Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland has become the latest firm to benefit from a targeted energy demand strategy after saving £16,500 through avoidance of peak time charges.
The French construction products giant, which last year celebrated its 350th anniversary, powered down more than 20 of its UK and Ireland factories to avoid its exposure to Triad charges.
These are applied during the three half hour periods of peak demand on the electricity transmission network between November and February. The Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) use Triad calculations to distribute higher charges on energy suppliers, who alleviate the cost by passing some of it on to large energy users. By reducing demand during Triad periods, firms are able to avoid these addtional charges, which is known as an embedded benefit.
Saint-Gobain Glass’ engineering manager Michael Dickinson calculated that the charges mean running costs at its sites can rocket by as much as 500 times during one of the Triad periods which are announced by National Grid at the end of each winter.
By switching some machinery off or rescheduling factory operations for a short period of time from around 4pm to 6pm – the peak time for Triads – demand across Saint-Gobain’s sites during the three Triad periods showed an 11% fall and led to a total saving of £165,000.
At one site alone – Holwell Works at Melton Mowbray – a saving was achieved equivalent of more than a whole month’s energy costs.
Dickinson said: “As well as reducing our costs and helping maintain our competitiveness, it also ties in well with our aims as a company to minimise environmental impact and contribute to the economic and social well-being of the communities we operate in.
“Reducing our peak demand plays a part in helping balance the grid, ensuring the UK’s energy supplies are maintained and reducing the need for more generation capacity to be built.”
While the timing of Triad periods isn’t accurately known in advance, Saint-Gobain worked with SmartestEnergy to determine the correct times to power down using the firm’s Triad alerting service, which assesses a range of factors including historic trends and temperature to determine when they are likely.
Despite the success of the scheme in lowering costs for Saint-Gobain, an ongoing review of the embedded benefits regime could see costs on large energy users increase substantially if the current system is changed. To find out more on the possible consequences of changes to embedded benefits, click here
