The National Archives

 The National Archives is a government department and an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. A centre of expertise in all aspects of creating, managing and preserving official information, it works with 250 government and public sector bodies, helping them to manage and use information more effectively. As the official archive of the UK government and for England and Wales, it preserves and protects one of the largest collections of historical public records in the world. From parchment and paper to digital files and databases, it cares for 11 million public records, making them accessible to all.  Its main site is at Kew in South West London.

The challenge, the solution and the savings

The National Archives has specific and unusual challenges when it comes to energy use. It has a responsibility to maintain appropriate environmental conditions in its repositories to preserve unique and priceless historical records dating back over 1,000 years. These include paper, vellum and parchment documents, photographs, maps, drawings and paintings, as well as historical artefacts made from a wide variety of materials.  Many of these items are centuries old and very fragile. The National Archives needs to maintain suitable temperature and humidity levels in its storage areas to ensure the long-term survival of its records, and this requires a large air-conditioning system.

At the same time, it welcomes over 90,000 visitors to the reading rooms at Kew each year, and has to provide appropriate facilities for them to study records. Ideal conditions for preserving documents are very cool and dry, but public areas of the site must be warm enough for visitors to spend time in while they study records. Maintaining the right environmental conditions in different areas of a large site is a complex process, and air-conditioning is an essential element in this. The National Archives is committed to reducing its overall energy use without putting its records at risk or making them less accessible to the public.  

Four powerPerfector units were installed at the Kew site in September 2009. A 1MVA and a 1.5MVA powerPerfector unit were installed on 6 September 2009. The 1.5MVA unit was installed at an 8% optimisation setting; the 1MVA unit was initially installed at a 0% optimisation setting and therefore was not optimising the voltage until the setting was changed to 8% on 29 November 2009. A further 1MVA and 1.5MVA unit were installed on the 13 September 2009, at an 8% optimisation setting.

Topline results

The powerPerfector units at The National Archives are saving it 10% of its electricity consumption. 

Voltage Power Optimisation (VPO)^®, the technology at the core of every powerPerfector unit, effectively improved and protected the electrical infrastructure of The National Archives. The Kew site now operates more efficiently, benefits from improved power quality and is protected against common power spikes. 

Voltage Power Optimisation has improved phase balancing, reduced harmonics and optimised voltage. As a result, equipment lifetimes and reliability will also be extended, giving further savings in the future.