Energy Data Must Underpin Decarbonisation Plan, Says BESA

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24 March 2021

BESA has welcomed the government’s decarbonisation strategy for commercial buildings, but is calling for an improvement in the measuring and monitoring of “actual, real-life energy use”.

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) believes a clearer focus on energy efficiency should underpin every decarbonisation project.

Schools, hospitals and other public buildings are at the heart of the government’s Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, which is designed to reduce carbon emissions from buildings by two thirds in 15 years. The strategy has already allocated almost £1bn to 429 retrofit projects across England and Wales and is promoting the uptake of low carbon solutions like heat pumps, solar power, and insulation.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the programme would create and support up to 80,000 jobs over the next three decades and was a serious statement of intent ahead of this year’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. He said the government would also introduce new rules for measuring the energy and carbon performance of the largest commercial and industrial buildings that could save businesses around £2bn per year in energy costs by 2030.

In the long-term, the government believes the decarbonisation plan can lead to a 90 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 compared to 2018 levels with heavy industry expected to source 40 per cent of its energy needs from low carbon technologies.

“Gathering data and then turning it into something useful around which building operators can build an energy and carbon reduction strategy could unlock millions of pounds in savings every year.”

–David Frise

Chief Executive, BESA

“Back to Basics” of Energy Efficiency

“The government deserves great credit for putting such an impressive programme together and giving it significant financial support,” said Emma Brooks, chair of BESA’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings group, which is a joint venture with the Energy Services and Technology Association (ESTA).

“However, while there are some very exciting plans for technology developments in the plan, we strongly believe that we must go back to the basics of energy efficiency first. There is still plenty of low hanging fruit to be plucked in the industrial and commercial building sector from making relatively low-cost improvements to the ‘real life’ energy performance of installed systems. If we can focus on those first that will give the programme a solid basis on which to build,” added Brooks.

Gathering actual energy consumption data – rather than projected or estimated statistics – is the key to delivering meaningful energy efficiency savings, according to BESA. Greater take-up of smart metering and open-source data sharing would provide building managers with a clear picture of where they can make the biggest savings and could be linked to specific technical improvements.

“Gathering data and then turning it into something useful around which building operators can build an energy and carbon reduction strategy could unlock millions of pounds in savings every year,” said BESA chief executive David Frise.

“It would also move us relatively quickly and cheaply towards the government’s longer-term goals and ensure it got the best value from this significant investment.

“There is a very strong case for getting back to engineering fundamentals here. Poor energy performance of a building is usually an indicator of wider problems with its overall design and operation so there are comfort and safety implications as well.”

Frise also stressed the importance of approaching a building as a “complete system” rather than as a series of loosely connected components. Encouraging a more joined-up approach with control systems driven by real-time energy data would be key to delivering the government’s carbon reduction goals, he added.

Picture: a photograph of some solar panels 

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 24 March 2021

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