Background: 

East Renfrewshire Council serves a population of around 100,000 over an area of 175 square kilometres to the southwest of Glasgow in Scotland. The Council is committed to a net zero carbon emissions target by 2045. Energy efficiency in the Council’s own buildings has been, and is expected to remain, a pillar of carbon savings efforts in the Council’s Get to Zero Action Plan. 

E.ON Control Solutions submitted a successful bid to one of the first NDEE framework tenders in 2016 and continued working with the Council over three phases of energy efficiency upgrades. 

One of the primary customer benefits of the NDEE framework is that it commits the supplier to meeting a guaranteed energy savings target, and that their performance against the guarantee must be independently verified before final payment is made to the supplier.  

This gives customers much needed confidence and credibility in the reported results - and trust in the value for money of a supplier-delivered investment.

With experience of independently delivering and verifying performance measurement for public sector energy performance contracting projects since 2011, EEVS was appointed as independent verifier and M&V expert for the three phases of work with East Renfrewshire Council and have gone on to provide independent verification for over 20 NDEEF schemes covering £30m of investment.

Energy Saving Project: lighting upgrade at Thornliebank Depot

Following successful implementation of LED replacements for 117 internal and 16 floodlights at Thornliebank Depot E.ON Control Solutions set upon squeezing further savings out of the internal lighting by adding their “Lite IP” smart lighting controls. E.ON Control Solutions projected to make significant savings by dimming or switching off light fittings during periods of high natural light levels, or low occupancy at the site. 

The EEVS Savings Verification Process & Results

To aid the independent performance verification process, E.ON Control Solutions implemented automatically read sub-metering covering 100 of the 117 light fittings. This was installed prior to activating the “Lite IP” controls such that a robust business as usual baseline of energy consumption could be established. 

After activation the savings were measured over a 2-month reporting period and results extrapolated to the total 117 fittings. 

EEVS performance analysis included modelling for a range of external natural light conditions to provide an accurate projection of the energy savings over a typical 12 month period. 

EEVS analysis concluded that energy savings of 93,161 kWh per annum were attributable to the scheme – and that this could reasonably be expected to persist in future years. 

At the time, the Council were paying c. 13p per kWh for electricity and this generated £12,000 of Year 1 financial savings – much higher today. The scheme is also contributing a 3 Tonne CO2e saving towards the Council’s net zero goals (at 2023 Green Book conversions).

The verified results gave the Council confidence that the guaranteed savings had been achieved and the performance retention payment was released to E.ON Control Solutions.