Improved energy and carbon management makes life easier for Hastings District Council

“e-Bench® is an easy-to-use, intuitive system that provides all our energy information in one place. The e-Bench® team are great to deal with – they are always willing to listen to suggestions for improvements, and will work with our energy providers when there are problems.” Sharon O’Toole, Procurement Manager, Hastings District Council

The procurement and energy management challenge

Electricity bills are often the single highest operational cost for councils as they run a range of community and civic facilities, from libraries, sports grounds and offices, through to swimming pools, all with varying energy needs.

Sharon O’Toole, the Procurement Manager for Hastings District Council, knew that with better information they could improve their energy management.

The current reactive approach was inefficient, with trends tough to spot using paper invoices. It could take months before increased usage was identified, and often meter spikes were noticed only if the budget was tracking higher than expected. The Council would then have to ask the electricity retailer to provide a range of information so the cause could be investigated.

“We lacked real-time information, and the process of knowing what data we actually needed and getting suppliers to provide it could be time-consuming and frustrating”, says Sharon.

e-Bench® - the energy and carbon management solution

Sharon realised that energy efficiency is a cost-effective way to reduce carbon footprints and save money. The Council needed to understand and monitor their energy consumption and cost drivers, and they recognised that checking electricity invoices manually lacked efficiency. A tender process helped the Council review a number of energy management systems, and e-Bench® was selected as the system that provided the best fit for Hastings District Council in terms of both value for money and functionality.

Improved understanding of energy consumption

Using e-Bench®, Hastings District Council now has a much better understanding about their energy cost drivers. e-Bench® helps managers monitor the performance of their plant and equipment, empowering them to understand the impact that their behaviours have on energy consumption and costs. Hastings District Council has also found opportunities to reduce energy consumption and make savings.

“The alerts provide a trigger for us to investigate whether equipment is working correctly and efficiently. We have identified ICPs that were no longer needed, and we have been able to track energy efficiencies of new projects such as the upgrade of the swimming pools at Clive. The e-Bench® reports showed that there was a significant reduction in energy used after the work was completed, “ says Sharon.

Improved reporting and insights

e-Bench® has helped raise awareness of energy efficiency across the organisation. Budget managers

no longer consider energy as an overhead, but understand that it is something they can (and should) influence. Many people find electricity invoices to be confusing, with all their different costs and tariffs.

e-Bench® parcels the information into easy-to-interpret graphs, which provide a simple summary of what’s

been used, what it cost, and how it compares to historic usage.