London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow Council recently declared a climate emergency, committing to make the council carbon neutral by 2030. The borough has an ambitious target to retrofit the entire corporate property portfolio, which is about 13 per cent of the council’s direct emissions.
Following the launch of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), Hounslow approached the Retrofit Accelerator for assistance to appoint a service provider that will help the council to achieve its carbon reduction goals.
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22m
kWh of total energy savings
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7,180
total tCO2 saved
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50%
schools supported
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£41m
total investment
How has the Retrofit Accelerator supported Hounslow?
The Retrofit Accelerator – Workplaces has supported Hounslow since 2016 – when it assisted the council to appoint a pre-procured service provider for its schools.
Phase 2 & 3 followed this, where the Retrofit Accelerator team provided benchmarking analysis and procurement support, as well as offering data analysis to scope the project strategy and determine the appropriate stages to develop the invitation to tender.
At this stage, the team helped to identify funding streams and oversaw projects that run through the RE:FIT Framework, providing technical assurance in the process.
Combined, the above allowed Hounslow to install new building management systems, as well as air-source heat pumps and solar PV panels.
Impact
In its first phase, 21 schools were surveyed and retrofitted, saving 600 tonnes of CO2 and £172,500 annually.
Low carbon-energy efficiency sources installed in Hounslow’s schools (some of them participated in the programme for second time, installing additional energy saving measures, following a successful first phase) and public buildings reduced carbon emissions by more than 3,000 tonnes each year and saved more than 16 million of kilowatts hours (kWh) of gas and electricity. Hounslow Council received £18 million of grant funding through PSDS to implement decarbonisation measures across 33 of its schools and 28 of its public buildings.
In phase 3, low carbon energy efficiency sources installed in six additional Hounslow schools saved an additional 272 tonnes of carbon.
Through this successful relationship with the Retrofit Accelerator and by taking advantage of the grants available, the council has now retrofitted 50% of its schools with the aim to install low carbon energy efficiency equipment to all of its schools portfolio.
Get in touch to find out more at [email protected] or visit our website
Our partnership with the Retrofit Accelerator is second to none for their expertise in procurement, planning and delivery. The full range of free services, the RE: FIT Framework, the Energy Performance Contract, the excellent ESCo selection available with the relevant expertise in low carbon technology – in Hounslow’s case using Asset Plus as our delivery partner. I can see no better energy support package for councils.
The PSDS grant provides a significant contribution to the Councils objectives of building a cleaner, greener borough, enabling us to capitalise and get a head start in the journey towards net zero carbon and deliver on our commitments.