Storstroem County: The energy efficiency programme as a energy management system

Abstract:

The Energy Efficiency Programme for public buildings and facilities in the Danish county of Storstroem consists of an energy management system which is designed to continually optimise heating and ventilation system operations. Through large-scale investment in automatic control systems and co-ordinated planning and targeting, the annual CO₂ emissions for Storstroem were reduced by 30% between 1985-1994. Outstanding features of the programme are:

• Model of a systematic planning and implementation approach in the field of energy saving;
• Model of institutionalised feed-back mechanism between the single facility and the district authority.
• Model of individual consultancy and training;
• Model of profit-sharing, as 25% of saved energy costs are allocated to the budgets of the facilities involved as an incentive for co-operation.

Concept and aims

Since the 1970s, heat supply planning has been an important element of an energy policy which is aiming to convert to natural gas heating from oil. In 1980, the County of Storstroem began a study on the energy saving potentials in public buildings in order to establish a comprehensive heat supply plan. In 1984, the Storstroem County Council went a step further, as it decided to work out an energy efficiency programme which comprises all the properties of the county, totalling some 450,000 m² and a workforce of some 9,000 employees. The energy efficiency programme can be characterised as individual energy management for the participating institutions. The energy efficiency programme aims to provide the following data for further energy planning:

• systematic surveillance and registration of the use of energy;
• analysis of the consumption and comparison with the energy budget for each unit;
• indications on possible changes in the technical system;
• indications on possible changes in the operation management.

The Energy Efficiency Programme (EEP) of Storstroem County was finally completed in 1985, and it was approved by the Ministry of Energy in January 1986. This planning process made the energy issue visible in the County Council, as well as in each of the 24 municipal councils in the county. The priority of the heat supply plan had been put on fuels. The plan specifies exact targets for the development of heat consumption within the next 12 years. In 1987, the eleven biggest institutions in the county (including all six county hospitals) were given the highest priority in the investment programme. These buildings received their own computerised energy control systems. In 1993, the number had been reduced to ten, as one institution was transferred from the County Council’s responsibility. They are now called the ”Big Ten”. The remaining 75 institutions make up the group of the "Small Ones". They gradually joined the EEP until 1991, but so far they cannot afford to install the computerised energy control system. Nevertheless, they regularly report their energy performance, to the EEP co-ordination centre.

Implementation

Two pre-conditions had been regarded as crucial for a successful implementation of the EEP. Firstly, a strong co-ordination unit at the central level had been set up to cover the whole programme. This unit has direct access to the top management and the financial committee of the council. Secondly, the full responsibility for control of its own energy consumption, the compliance with the programme, and the negotiation of the energy budget had remained at the level of the individual institution.

In 1987, the process of implementation began when the CTS system, an automatic and computerised surveillance, control, and report system, went into operation. The CTS system is a centralised, automatic control tool which records the latest amount of heat, electricity, and water consumption within an institution and automatically adjusts the present consumption according to pre-set standards. It also takes into account the weather conditions. The key element of the CTS system is its ability to optimise the supply of heat, air ventilation, and water according to precisely specified needs in every area of an institution.

In the "Big Ten" institutions, which are big enough to have their own technical department, the head of the technical department is usually the energy manager of the institution. However, the introduction of the CTS system means involvement of all staff members of the section as their routines for running, maintenance, and repair of the heat, electricity, and water supply systems will be affected and changed. Therefore, two or more technicians had to be trained as the day to day operators of the CTS system.

The overall control of the programme was transferred to a reference group, the Programme Committee, which has to keep in touch with the people from the single institution (e.g. discussion of proposals from the single institutions) and has to control the investment plans on behalf of the County Council. The members of the committee were the managers of the technical departments from 4 of the "Big 10" as well as the energy co-ordinator. Furthermore, the Programme Committee has to fulfil important tasks:

• supervision of routine implementation of the EEP,
• budgeting for the coming year,
• continuous training of staff from the individual institutions.

The budgets are drawn up at the institution, but the energy co-ordinator of the Programme Committee is involved in the planning process to incorporate experiences gained at other institutions. The co-ordinator also supplies the budgeting sheets and forms.

It has proved to be important that the forms allow one to follow the relation between budget and latest consumption on a weekly and monthly basis. As the continuous registration of the consumption is very detailed in the computerised CTS systems, it is possible to project an image onto the screen of any connected section of the institution in order to see the function of the technical equipment, as well as the current temperatures and flows. In consequence, deviations can be tracked and evaluated, and corrected  manually if necessary. This continuous monitoring of every measuring point leads to an enormous amount of data which is saved for statistics, reporting, maintenance purposes, and for the future budget.

The close surveillance of every area also provides an individual basis for changes in procedures and other improvements. This information can be used to show the staff members at the concerned institutions the impact of their individual behaviour in regard to the temperature in a particular room, the consumption of warm water and/or electricity by appliances, or lighting in a kitchen. Therefore, the technicians who are responsible for the day to day operation of the EEP have gradually adopted consultative and educational activities as an important part of their daily work.

It has to be mentioned that the successful implementation of energy savings had also been stimulated by the County Council decision to leave 25% of the financial savings at each individual institution.

Results and Impacts

The latest evaluation on the impact of the EEP covered a 10 year period from 1985 through 1994. This calculation only included the ten which have installed the CTS system. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that there are also savings in the small institutions.