.
Energy use
- Energy audits undertaken at five pilot sites.
- Change to renewable energy tariffs.
- Analysis of energy trends to improve efficiency.
- Carbon intensity per employee reduced by 15.5%.
Information
- Development of carbon footprint monitoring systems.
- Baseline carbon footprint established for non-operational activities.
- 2005 carbon footprint data verified by the ECCM.
Technology
- Live Meeting technology made available to all office-based staff to reduce non-essential business travel.
- Trial of infrared thermography at two sites.
- Proposals developed for micro-generation opportunities at five pilot sites.
Other
- Board Directors' flights offset for 2005/06 through purchase of Gold Standards CERs (Certified Emission Reduction certificates).
- Increased take-up of carbon offsets for individual teams and events.
- Targets developed for 2007-2009.
Office and non-commercial transport emissions
|
Miles | Kilometres | kWh | Per person nights | CO2 (tonnes) |
| Office energy consumption (HH only) | 54,509,006 | 23439 | |||
| Air travel | 5,681,976 | 9,091,162 | 1250 | ||
| Business miles (total) | 22,175,710 | 35,481,136 | 5913 | ||
| Hire cars | 6,541,654 | 10,466,646 | 1706 | ||
| Train travel | 281,761 | 450,817 | 18 | ||
| Taxis | 448,566 | 717,705 | 139 | ||
| Hotel | 38629 | 398 | |||
| |||||
| 2006 total CO2 (tonnes) | 32863 | ||||
| 2005 total CO2 (tonnes) | 26000 | ||||
In 2007 we will continue to establish the size of our overall footprint and have agreed a companywide plan on how to manage it. We have set the following targets.
Targets
| 2006 target | Business unit | 2006 performance | 2007 target | Long-term target |
| 10% reduction in CO2 from non-operational activities against 2005 baseline | All businesses | Our absolute emissions increased by 4%, but we did however achieve a 15.5% reduction per employee. | 9% | 14% by 2009 |
2007 plan
Engagement
- Climate change focus in CSR report.
- Provide training for environmental volunteers to perform site audits and communicate ideas.
- Activities and communications to promote business focus on changing energy.
- Viewings of the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth made available for employees.
- Increase number of environmental volunteers to 350-plus.
Energy use
- Roll out of energy audit programme to remaining sites.
- Further analysis of site and transport energy usage.
Information
- Launch carbon footprint database/calculator.
- Work to improve data capture techniques.
- Inclusion of operational activities to establish comprehensive carbon footprint.
Technology
- Extend infrared thermology to remaining key sites.
- Development of micro-generation options.
Other
- Extension of green travel plan.
