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Adjournment Speech

Date:
11th March

Subject:
Energy Reduction

"This Government big-notes itself for taking action to reduce greenhouse emissions, but the question of demand management or using less power must be looked at systematically. I have been struck while walking around the city at night by the number of lights and air-conditioning units that have been left on in buildings. Much more power is being used in big buildings than is necessary. Most building managers are concerned about their elevators— which seems to be the one service that most often breaks down in many buildings—and about their security systems. But a building can be divided into a number of parts: the atrium, which is the foyer; the lifts and the areas around the lifts; the car park; the air-conditioning system, which moves air through the building and generally cools the building down; and the body of the building, where the occupants are using computers, lights, et cetera.

These parts in a big building can be looked at individually. When there are fewer people in a building, less energy for lights and air-conditioning is required. On weekends when there may be only a handful of people in the building, services can be turned down. It may be decided that after business hours the temperature need not be regulated and there would just be the air flow. In other words, considerable flexibility can be exercised with regard to the amount of electricity used. Not many people have actually given this matter the attention it deserves. Buildings could be fitted with timers to regulate power; to turn electricity off and on, or regulate the flow, in various parts of the building. Of course energy demands are very different at different times of the year—on public holidays and so on. If electricity in a building were programmed or switched off during holiday periods, considerable savings would be realised. It would make a huge difference.

If a building has very high energy use, its air-conditioning chiller may be turned off intermittently because the warmth of the bricks and mortar will keep the air inside the building at a constant temperature even if the air is not chilled for a period. This can be managed by individual metering of segments of the building; it can even be done by telemetry. In other words, a message can be sent to a central office where a computer looks at the building's energy usage profile—there is an Australian greenhouse office rating, a star rating—and a determination is made about how that building's energy can be effectively utilised and electricity costs can be reduced from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. The payback time from installing such a system is only 6 to 18 months. I thought about energy savings when I was redesigning my own house. It came to my notice that such a service is offered by EP&T Energy Systems, which has a large number of clients in the private sector, including a group called Macquarie Asset Services, using this sub-metering system to save a lot of money. As I said, the payback period for such a system is less than two years, and after that time significant profits are enjoyed by those perceptive enough to have such a system installed.

Macquarie Asset Services identifies what utilities are being used, where they are being used, at what time and at what cost. Macquarie identifies whether utility usage within a property complies with industry-accepted benchmarks; whether the utility bill is accurate; and whether energy is being wasted during public holidays, through non-use of the outside air cycle, as a result of competing heating and cooling systems, because of incorrect temperature controls for air-conditioning, or because of excessive and unusual after-hours use of air-conditioning plant, building lights, car park lights, car park mechanical services, and lifts shunting. Most lifts are set to minimise waiting times so that if one lift is used, another lift moves to an intermediate floor. If there are few people in a building, fewer lifts should be used. Lifts shunting and moving up and down or in sequence use up a lot of power. The company also identifies major plant working after business hours to supply a small 24-hour tenant requirement. It verifies the proper operation of energy management projects that have been implemented; it accurately sub-meters tenants and allocates costs-to-cost centres; it selects the best available tariffs if there is a plan available to buy the electricity; and it tracks the Australian building greenhouse rating. The company provides an effective reporting tool from senior management to site personnel.

There are 200 Intelligent Systems in Australia and, sadly, not many of them are used by the New South Wales Government. That is the reason I wanted to speak on this subject today and why I am asking questions of individual Ministers about energy management. [ Time expired .]"