![]() |
---|
GRAFTON GROUP
ACHIEVES OVER
3% SAVINGS ON ANNUAL ENERGY COSTS
Optimised Recovery delivers 1.5% cost savings following one-off historic review
Optimised Bureau delivers 2.1% annual cost savings through energy bureau outsourcing
Optimised Procurement delivers 4% annual cost savings in 2020 renewals
ESOS compliance achieved on time, identifying 100 projects and 465 tonnes of carbon savings
Smart meter rollout in progress to minimise estimated reads across portfolio
Background
International building materials company Grafton Group commissioned energy consultants Optimised Energy as its new energy services partner in 2018. The FTSE 250 company has DIY retail outlets in the UK, Ireland, and Europe.
With a complex set-up and a large portfolio of buildings, Grafton looked to Optimised Energy to take a proactive approach in delivering process improvements, cost reductions and compliance with UK carbon legislation.
Challenge
As with many large retailers, cost management is of the utmost importance in a highly competitive market place. With various group businesses, utilities had always been managed in an isolated fashion, and as an extension to the Finance and Health & Safety teams. Optimised Energy were tasked with the following:
-
Reviewing historic costs to identify whether suppliers had billed accurately
-
Implementing an energy bureau to validate invoices going forward
-
Facilitating the rollout of smart meters across the portfolio
-
Procuring electricity and gas contracts
-
Ensuring that Grafton complied with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme
The key objectives were cost savings and process efficiency, while laying the foundations for a more ambitious sustainability initiative.
465
TCO2
Savings Identified
3%
Annual Energy Cost
Savings Delivered
Quick Facts
Solution
A multi-disciplinary service team was established across our Recovery, Bureau, Procurement and Compliance personnel, led by a Strategic Account Manager. Each team got to work in their respective areas and through coordinated activities have put in place a rigorous energy management process spanning budgeting, invoice validation, reporting and contract tendering. The Envizi platform offers a state of the art enterprise reporting solution which Grafton’s various stakeholders take advantage of for energy, cost and sustainability reporting.
Results
Immediate refunds were obtained equating to around 1.5% of annual energy spend. Meanwhile our Optimised Bureau team got to work implementing new invoice processing and validating procedures to ensure that comprehensive bill checking and tariff-based validation was conducted on a monthly basis. Savings delivered from outsourcing the energy bureau have been around 2.1% of annual energy expenditure.
Alongside the billing operations, our Optimised Procurement team conducted a full strategic review and having agreed an appropriate risk management strategy, conducted full market tenders for electricity and gas contracts. Results delivered in 2019 showed a marginal increase in rates secured, and 2020 then delivered an overall cost saving of around 4%.
Compliance with ESOS Phase 2 was achieved on time and involved around two dozen energy and transport audits. The project identified over 100 energy saving opportunities with savings potential in the region of 3% of total expenditure and the potential to eliminate 465 tonnes of carbon.
"Optimised Energy were selected as our partner for energy services based on their successful track record and established expertise. Their values and standards are aligned with our own and we look forward to developing an open, honest and mutually beneficial working relationship.”
Mike O'Hara - Grafton Group's SHEQ Director
Optimised Energy is uniquely positioned with equal track record in the brokerage market as in the engineering solution and consulting services worlds. Our competition tends to lack the depth in one of these three areas. This means that we are able to offer a true Managed Energy Services offering spanning Sustainability Strategy, Energy Procurement and Energy Efficiency as three key disciplines. There are many synergies to benefit from by combining these areas which have consistently delivered competitive advantage for our clients.
About Optimised Energy
Discover our tailored approach to your energy needs
Contact or call us on +44(0)1253 209 000