FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
Solon Mardapittas, CEO at Powerstar, considers the World Energy Council’s Trilemma(i) Index of secure, affordable, and sustainable energy, and suggests how battery technology may help its often-competing agendas
Energy security and energy affordability were the two most pressing questions last winter. UK energy reserves dipped to a low, unprecedented since the political and economic crises of the 1970s. With rolling blackouts predicted, over £4 billion was spent last year to balance the National Grid and avoid the disaster this scenario would present for post-COVID economic recovery. In this context, the UK has never scored well, globally, for energy affordability – defined as “equity” by the World Energy Council’s Trilemma Index(ii).
But, in the current geopolitical climate, UK energy costs are unlikely to ease until mid-2024 at the earliest, and next winter is predicted by many to be looking even worse than the last(iii). With far less gas storage capacity than our EU neighbours, the UK will only fall behind in replenishing import supply, prolonging the energy crisis and meaning continuing high prices. Understandably, security – power resilience – and energy affordability are top of the agenda for UK facilities managers.
The most recent World Energy Council’s Trilemma Index brings together all three branches, and looks to future European policy drivers: “The threat to energy security, coupled with rising inflation worldwide, has highlighted energy affordability issues… The energy crisis has challenged the region’s commitment to sustainability as they face soaring energy bills and limited supply. In the short term, it is likely the region will require increased fossil fuel consumption to meet growing demand. However, the current geopolitical crisis may also accelerate the energy transition as there remains substantial room for investment in carbon reduction opportunities.”
Drawing all three strands of the Energy Trilemma together, this observation highlights the necessity for UK facilities managers to focus on strategies and technologies effective for short-term demands, and for longer-term needs: security, affordability, and net zero.
NHS CRITICAL
Nowhere is security of energy supply more critical than in the NHS, where a resilient power supply is quite literally a matter of life and death. Traditionally, healthcare has relied upon Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to provide the emergency back-up power to keep critical equipment running in the event of disruption to supply. However, there are significant drawbacks with standard UPS, particularly as regards to sustainability – and the NHS has some of the most stringent net zero targets.
One South Yorkshire hospital approached Powerstar, as it was considering a more efficient, sustainable, back-up power solution in place of standard UPS technology. Where traditional UPS loses around 10 per cent capacity, as it switches constantly between AC and DC, even when not in use, HTM-compliant Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) technology has far lower capacity loss – generally less than one per cent.
For a typical hospital installation, the shift to BESS equates to about £262,000 in energy cost savings, reducing unnecessary carbon emissions by more than 210 tonnes of CO2e. This particular NHS Trust was also concerned about the potential risk of failure in an emergency – a real issue, since with traditional UPS there is no way to check the state of charge of the battery, meaning no guarantee in the event of a major disruption to power supply.
Powerstar supplied the hospital with BESS technology, with integrated UPS capabilities, to provide site-wide protection and instantaneous load support. The new batteries are cycled daily, ensuring correct functioning, and are able to meet NHS minimum requirement for 20 minutes load support in the case of power disruption.
For this hospital, the new BESS installation is successfully protecting critical care facilities – on just one day last April, the grid failed twice, and the new BESS seamlessly supported full load, for 15 seconds in the first incident and for 23 seconds in the subsequent disruption. Alongside this vital demand for energy security, modern BESS technology is helping the hospital work towards net zero by eliminating around 190 tonnes of CO2e, annually.
Looking to affordability, BESS technology has opened up a whole new revenue stream for the Trust by enabling them to engage with Grid Balancing services, which can generate around £100,000 additional income – and this is on top of the massively reduced energy spend – for this hospital, about £225,000 per year.
