TEAM solutions make the difference to RBKC

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea chooses TEAM’s utility bill validation and cost recovery service to manage their utility spend, and cut their invoice processing costs by half.

Background

Twelve square miles in size and home to about 180,000 people, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) is the most densely populated local authority in the UK. With 37 schools, five university campuses, over 50 embassies and some of London's most exclusive shops, offices and residential property, RBKC is a vital hub of activity and commerce.

All this activity has an impact on the environment. In 2007-2008, council-related activities in RBKC, including buildings, schools, street lighting and water, generated 24,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Working with the Carbon Trust, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council has created a five-year Carbon Management Plan, and set an ambitious target of reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by March 2014. Determined to influence local business and the community and lead by example, RBKC’s ambitious plan sets out how it will hit its target and save between £1.5 and £2.5m per year on energy bills from 2014.

TEAM has long partnered with RBKC to provide energy management solutions that help the council realise these significant cost savings that can be made through energy efficiency.

TEAM Sigma software

Initially, the council's need to carry out energy monitoring and targeting was supported by the creation of three specific energy targets:

• To decrease its energy consumption by 2% per annum
• To decrease its CO2 emissions by 10%
• To increase its consumption of renewable energy to 10%

At the time, the council's energy management was fragmented. It had no data management system in place that collated its sites' meter data. Its individual sites were also responsible for payment of their own utility invoices. This meant it had only a limited amount of consumption data that could be used to compile energy reports; making reporting a complex and time-consuming task.

Stage one of the solution involved the council commissioning an external meter reading company to undertake quarterly readings across all of the council's operational properties. The council then introduced TEAM's Sigma software to manage and analyse the collected data.

RBKC Buildings and Maintenance Manager Keith Harper comments on the impact of TEAM's software, "Sigma allows us to have access to complete consumption data for all the council's sites. With Sigma we can carry out monitoring and targeting on our energy consumption and take action to improve energy efficiency".

TEAM Solutions

The council decided to implement a formal monitoring & targeting structure and appointed TEAM's Bureau and Consultancy services to provide accurate site profile information and energy market advice.

The council explored ways in which it could make valuable savings in costs and resources, and these are now achieved through TEAM Bureau's utility bill validation and cost recovery service. Tasks and responsibilities undertaken by TEAM currently range from taking meter readings to analysing data and training staff.

The contract involves TEAM Bureau receiving copies of gas and electricity bills for all accounts supplied through the council's Corporate Energy Supply Contracts. These bills are processed and validated by the Bureau within three days and originals are sent to the account payer.

TEAM Bureau service use the following validators:

• Valid site and supply
• Against duplicate or part duplicate of issued invoice
• Calculation errors
• That consumption is in defined tolerance and corresponds to supply characteristics
• That consumption is based on actual meter reads or reflective of consumption
• That maximum demand, agreed capacity, and power factors are within acceptable limits
• That correct contract rate has been applied
• Correct additional costs have been applied

Keith said: "TEAM’s utility bill validation and cost recovery service has been extremely beneficial to us. TEAM carries out time consuming administration tasks on behalf of the council. This allows our staff to concentrate on core service delivery matters.

“We are able to compare billed data with actual consumption data for all of our sites. In the past obtaining such data has proved to be difficult as many of our sites, such as schools, are responsible for their own budgets. Now we can compare spend against actual usage."

A further advantage of the Bureau service is its web-based database, Signet, which allows designated users 24 hour access to energy consumption data. Through Signet, RBKC staff members can gain access to reports, league tables, analysis and validated invoices for site monitoring and targeting. Signet particularly assists the council to conduct a year-on-year comparison, look at gas consumption modified to Degree Days and compare own read consumption against invoiced consumption.

Keith said, "TEAM's Bureau and Consultancy services work together to provide technical and practical solutions. These are discussed by TEAM at our Corporate Energy Group meetings. A recent training session delivered by TEAM was particularly useful in teaching staff energy saving measures they can adopt at home and in the work place".

Future plans

With the energy environment constantly evolving, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will no
doubt need to adapt and pioneer various projects to remain at the forefront of their service delivery. RBKC and TEAM have already earmarked a number of potential projects. These currently include the evaluation of various renewable energy generation options that could be implemented to supply the council's sites. The RBKC envisage a long term partnership with TEAM as they continue to benefit from TEAM's support.