A City Council Seafront Services wanted to better understand their consumption of water, electricity and gas in their sea front premises such as toilets, workshops, arches and playgrounds.
Efficiency Direct Ltd was commissioned to assist by conducting an energy audit and site energy inspection at a range of sample sites along the sea front.
The aim of the audit was to investigate and comment upon the following:
- The efficacy of currently installed metered supplies of all utilities to the included premises.
- Efficiency of water dispensing systems, lighting and other electrical systems.
- Improvements to metering to assist in managing consumption such as Smart Metering
- Improvements to metering which could reduce the cost of Standing Charges.
- Defects which would adversely impact on consumption rates.
- Any other relevant defects noted during the audit.
The audit began in April 2009 and was completed by the end of May with a final set of meter reads in July.
A detailed audit of the sea front metering was successful in identifying a number of problem areas and highlighted the following issues:
- Major underground water leaks at the main lagoon.
- Defective water flow control equipment wasting water in Gents toilets
- Problems with flushing units on toilets sticking across the estate with the consequent waste of water
- A number of supplies, especially of water, were found to be shared with other tenants requiring an invoice apportionment system to be agreed and put in place.
- Several defective meters.
- Many invoices are paid based upon estimated meter readings.
- Meters for which invoices are paid that could not be located.
Estimated bills often greatly overestimated the consumption, for example in toilet block electricity an estimated reading on an invoice in January 2009 was 1,000 kWh greater than an actual reading in April 2009 some three months later.
Although taken in isolation, a significant amount of money would not be involved when extrapolated across the entire council portfolio it amounted to a significant sum.
Although it was apparent that council staff had a great deal of knowledge and experience of the current metering equipment, this was mainly anecdotal and few, if any, records were kept or held in a central location.
Also apparent, was the lack of available information on historical consumption at individual sites. No apparent budget for energy and water existed for the sea front sites audited and staff were unaware of the true cost of these utility supplies.
Consequently, no attempt at monitoring and targeting of consumption had been possible on any of these sites so far.
During the course of the audit it was noticed that the main water meter at the Lagoon was seen to be experiencing very large flows of water of around 45 litres/minute.
Investigations by Southern Water eventually located three underground water leaks within the confines of the lagoon area all of which were subsequently repaired. Water flows were then seen to reduce to around 8 litres/min during the busiest part of the day.
Although the full cost of the leak can only be estimated, it is known that between December 2008 and the 31st April 2009, some 13,879 m3 of water passed through the meter at a cost of around £34,628.
This equates to an approximate daily consumption of around 115 m3 /day in a period when few visitors would be using the lagoon facilities. The water sports centre was closed for the winter and the café was closed down completely awaiting a new tenant.
Based upon average normal consumption rates when no leak is present, the average daily use is calculated to be around 14.8 m3 /day.
It is reasonable to assume that a significant proportion of the water consumed during the period January – April 2009 inclusive actually leaked away to ground. This has been estimated by deducting the actual metered use from the expected use using the above averages thus:-
- 13,879{metered} – 1,805 {14.8 m3/day x 122 days}
- = 12,074 m3 of leakage
- = 87% of the water supplied in that period
Water charges are made of two primary elements
- Supplied fresh water
- Removed waste water
The assumption is that the supplied water is then removed as waste to Southern Waters drainage systems. The leakage estimated above did not return to the waste system but returned directly to the ground.
As a result of the leak it is considered that the Council was charged £19,270 in waste water costs for the period from January 2009 for water that did not use the waste system. This based upon a waste water charge rate of 159.60p/ m3.
Consequently a waste water rebate was applicable and Southern Water was approached to investigate this possibility.
Initial immediate savings in the form of a rebate £19,270
Annual savings from leak repair, potentially £57,500
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