Driving savings at Jaguar Land Rover

The 900-acre Jaguar Land Rover Gaydon Centre houses a design, research and development centre which employs over 4,000 people, as well as extensive test track facilities. The company’s Sustainable Development Policy is embedded at every level of its organisation with a full 360° approach across the lifecycle of its products and operations.

A contributing factor in Jaguar Land Rover’s achievements in this area is the use of Trend’s Building Energy Management System (BEMS) at Gaydon. In the five years to 2012, the BEMS delivered considerable cost savings – the equivalent of 4,271,544kWh and 1674 tonnes of CO2. These quantified CO2 savings are equivalent to providing lighting for 4082 houses carbon free for a year.

Trend says a fully integrated BEMS solution can have up to 84% of a building’s energy consuming devices directly under its control. Data produced allows facilities managers to better analyse, understand, reconfigure and improve their site's energy usage and costs, by having them presented in an organised and informative way.

Andrew Bilbrough, service manager at Trend, says: "Our challenge is to make sure that the BEMS is working effectively and controlling the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) facility as efficiently as possible. We operate a comprehensive service level agreement (SLA) to make sure that the BEMS is correctly maintained, while providing those on-site with comfortable working environments. As part of the SLA we run a condition-based maintenance regime, as well as implementing quick win control strategy modifications for the BEMS using existing hardware. From 2008 to 2012, we were able to demonstrate significant savings by putting energy at the core of our maintenance activities. This resulted in carbon savings equivalent to the production and delivery of 50 of the highest spec Land Rover Discovery vehicles. 

Neil Hyatt, Trend’s energy engineer at Gaydon identifies additional projects that fall outside the scope of routine maintenance tasks. He says: "This is an enormous operation with 26 BEMS-enabled buildings. By identifying energy saving opportunities that can make a significant return on investment (ROI), I can make a proposal to the facilities and site services team at Jaguar Land Rover.’

Over time this strategy has made a huge difference and through measures such as the introduction of variable speed drives and Trend IQ controllers, aligning lighting time zones with occupancy patterns, using time clocks and control strategy re-designs, a total of 3,476,742 kWh and 1291 tonnes of CO2 has been saved.

Watchful eye

The types of buildings where savings have been achieved include offices, workshops and research laboratories. While each building is managed separately and has its own energy reduction targets, operational and energy meter data is monitored from a central location via a Trend 963 Supervisor – a graphical, real-time user interface.

Security settings ensure that each user is only presented with information and functions that are relevant to their authority or task, and the 963 Supervisor even learns the structure of the system so that it can make adjustments to how the building services are configured.

Complementing the 963 Supervisor is a Trend Energy Manager – a software based tool that is used for highlighting and investigating energy use. It enables designated administrators to keep a close eye on the gas and electricity consumed by the building services. It also allows the application of specific calculations and analysis in reports that contain observations, advice, proposals and performance graphs that will help optimise energy consumption throughout the site. 

Hyatt explains: "When a BEMS is first commissioned it is configured around existing layouts and occupancy patterns. These can change over time and incorrectly configured time clocks and setpoints, conflicting heating and cooling, incorrectly calibrated control loops, valves, actuators and sensors, new layouts and repartitioning, and the addition or relocation of equipment, can all have a detrimental effect on energy consumption.’

A correctly optimised BEMS ensures that building services operate in strict accordance with demand, thereby avoiding unnecessary use of energy.

Trend and Jaguar Land Rover conduct an annual review of the SLA to ensure it meets the requirements of the site which has seen construction of new buildings and refurbishment of existing facilities. This is in addition to operational reviews. These meetings are a major contributing factor to the success of the project. They allow Trend to stay informed about the wider environmental and sustainability-based agenda and by listening to Trend’s advice, Jaguar Land Rover can allocate the required resources to develop an enhanced building services infrastructure.