Energy management
Energy strategy
Water and wastewater treatment processes are incredibly energy intensive and each year we serve a growing population, which means increased energy use as we strive to achieve stringent environmental performance targets. We seek to mitigate this through our energy management strategy and in recent years have maintained consistent energy use in the face of considerable upward pressures.
Our energy management strategy has four objectives:
- Efficient use of energy;
- Maximising self-generation and direct supply opportunities;
- Minimising costs; and
- Building supply resilience to ensure we can deliver our services.
Energy reporting and disclosure
We continually monitor our consumption, generation and export of energy and publish annual records in the Energy and Carbon report within the UU Group Integrated annual report, the most recent of which is available here. We also calculate intensity measures such as the energy consumption per ML of water produced and distributed.
In 2024, to support our aims to switch to clean, green energy, we have introduced to our environmental KPIs an energy metric relating to ‘Energy generated from low carbon sources directly, and with partners, as a percentage of used’. The measure has also been included in the 2023 Long term incentive plan for executive directors and will encourage energy efficiency, fuel switching away from fossil fuel and clean energy generation, each of which support our net zero transition. Energy generated directly, and with partners, from low carbon sources together with renewable and low emissions energy purchased in 2023/24 is equivalent to 89 per cent of the total energy used.
We have also carried out assessments as part of Phase I and II in the UK Governments Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme. Within this we reviewed total energy consumption, identified areas of significant consumption and identified energy saving opportunities. We will be completing our Phase III audit soon and our aspiration is to become certified under ISO50001 for Energy Management systems.
Energy efficiency actions taken
We have an integrated approach to energy efficiency based on
- continuous improvement of people – optimising ways of working;
- systems – improving visibility of use and analysis of data systems; and
- technology – targeted investment to remove technological inefficiencies.
Our energy management programme is delivered by a specialist team of energy engineers working with operational staff. It sets a common approach for benchmarking performance and develops action plans to optimise site-based energy use. The programme holds up to 60 workshops a year to develop engagement and knowledge of how energy can be efficiently and flexibly managed on sites and is supported by operational carbon e-learning and a comprehensive energy performance reporting and analysis capability. The aim is for sites to benchmark their starting position and develop an active continuous improvement approach for energy management to help move from bronze, through silver and gold, to platinum level.
We have completed hundreds of systems and technology measures to improve energy efficiency from installing low energy lighting to automating operations of our water and wastewater assets such as with new controls for secondary treatment and pumps. We have also installed over 3,000 sub-meters to identify opportunities to restrain energy use and quantify the benefits of interventions the data from which can be accessed via our corporate energy dashboard.
Improving energy efficiency is a primary focus of our capital infrastructure programmes and also integrated into our Dynamic Network Management (DNM) capability to ensure our asset base is as efficient as possible. We have also developed training courses to engage and develop colleagues across the business and implemented our ‘Use Less, Save More’ campaign.