BBP LAUNCH BETTER METERING TOOLKIT
31/05/2011
The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), a collaboration of fifteen of the largest commercial property owners in the UK, in partnership with the Mayor of London and the LDA, has published its latest Toolkit which sets out the opportunities for ‘smart’ metering and describes in simple terms the various options available when installing new metering systems in commercial buildings. The Toolkit is freely available at:
http://www.betterbuildingspartnership.co.uk/working-groups/sustainability-benchmarks/better-metering-toolkit/
Advanced metering systems, installed to automatically record actual energy consumption throughout a building are of growing interest to businesses. Many significant benefits can be achieved by the accurate measurement and monitoring of energy consumption, including cost savings and CO2 emission reductions, aiding corporate reporting and supporting compliance with legislation such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
There is, however, much confusion within the market, with an increasing number of suppliers offering a perplexing variety of different metering systems, coupled with an understandably confusing variety of terms such as ‘smart’ ‘AMR’, ‘advanced’, ‘sub’, ‘fiscal’ and ‘check’ meters – potentially leading to a disjointed industry approach to such a vital aspect of environmental management.
The BBP felt it was important, therefore, to develop a practical guide on the subject, setting out the metering options currently available for commercial buildings and how the information obtained can be used to make energy and cost reductions.
“One of the biggest challenges to improving the energy efficiency of commercial buildings is the lack of performance data. Owners and occupiers are generally unaware of how well or how badly their buildings are performing. I hope that this Toolkit provides a helpful guide for ‘non-technical’ decision makers and supports both parties when engaging with metering system designers, suppliers and utility companies in order to ensure that the most appropriate and effective solutions are implemented in their buildings.” said Quinten Babcock, Energy Manager at Transport for London and Chair of the Sustainability Benchmarks Working Group responsible for this piece of work.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “Commercial landlords are playing a vital role in helping London become a more energy efficient city. I am working with the Better Building Partnership to help the sector find practical ways to harness clever new technologies such as smart metering. Adopting these systems will ultimately save property owners and tenants money to recoup installation costs, but also contribute to my vision of ensuring London is the leading low carbon capital.”
"Effective metering is essential to the effective management of energy use in any building. This toolkit will help any energy manager to better understand where the energy goes in a building, how to reduce energy bills and carbon emissions and how to more effectively meet corporate objectives for controlling costs and contributing to a better environment." said Hywel Davies, Technical Director, CIBSE