Salford City Council - Civic Centre

Salford City Council, Civic Centre– powerPerfected

Salford is just outside of Manchester. The city of Salford covers 37 square miles and the five districts of Salford, Eccles, Worsley, Irlam and Cadishead, and Swinton and Pendlebury, home to 220,000 people.

Environment and sustainability are a priority for the City Council: Half the city is made up of green spaces and features forests, nature reserves, mosslands, parklands and picturesque villages. There are hundreds of acres of beautiful park with a variety of wildlife habitats. Salford also has the UK's only orange canal, wetland, ponds and a fishing lake.

The Challenge, the solution and the savings

After receiving the annual electricity consumption details for the Civic Centre, it was possible to give a provisional quote for a powerPerfector unit and to outline the potential for energy savings. A voltage logger was then sent for 10 days, which recorded the voltage level at the site by connecting it to a regular mains socket. It was found that the average voltage at the site was 246 volts (V), 16V higher than the nominal supply in the UK. After a survey of the site by a powerPerfector Approved Contractor, the installation took place on a Sunday when there would be no disturbance to the building. There was no noticeable change to the operation of the building, although continuous carbon savings were instantly being made every day at the Civic Centre. 

Topline results

The first thing to analyse was the change in electricity consumption in the two years before the installation in order to show if there was an overall trend in their energy usage. This showed that on average it increased by 1.3%, meaning that the level of savings shown in a year on year before and after analysis may not be indicative of the true savings made. A simple look at a year's energy usage before and after installation shows a 7.4% reduction in average kWh consumption.

In order to see how the powerPerfector analysis has affected the energy usage on the site the daily profile (made from the 48 half hourly kWh readings) was averaged out for the year before and after. Plotted on the graph below, the data showed that the technology saved energy throughout the day. In conclusion, the year-on-year comparison, refined by the pre-installation year-on-year analysis, gives us a savings figure of 9%. This equates to a projected annual carbon dioxide emissions saving of approximately 142,400kg and an annual financial saving of £21,200. 

Voltage Power Optimisation. The less obvious benefits

Reduced maintenance, longer life
All electrical equipment has an optimum voltage at which it works best. A powerPerfected supply delivers that optimum and reduces the strain on your electrical equipment, leaving it to work more reliably and for longer.

Better quality power supply
Some things you may have accepted for years, but product faults can turn out to be caused by a poor quality power supply. For instance, the life of incandescent light bulbs is almost doubled when the supply voltage is optimised. Now imagine that in relation to an IT network or an expensive piece of manufacturing equipment.

Missing the penalty kick
Power factor penalty charges – which are now uncapped in the UK – can be avoided if your power factor is above 0.95. If your power factor is at around 0.9 at the moment, powerPerfector could remove your exposure to these charges by improving the electrical efficiency of your site.

Lower harmonic distortion and reduced neutral currents
powerPerfectors are able to filter harmonics on the mains incomer. Harmonic distortion is on the increase and can lead to random failures of electronic equipment – particularly computers.

Protection
Common transients – very brief spikes in voltage from the grid – are eliminated by powerPerfector. Transients at this level can cause catastrophic damage to equipment, but smaller, more common transient events will also shorten the life expectancy of electrical equipment over time.