Follow The Money – Sourcing Funding for BEMS
I’m Mark Glitherow, Key Account Manager at Trend, and in this blog I’ll explain how financing a Building Energy Management System (BEMS) could be easier than you think.
Although the green shoots of economic recovery are in evidence, budgets in the public sector are still tight and it might not seem the best time to consider spending precious financial resources on a building’s infrastructure. However, with energy prices remaining high and amidst ever-growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, it is in fact the perfect opportunity to invest in technology that can save energy and money.
While the focus in recent years has been on investment in renewable energy technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbines, in my view the best way to optimise energy resources is via a BEMS. With greater visibility and control of energy use through the monitoring of services such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting, a fully integrated BEMS can have up to 84 per cent of a building’s energy consuming devices directly under its control.
There is growing recognition of the ability of these systems to make sure that building services operate in strict accordance with demand, thereby avoiding unnecessary use of energy. Just as importantly, the data produced by a BEMS allows building owners, managers and occupiers to better analyse, understand, reconfigure and improve their site's energy usage and costs by having information presented in an organised and informative way.
The benefits are clear, yet the cost of installing a BEMS may seem prohibitive. However, this is not necessarily the case due to the existence of a government funded body called Salix Finance, which aims to accelerate investment by public sector bodies in energy efficiency technologies through invest to save schemes.
Launched in 2004, Salix Finance is funded by The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), The Welsh Assembly Government and The Scottish Government via The Carbon Trust. It provides funding for proven technologies that are cost effective in saving CO2 and that can maximise the potential of any further energy saving technologies.
An interest free loan is allocated on a first come first served basis and the minimum amount available is £5,000 per application, with no upper limit provided all projects can be completed within nine months of agreed application. It is expected that the loan repayments are covered from the energy savings achieved by the projects and once the loan is repaid, the organisations can keep all the savings. All projects – excluding schools and academies – must achieve a payback in less than five years.
To date, Salix Finance has funded over 12,000 projects with 851 public sector bodies, valued at £302.8m. This has saved the public sector £82m annually and £1.13 billion over the projects' lifetimes. In the future, this will reduce public sector CO2 emissions by 466,190 tonnes annually and almost 6.2 million tonnes over the lifetime of the projects.
Over 120 technology types are supported by the funding programmes including insulation, lighting upgrades, IT improvements, swimming pool covers, voltage reduction and more efficient heating. One area where it is seeing significant interest and focusing its attention is in BEMS technology, due to its ability to make ongoing savings across the entire infrastructure of a building.
In order to qualify for funding for a BEMS, an organisation must carry out an audit that justifies the reasons for the project and outlines what can be achieved by its implementation. A comprehensive report is then submitted, identifying and detailing the expected energy savings. Projects must be an installation or upgrade – physical or software – which directly enables energy savings to be made by, for example, enabling equipment to switch off or slow down. The addition of sensors and/or controls to an existing BEMS can also be funded.
BEMS are at the forefront of the drive towards greater energy efficiency and the cost savings and environmental benefits that can be experienced as a result of investment in this technology are now within easy reach. Don't miss out on this golden opportunity!
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