According to the UK Climate Change Committee's Sixth Carbon Budget Report, direct Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from buildings in the UK accounted for 87 MtCO2e in 2019 (which was 17% of the total national GHG emissions), primarily CO2 from fossil fuels heating.
SBC has moved to a Zero Carbon for Business tariff for its corporate electricity supply contract, as highlighted in Action EW5. Therefore, reducing and phasing out natural gas use at SBC sites is the main remaining challenge for SBC buildings decarbonisation. Natural gas is primarily used for heating and Hot Water Supply (HWS) across SBC properties.
This decarbonisation challenge has positive synergies with broader Stevenage decarbonisation targets, inspiring and leading by example, but also directly contributing to the decarbonisation of the public sector, residential sector, and commercial sector across the town.
Based on a literature review SBC has outlined a hierarchy framework to analyse actions to decarbonise SBC buildings as shown below. The top green actions are typically the most desirable and cost-efficient, while the bottom brown-orange actions are more expensive, uncertain or they imply relying on fossil fuels.
As part of this challenge, the Council has conducted different actions to monitor, better understand and reduce the energy consumption across it's sites and operations.
SBC is currently monitoring the electricity demand profile of 27 sites through a digital meter explorer and dashboard, aiming to identify and take further smart energy savings in different time horizons.
Additionally, the Council has carried out energy audits for electricity and gas consumption at SBC main sites, aiming to compare these outcomes with the EPC recommendations and take further action to decarbonise our buildings.
Some of SBC top sites in terms of energy consumption and carbon emissions are SBC leisure facilities, which are managed by a third party under a leisure management contract (Everyone Active, EA).
The current leisure manager has a sustainability team and has been working on energy efficiency measures across the facilities. Since EA took over these facilities, the following works have been conducted:
Furthermore, the Council has also worked with Everyone Active to secure funding from Sport England for a pool cover, which is now installed, helping our facility to be more sustainable, reduce its carbon footprint and its operational costs. The project will deliver 292,380 kg of CO2 reduction in the following three years, reducing water usage by 3,699 cubic metres.
St. George’s MSCP has a mixture of fluorescent and LED lighting and motion sensors to reduce the electricity consumption. Overall, the electricity usage is still significant, and includes EV charging points, lifts, and the car park control room. Therefore, as part of planning for an upgrade project, the SBC engineering team has investigated the feasibility and the cost-benefits of installing solar PVs and BESS. Capital has also been secured for LED lighting upgrades.
For Westgate MSCP, most of the lighting units are very old and not energy efficient. The cost-benefit of switching to LEDs and installing lighting sensors will also be investigated during the planning phase of the upgrade project.
Energy audits have been carried out at three of SBC main buildings: Daneshill House, Cavendish Road Depot and the Indoor Market.
The scope of the Daneshill House audit was to identify short-term energy and cost savings opportunities, while the audits for Cavendish Road Depot and the Indoor Market aimed to include medium to long-term measures to enable low carbon operations in the future.
The energy audits during 2023 have been completed and briefings including the results and main recommendations have been delivered to the Council.
A set of quantifiable and unquantifiable recommendations from the energy audit reports are now acknowledged by the Council. The council is currently working to understand these alongside the EPC recommendations for these sites to take further action.
Since 2018, SBC has been upgrading the communal heating system in all 15 of its sheltered housing units across Stevenage with more energy efficient and lower carbon emissions alternatives. The works have included:
The upgrade scheme had been completed in autumn 2022 and is estimated to reduce the 2023 carbon emissions by 34% compared to 2017 (prior the start of any upgrade work).
Almost two-thirds of CO2 reduction is due to the installation of new technologies with higher energy efficiency and lower consumption of fossil fuels. The other third of the reduction is due to decarbonisation of power grid at a national level.
The electricity demand profile of 27 SBC sites has been monitored through the digital meter explorer created by Grid Edge since May 2023 as a first step to identify smart energy savings. This is an add on to the BMS system which looks for trends to provide efficiencies. The sites being monitored are:
Though the Meter Explorer, SBC now has an insight into out of hours energy uses and any unusual consumption patterns. The monitoring has initiated analysis into the management and operation at these sites.