NHSScotland assets and facilities 2015: annual report

Annex F: Review of Energy Performance

In support of the aspirations of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, and the associated duties incumbent upon public sector bodies, NHSScotland Boards continue to be proactive in reducing energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions.

In the reporting year 2013/14, the cost of energy across NHSScotland's hospital sites (as reported in the ISD Cost Book) was circa £105.3 million - a 0.58% increase on the previous year (and a 45.6% increase on reporting year 2010/11). However, absolute energy consumption at these sites (not corrected for the influence of weather) decreased by 7.62% in the same period, reflecting the ongoing challenge of rising energy costs. Since reporting year 2010/11, absolute energy consumption (not weather corrected) has decreased by 4.27%.

Rising energy costs continue to be a challenge for NHSScotland Boards. As with other public bodies in Scotland, the NHSScotland Boards purchase the majority of their energy via the Scottish Public Sector Utility contracts (managed by Scottish Procurement). These utility contracts cover electricity, gas, water, some liquid fuels and biomass pellets. Wholesale energy costs and the management fees associated with these contracts make up only 50% of total costs. The remainder is comprised of pass through charges, regulatory charges, environmental taxes and levies.

Currently the only areas that NHSScotland Boards can have influence on are the wholesale energy costs and the management fees paid to suppliers for the services they provide. NHSScotland Boards have no ability to control the application of the pass through charges, including regulatory charges and environmental taxes that are levied at a standard rate. Indeed, most of these are set at UK Government level. NHSScotland Boards proactively respond to all public consultations on proposed tax/ levy changes but ultimately, these are beyond their control.

Wholesale energy costs are subject to market forces. NHSScotland works with its other public sector partners in actively managing the purchase of energy on the wholesale market through a national Risk Management Committee run by Scottish Procurement. Through this committee, maximum target costs are set to ensure the least risk of exposure to market changes.

NHSScotland Boards' key response to rising energy costs is to drive costs downwards through proactive energy management and reduced energy consumption.

The table that follows summarises the energy consumption and cost figures for 2013/14 and preceding years. The percentage change in energy consumption between 2013/14, the preceding year and FY 2010/11 is also shown.

It should be noted that reporting year 2013/14 was significantly milder in temperature than 2012/13 (or the first reporting year of 2010/11), and this may account for the decrease in consumption in 2013/14. It is also important to take into account changes in the size of the estate. Between reporting years 2012/13 and 2013/14, there was a 0.34% increase in the reported hospital estate areas (and a 5.5% increase since 2010/11). For example, in the above table, NHS Fife shows a marked increase in energy consumption since 2010/11. However, the NHS Fife reported floor area increased by over 23% in the same period. Therefore, it is more accurate to consider a KPI of energy consumption per m ² when reviewing relative energy performance.

During 2013/14, the average energy performance across the NHSScotland hospital estate was 443.2 kWh/m ² - a 7.96% reduction over the previous reporting year, and a 6.12% reduction since 2010/11.

The table that follows shows energy KPI performance for each Board since 2010/11.

Table notes:

*Board data based on single hospital site.

**During 2011/12, a new large-scale CHP system was installed at a site in NHS Grampian. This resulted in more kWH being used, but has significantly reduced GHG emissions.

***During 2011/12, the State Hospital underwent considerable refurbishment, including the installation of a new biomass boiler

HEAT Target Performance

In 2013/14, NHS Boards continued to report their hospitals' energy consumption and GHG emissions under the HEAT Target (Phase 2) ^[2] . This requires a year-on-year energy efficiency improvement of 1% on all energy sources based on an overall improvement by 2050 of 33% (or one third) on the comparative performance as at the 2009-10 baseline year. This equates to a 10% reduction in energy performance by 2020. For 2013/14, NHS Boards had to achieve a 3.47% reduction in energy consumption compared with 2009/10.

The HEAT Target also requires NHS Boards to achieve a 3% year-on-year reduction in carbon dioxide (CO ₂) emissions from fossil fuels only, based on a 2009/10 baseline. For 2013/14, NHS Boards had to achieve a 10.19% reduction in energy consumption compared with 2009/10.

Note that the HEAT Target figures will be different to those presented above. This is because the dataset used does not consider all the same sites, weather correction is applied, and the impact of site disposals/ additions are not included.

The HEAT Target performance figures for 2013/14 showed that NHS Boards' hospital sites reduced their energy consumption by 3.43% against the baseline year - 0.04% worse than target. In the same period, CO ₂ emissions from fossil fuel use were reduced by 3.61% against the baseline year - 6.58% worse than target. The poorer CO ₂ performance was in part due to the ongoing operation of a large Combined Heat and Power ( CHP) plant at NHS Grampian's main hospital site. As the current HEAT Target calculation method excludes GHG emissions from grid-sourced electricity but includes site-generated energy from, for example, CHP plant, the positive impact of the CHP on overall emissions cannot be demonstrated.

Future Plans: Energy

NHSScotland Boards have been working on the procurement of two major energy infrastructure projects - at NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian. The first of these projects has begun construction work and will be fully commissioned towards the end of 2016, the second is due to begin construction work in early 2016. These two projects will see c £28.5 million invested across 6 sites, resulting in guaranteed energy/ GHG savings of c £4.6million p.a. and c 20,000 tCO2e.

The approach to these projects is that rather than install individual energy-saving technologies in isolation, the whole site is treated holistically so that maximum energy/ GHG reductions are identified. Major energy centre works are carried out in parallel with downstream energy efficiency measures, resulting in more accurate sizing of heat and electricity generation plant, which in turn leads to improved efficiency of energy plant performance. The scale of the works means that smaller sites can be aggregated under a larger contract, again improving value for money and savings performance. The contractual approach to such works is that they are underpinned by an Energy Performance Guarantee, so ongoing engineering resilience and plant performance is maintained.