Environment legal services articles

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Established in Oxfordshire in 1993, the Optimal Group of Companies are specialists in the field of communications and environmental monitoring. Having moved to Gerrards Cross in 1994, Optimal is well known and respected in the industry, with clients around the globe. Graham Bell, managing director and founder member of the company, explains how their monitoring system is able to identify a number of energy saving opportunities within buildings across the UK.

Turning Government policy on climate change into actions yielding tangible results is proving a challenge. When success is measured in terms of the carbon emissions saved, attention turns first to energy, which accounts for up to half of all emissions, depending on the sector. Success is also reflected in lower energy bills – contributing to the bottom line for a business or increasing spending on customer-facing services in the public sector.

To show that every opportunity to reduce emissions has been taken, there has to be a meaningful way of monitoring all utilities. Reading meters at the point of entry to premises indicates little about how and when energy is being used. That detail is required if a strategic approach to carbon reduction is to be developed.

‘Smart metering’ takes the process a step further by recording electricity use at half hour intervals, though it cannot examine consumption at points within premises, where more detailed monitoring is required to achieve real savings. Until now, gas use couldn’t be measured on the same basis, limiting the value of smart metering.

With a long track record in data monitoring in applications, Optimal Monitoring was able to extend that knowledge to the task of tracking gas, electricity and water consumption virtually anywhere in an organisation. With the monitoring in real time, it becomes immediately apparent that a zone of a building is over-heating, perhaps the boiler system is switching on too early each day, or water is being wasted because a pipe is leaking undetected behind a building.

The forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) has prompted large energy users – already committed to smart electricity metering given their consumption – to adopt Optimal’s solution. It provides the additional information which is instrumental in cutting their consumption – and which earns them bonuses under the CRC. Remote utility monitoring has been taken up extensively across the public sector, where Optimal’s solution has been installed to reduce utility consumption in hospitals, schools and local government. For example, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire County Councils are established users.

While the system has been installed in more than 250 public buildings to date, interest in energy monitoring is mounting within the private sector. Toyota UK is typical of the organisations which see carbon reduction as part of their corporate responsibility.

The company was keen to see its sales and service network – it operates through 300 Toyota and Lexus dealerships – take a firm stand on climate change as it had done with its vehicle design. Committing to a pilot study at 15 UK dealerships, Toyota installed Optimal’s solution.

The objective was to optimise energy usage in what are often complex buildings, where demand can change from day to day, and between the departments on a site. A vital input to the Optimal system has been meteorological data which allows the appropriate temperature settings to be determined for the different parts of the premises.

As the monitoring system provides instantaneous reporting on energy consumption and environmental conditions, dealership managers experience first hand the benefits of knowing that they are reducing carbon emissions while cutting overheads at a critical time for the motor industry.

For more information on the Optimal ISX System please visit www.optimalmonitoring.com or contact Graham Bell by calling 01753 482900 or emailing graham.bell@optimalmonitoring.com.