Common sense required to mitigate increasing gas prices

22 July 2011

In the light of recent rising gas prices, Sabien Technology is urging businesses and public sector organisations to take a closer look at no-cost and low-cost options for reducing gas consumption. These include simple behaviour changes and retrofit energy efficiency technologies that can deliver a payback within 18 months.

Sabien CEO Alan O'Brien

“Government figures suggest its climate policies will add 26% to the energy bills of medium sized firms by 2020,” warns CEO Alan O’ Brien. “At the core of rising prices is the fact that wholesale gas is now a global market, especially with the emergence of liquefied natural gas (LNG). As with all global markets – the prices will be driven by the highest payer and demand,” he added.

Analysts and commentators point to the decrease in gas supply from the UKCS (UK Continental Shelf), which requires the UK to import from continental Europe or import LNG.

“But with emerging superpowers India and especially China consuming more and more gas, we are in effect competing with Asia for LNG cargos,” O’Brien continues.

“For all of these reasons it’s simple common sense to minimise gas consumption and there are tried and tested retrofit technologies that will make an immediate saving, and deliver a fast payback. However, it is crucial to evaluate any such technologies very carefully and not be taken in by ‘greenwash’. Look for proven savings in other buildings, talk to people who have implemented the technology and ask them how the project was managed as well as how well the product worked,” he adds.

Sabien’s M2G improves the efficiency of individual boilers, regardless of age and size, by removing boiler ‘dry cycling’ - an inherent problem found in commercial boilers that is not addressed by the majority of building management systems (BMS). This is achieved without changing the boilers’ designed set points or impacting on ambient room temperatures – and the M2G complements and integrates fully with existing BMS and other controls.

M2G has already delivered proven energy savings for many organisations, including the London Borough of Greenwich, British Telecom, Lloyds Banking Group, DEFRA, Hampshire and Lincolnshire County Councils, AVIVA, Vodafone and the University of Central Lancashire.

In May 2011, Sabien received the Jones Lang LaSalle Supplier of Distinction Award for Energy & Sustainability.

For further information visit www.sabien-tech.co.uk

About M2G

M2G is retro-fitted to each boiler and monitors the temperature of the water in the flow and return every 10 seconds, enabling the M2G to analyse the temperature losses from the boiler. The M2G calculates whether the temperature loss is caused by a genuine heating demand or from standing losses i.e. temperature losses through the boiler casing and flue). When the boiler tries to fire as a consequence of the standing losses the M2G will prevent the boiler from firing resulting in reduced energy consumption.

M2G complements and integrates with existing building controls by identifying any changes to the boiler’s set point from building management systems or additional controls such as weather compensation.