Basic HTML Version
sustainabletimes
15
www.binfo.co.uk
Headquartered in Paris and with
operations in 40 countries and
115,000 staff, Capgemini is one of
the world’s largest management
consulting, outsourcing, technology
and professional services companies.
It has an enviable track record in
creating and delivering business and
technology solutions for blue chip
organisations and in 2010 achieved
revenues of
€
8.7bn.
Capgemini takes its environmental
and corporate social responsibilities
seriously and has implemented a range
of measures to minimise its carbon
footprint. As well as being certified to
EMAS and ISO 14001, it has set a target
of achieving a 20% energy reduction
from 2008 levels by 2014.
In January 2011, as part of this
programme, the company appointed
Craig Hall as its UK energy efficiency
manager.
Hall said: “Capgemini Group spends
in the region of
€
40m a year on utilities
and 70% of our electricity usage is linked
to our data centres, in which we host our
clients’ IT equipment. One of my first
tasks when joining the company was to
devise a strategy that would reduce the
amount of energy consumed within the
14 Capgemini locations in the UK.”
Although the company already had
a building management system (BMS)
in place, it relied heavily on human
interaction to ensure that energy use
was being correctly controlled. Also, with
no monitoring facility available, it was
very difficult to see exactly how much
energy was being used.
Monitor and control
Hall quickly realised he needed a
tool that could monitor and diagnose
energy usage patterns and called in Trend
Controls to discuss how it could help
achieve these objectives. “I’ve worked
with Trend in the past,” he explained,
“and consider them to be the market
leader in building energy management
systems (BEMS). After our initial
meeting, it was clear that Trend Energy
Manager would help facilitate enhanced
interaction and achieve better results.”
Monitoring energy use
Trend Energy Manager is a software-
based system that can be used to
monitor energy use within a building.
Energy and facilities managers (FMs)
can use it to keep a close eye on the
gas and electricity consumed by their
building services and the effect that has
on their carbon footprint. It captures
data from meter readings and other
Trend BEMS variables that are logged
and automatically uploaded, enabling it
to provide rapid reporting of incidences
of energy overuse or issues with plant
monitored by Trend. It can even be
configured to suggest probable causes
that FMs can then act upon.
It is a highly flexible solution that can
be scaled to suit a range of applications,
from relatively small single buildings to
large campuses and dispersed estates. As
a web-based package, it can be accessed
by authorised users from virtually
any location, via the Internet or an
organisation’s Intranet.
To better understand how energy is
being used in Capgemini’s UK buildings,
Hall and his team input a variety of
information, such as utility tariffs,
CO
2
factor and cost and consumption
targets, into their Trend Energy Manager.
Normalisation criteria are also specified
to allow comparisons between different
areas within a building or different
buildings, or to benchmark consumption
against specific targets. Degree day data is
also called up and entered to compensate
for differences in weather conditions
when comparing current energy
consumption with that of a previous year.
Capgemini’s team of internal FMs
now use the data supplied by Trend
Energy Manager to understand and react
to the real-time energy profile of their
buildings. This data can be manipulated
and combined in a variety of ways and
is presented in easy-to-understand
graphical and tabular formats.
Hall says he is particularly impressed
by the system’s ease of use: “In order
to fully engage our FMs with what we
are trying to do, the system needs to
be accessible and easy to understand.
Trend Energy Manager achieves this and
navigation between screen pages is very
straightforward, as is drilling down into
the detail or displaying an overall view.
For example, we can look at a graph
of minimum, average and maximum
electricity usage in a particular area over
a given period, or view a report showing
the total energy consumption, cost and
CO
2
emissions for every building on the
estate,” he said.
Capgemini’s UK energy reduction
strategy is already seeing success, with
an impressive year-on-year energy
reduction of 16.7% – equating to
£250,000 in savings.
Summing up, Hall said: “I’m delighted
with what we have achieved so far and
we will strive to better this during 2012.
The Trend Energy Manager plays a key
role in our efforts to reduce energy
consumption and brings our entire
energy reduction agenda to life.”
01403 211888
How a building management system from Trend Controls
is helping Capgemini meet energy reduction targets.
Craig Hall, Capgemini
(left), Derek Brooks,
Trend Controls (right)
It is a highly
flexible solution
that can be
scaled to suit
a range of
applications...
“
Building Management Systems