Hertfordshire County Council Awards Major Contract To Optimal

Hertfordshire County Council awards Optimal Communications contract to monitor up to 1000 premises across the County as part of its commitment to Climate Change Programme

• Contract awarded to monitor utility consumption across 1000 Council premises in Herts using Optimal Smart Monitoring system
• Optimal system provides continuous tracking of utility consumption with data delivered immediately to identify exceptions and abnormal consumption
• Data can be distributed to any web-enabled PC to provide the greatest possible access to information
• Graphic output converts consumption statistics into format which is readily understood and can therefore provide powerful stimulus to observers to reduce their consumption

Hertfordshire County Council has awarded Optimal Communications a major five year contract to deploy its smart monitoring technology throughout all of its premises in the county.

Optimal's technology employs smart monitoring, a unique process which has distinct advantages over ’smart metering’, a direct progression from conventional manually-read utility meters. While smart metering involves the replacement of existing utility meters, Optimal’s smart monitoring deploys the meters already in place on a site. The technology is able to collect consumption data from all three utilities.

While smart metering generally cannot deliver data for viewing for up to 24 hours after it has been collected (thereby minimising its value in the monitoring process), Optimal's system collects and makes the data available to view in real-time. A major advantage of the company’s solution is that the information processed from the incoming data streams can be delivered through Internet-enabled PCs to an unlimited number of users at an unlimited number of locations without the need to install additional hardware or software.

Real-time data viewed in appropriate format

Users can view real time data in the most appropriate format. The options range from direct unit measurements such as litres of water or Kilowatt-hours of electricity, through the number of Kilogrammes of CO2 emitted, to a financial cost which has been calculated on line as the data is collected.

Converting the data processed in this way into pictorial representations of costs or savings increases the impact of the information. Demonstrating that a school, for example, has saved £450 in the past month through the positive actions of its staff and students will probably have limited appeal, but representing that sum as a column of 50 library books would provide further impetus to keep up the good work already undertaken.

Optimal's smart monitoring system differs from smart metering in another important respect. As a general rule, smart meters are limited to providing data on a hourly basis, 24 hours in arrears. The Optimal solution provides real-time data taken at 5 minute intervals

While half hourly data is generally sufficient for energy managers, the ability to track data at these much shorter intervals is a powerful feature when encouraging the use of smart monitoring by public employees working across a range of disciplines. This increased level of detail is invaluable if those members of staff are to be able to understand clearly the effects that any changes they might make to the systems under their control will have on utility consumption.

Following successful trials

The Council hopes that all 550 schools in the County will deploy the Optimal system, as initial trials in schools have proved extremely successful, both in terms of reducing consumption costs and as an educational tool for use by students. The Council is confident that empowering its employees to view real-time utility consumption at their own establishments will create greater awareness at a local level of further opportunities to reduce energy consumption and the carbon emissions which it generates.

In addition, the Council intends to view and profile data from establishments in the same area of operations, such as fire stations and libraries. Hertfordshire County Council will then be able to determine the differences between the best and worst performing establishments in each category.

Another major benefit of Optimal's smart monitoring system is that it can collect other relevant usage statistics related to an establishment and collate it with the utility data to create a more encompassing assessment of the carbon footprint both locally and for the Council as a whole. Data could be collected, for example, from operational areas such as street lighting, waste materials, travel and paper consumption; all of which contribute towards the total carbon footprint.

Solution will make significant contribution to carbon reduction

The Council expects that the deployment of Optimal's smart monitoring technology will make a significant contribution towards achieving its carbon reduction targets in the future.

Optimal's Managing Director, Graham Bell, commented that the company is delighted to be partnering Hertfordshire County Council in this exciting new project. “The Council's goal of enabling all of its employees to view real-time consumption data on a site by site basis is an innovative approach. This will encourage a much wider cross section of the staff to understand their own carbon footprints.

“Armed with that knowledge, they can make a positive contribution to the national Climate Change Programme by reducing the carbon emissions from their own establishments."

According to Graham Bell, the Optimal system helps bridge the gap between utility management and utility education. “We are confident that it will make a positive contribution to the reduction of carbon emissions across the County.”

As the Optimal MD observed, “The ability to monitor and report on a school’s utility consumption down to five minute intervals means, for example, that students can investigate first-hand the effect of switching off utility-consuming appliances in part of their school. The impact of those changes on consumption and carbon emissions is apparent in real-time. It helps students to understand more clearly how quite small modifications to human behaviour can impact significantly upon the environment. Teachers currently using Optimal's smart monitoring system have commented that it has provided them with a powerful teaching resource.”