Energy bills: Greater visibility

Prior to the installation, Martin Brower only had one main bill that came into the site. This was divided into three different sections across the business.  The company would estimate the billing based on how much energy it thought each division was using, but it was by no means accurate.

 

Martin Brower needed to find a solution for splitting out its monthly energy bill. There was also a need to implement a smart metering system to fall in line with government expectations for the rollout of a smart metering system nationwide. While the mass rollout of smart meters for domestic consumers is expected to complete by 2019, large businesses are expected to have their metering systems in place much earlier.

 

 

Schneider Electric collaborated with its EcoXpert partner Samelco Web Technology to supply metering and monitoring in the UK to Martin Brower. 

 

 

"The partnership with Schneider Electric, through the EcoXpert structure, provided us with a great opportunity to supply energy management solutions to Martin Brower, which supplies McDonalds with all of its restaurant supplies in the UK. The success of this project is as a result of the training and refresher programmes that Schneider Electric has run for Samelco employees. These allow our staff to get a better understanding of the products they are selling, which ultimately leads to higher sales”, said Mike Walton, MD, Samelco Technologies.

 

With changes to the Part L of the Buildings Regulations and companies wanting to demonstrate corporate responsibility, Martin Brower was aware that it needed to be actively monitoring and looking for ways to reduce its energy usage. There is an increasing need for companies to implement energy management systems to be compliant with ISO50001 and ESOS.

 

The ISO50001 Energy Management Standard encourages companies to develop a policy for more efficient use of energy, along with fixing objectives and analysing data to ensure those targets are met.

 

Samelco Web Technology supplied and installed 60 iEM3255 meters with a SEMS iRIO controller as part of the project; all of these meters were Measuring Instruments Directive (MID) approved for loads to 100kW. A web-based billing system was also implemented. The meters also monitored main gas and water meter pulses connected to the controller. 

 

The iEM 30000 range was launched by Schneider Electric at a similar time to the project launch and the customer required a DIN rail-mounted MID approved meter. The DIN rail system provided absolute safety and better continuity of service. It was considered a perfect match for the application as the meter specified would measure the exact amount of energy being used by each business unit and split out the bill accordingly. The iEM3000 series meters provided Martin Brower with a full view of both energy consumption and on-site generation.

 

The new metering system allowed Martin Brower to collect and analyse energy consumption data from all 60 metering points, which in turn, gave the company an accurate understanding of business expenses, by allocating correctly all energy related-costs. They could then use this information to implement actions to help reduce energy consumption. Every evening, metering data is uploaded to Samelco’s cloud-based billing system. This gives Martin Brower the ability to analyse the data online on any device. Martin Brower has found that the new billing system is far simpler than their previous system.

 

The new metering and monitoring system also gave the logistics service provider better visibility of energy usage, along with helping it set both accurate and achievable objectives for energy savings. Three 50in plasma screen televisions were installed around the site so that everyone was aware of the latest energy performance data and consequent energy savings.

 

Following the implementation of the monitoring and metering programme, Martin Brower placed further energy management solutions, including a Power Factor Correction (PFC) solution to help reduce energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. This was installed 18 months after the initial metering system was implemented.