An initiative by Bedfordshire Police force to improve its energy efficiency has delivered a 25% cut in power bills in two years through a mix of energy saving initiatives, including the use of a Marshall-Tufflex portable sub-metering unit.
The force invested in the handheld Sinergy e-Tracker kWh sub-meter two years ago and since then it has toured the county’s police stations, operational bases and Kempston headquarters auditing energy use and highlighting areas of inefficient power use.
“The sub-meter has saved us a significant amount of money and, perhaps just as importantly, it has helped us to target and prioritise energy saving initiatives,” said force estates and facility manager Nigel Achurch. “At headquarters e-Tracker identified unbalanced loads across the three phases. We are investigating what we can move from one phase to another to bring the apparent power closer to the true power.”
e-Tracker, which monitors incoming power supply to show the pattern of demand over an hour, day, week or month, was installed for two/three weeks per distribution board at each location. Data was collected via a USB device and then downloaded and examined. The results were surprising, with e-Tracker identifying a number of sites where significant savings were possible, for example a malfunctioning weather compensation unit linked to night storage heaters.
“e-Tracker has given us more control to know where our energy is going, allowing us to control it better,” said Mr Achurch. “If you have older distribution panels without integral sub-meters then I would say it is an essential piece of equipment. It helps control loads, identify faults and overloaded circuits, which is essential.”
Sinergy e-Tracker is a portable kWh meter allowing users to monitor incoming power supply, specific circuits/equipment etc to show the pattern of demand over an hour, day, week or month. The unit utilises non-invasive clip-on transducer (CT) clamps that are quick to install and do not require power being turned off. The units are magnetic-backed so attach easily to switch boards making them perfect for temporary monitoring. e-Tracker measures current from 10Amps to 2500Amps. The system offers 16 days of battery life or runs off mains supply. Other features include pulse input, optional voltage connections, CT amps range indicator and EV-Trac electrostatic phase identifier.
