Maritime and Coastguard Agency rescued from incorrect utility bills

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has enjoyed significant benefits since it contracted TEAM to validate its utility bills and make cost recoveries on its behalf.

Background

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, and is responsible throughout the UK for implementing the Government's maritime safety policy. They work to prevent the loss of lives at the coast and at sea, to ensure that ships are safe and to prevent coastal pollution. This includes coordinating search and rescue at sea through Her Majesty's Coastguard, and checking that ships meet UK and international safety regulations.

TEAM Bureau has been processing and validating utility billing data for 388 of MCA's sites throughout the UK since 2000. Sites include their Head Office in Southampton, 3 regional centres, 1 training centre, 2 Helicopter units and 18 Maritime and Rescue Coordination Centres that deal with 999 calls for coastal rescue. The remainder of their estate is made up of Coastguard Rescue Stations and Radio Sites, the majority of which are usually unmanned but house rescue equipment and vehicles.

Buying Solutions

MCA subscribes to the TEAM utility billing validation and cost recovery service through the Buying Solutions framework agreement. "This has been an ideal route for us, as we didn't have to go through a time consuming open tender process and can take advantage of pre-agreed prices," explains MCA Sustainability Manager Jonathan Goodman.

It is also through the framework, that TEAM has been producing Display Energy Certificates for the two MCA buildings in England and Wales which fall under the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulation. "This has been very straight forward, as TEAM had all the requisite information already to hand," says Jonathan.

Government reporting

Jonathan's main responsibilities include the management of energy throughout the diverse MCA estate to ensure that the Agency meets or exceeds government targets. He explains: "We are required to report energy consumption for every one of our buildings through the mandatory Government electronic Property Information Mapping Service (e-PIMS). TEAM provides all required reports for us on a quarterly basis, including electricity, gas, water and liquid fuels where applicable."

Saving over £80,000

MCA receive regular savings reports from TEAM detailing recoveries made from erroneous utility bills. During the past 12 months, the TEAM bureau queried a total of 378 invoices on behalf of MCA, resulting in overall savings and cost preventions of £80,952. "With our current set-up and limited resources, we couldn't have done these ourselves and most of these recoveries would have taken longer to claim", says MCA Estates Finance Officer Steve Smart. "We rely on Signet, a TEAM web interface, to interpret our bills. We can drill down and get all the required data about each of our sites."

Introducing Automated Meter Reading

Over the past two years MCA have introduced Automated Meter Reading (AMR) for the majority of their estate for electricity and are in the process of installing AMR gas meters at their 50 gas sites. "It's been a difficult 24 months," admits Jonathan, "but this greatly simplifies the process of obtaining accurate meter readings as so many of our sites are unmanned". In 2007 TEAM assisted MCA with a feasibility study and recommended a suitable meter operator and data collector.

Introducing AMR has also eliminated estimated bills, which greatly improves cash flow. "Due to the uniqueness of our sites, bills were normally overestimated," explains Steve. "We have now been able to recover overpayments and the project has already paid for itself." MCA publish consumption data on their internal website, so MCA personnel can access information on their building energy performance. "With 1200 full time employees and over 3500 volunteers it is really important to get the energy saving message across," Jonathan comments, "and creating awareness is already starting to show some notable results".

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

The MCA is affected by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, but the management of this is being handled under the umbrella of the Department for Transport. "With all our energy data captured in the TEAM system, it will be easy for us to provide data required for CRC reporting to DFT", says Jonathan. "And the fact that we have introduced AMR is a bonus as this counts as an early action metric."

Water Audit

MCA and TEAM have recently entered into an agreement to undertake a Water Saving Audit. "Our main focus has been on electricity and gas, given that these two commodities account for a significant proportion of our overall carbon footprint, however water is also a very important area so the MCA is keen to undertake the audit as an initial step to identifying potential savings," says Jonathan. As part of TEAM’s Water Audit consultants carry out free site surveys to identify potential savings and measures to reduce future consumption.

MCA & TEAM

Jonathan concludes, "Over the past 4 years the Agency has undertaken some changes in relation to Energy Management and TEAM has been able to adapt, which I think is crucial for any long term business relationship".