Case Study: Old Mutual Energy Efficiency Project
Case Study of Old Mutual Commercial Propert Energy Efficiency Project
Palace Engineering Services (Pty) Ltd (t/a Palace Technologies) recently completed a pilot investigation and 11 preliminary investigations to implement energy efficiency in several large Old Mutual owned buildings. Buildings ranged from large malls like Menlyn shopping centre to office parks.
Total electricity consumption can be reduced by more than 15% by introducing a number of lighting, hot water and HVAC initiatives. This may be increased still further if more expensive interventions are performed.
The project cost has an approximate payback period of less than 5 years using a 15% interest rate and the newly announced electricity tariffs. Walkthrough audits at 11 other buildings showed that electrical consumption can be reduced by between an average 10 and 15 % for all 11 buildings. The cost for energy efficient intervention varies depending on the type of building and intervention. Old Mutual intends to finance this project themselves due to the uncertainty in the availability of Eskom DSM funds.
Our initial investigations showed that it is of utmost importance that Old Mutual adopts a green building policy, and more specific an energy policy (all within PES's capabilities), in order to control electricity consumption by themselves and through their tenants.
Note: The extreme advances in energy efficient technology will ensure that the percentage saving will increase and the project cost will decrease from now until the projects are implemented.
Our offering in terms of Cogeneration
Palace Engineering Services (PTY) Ltd has established a relationship with GE on carrying out cogeneration projects. Cogeneration is the thermodynamically sequential production of two or more useful forms of energy from a single primary energy source. It encompasses a range of technologies, but will always include an electricity generator and a heat recovery system. Cogeneration is also known as ‘combined heat and power (CHP)'.
Conventional power generation is on average only 35% efficient - up to 65% of the energy potential is released as waste heat. More recent combined cycle generation can improve this to 55%, excluding losses for the transmission and distribution of electricity. Cogeneration reduces this loss by using the heat for industry, commerce and home heating/cooling that would otherwise have been exhausted.
Through the utilisation of the heat, the efficiency of cogeneration plant can reach 90% or more. In addition, the electricity generated by the cogeneration plant is normally used locally, thereby making transmission and distribution losses negligible. Cogeneration therefore offers energy savings ranging between 15-40% when compared against the supply of electricity and heat from conventional power stations and boilers.
Cogeneration may be suitable in any application that has a large concurrent heat and power demand. In recent years the greater availability and wider choice of suitable technology has meant that cogeneration has become an attractive and practical proposition for a wide range of applications.