2017

RENEW030 - Reducing the cost of electricity for street lighting - 08.12.17

This local authority is finding that the rate of increasing electricity
prices for street lighting is currently outpacing the rate at which they
can upgrade fittings to LED equivalents. Despite a 5 year long
programme of works, the overall street lighting bill continues to
increase year on year. This is in part due to the consumption
patterns of street lighting which consumes its maximum demand
during the peak charging period of 4-7pm on winter weekday
evenings.

Whilst continued upgrades to LEDs must continue, the authority is
investigating how this demand can be shifted to cheaper charging
periods – essentially over night from 2pm onwards. The outline
approach being considered for this is to install batteries and the
necessary switches to allow the lights to run from the battery during
expensive periods and to be charged during the cheapest periods.
The option of incorporating solar panels is also in scope, however a
retrofit option which would not require column replacements /
reinforcements is preferred (something which the incorporation of
solar would likely require).

We are interested to understand whether this is an area being
investigated by other authorities and whether other approaches /
technologies have been successfully deployed for managing street
lighting spend.

RENEW029 - Energy price increases – 21.11.17

This authority has seen energy price increases and has been
informed of a possible 12% rise in electricity costs mainly due to
government levies.

They use a public broker to purchase energy and find it extremely
difficult to compare energy prices due to a lack of transparency
across brokers and different purchasing strategies.

They would like to hear the experiences of others with regard to
increases in energy prices and specifically what others know about
future increases – is 12% a common expectation?

RENEW028 - Electric Vehicle Charge Points - 21.11.17

This local authority would be grateful if other local authorities could
provide information on the following Questions:

1. What percentage of parking in new developments will the Council require charging points to be installed and/or enabled?
2. How does this differ depending on the intended use of parking places (e.g. Residential, Employees, Shoppers)?
3. Are you able to provide details of your general EV strategy?

RENEW027 - Creating biomass from the council estate -11.10.17

This authority is considering making use of wood created by the
Council’s estate (i.e. woodlands and highways management) to
create wood chips for biomass. They are interested to know
whether other local authorities have explored a similar initiative,
what the outcomes were and whether they are willing to share
business plans or research material.

RENEW026 - Council land leased for battery storage activity - 11.10.17

This authority is currently considering leasing some council owned
sites to a company for large scale battery storage. They are
interested to hear from any others who have done something similar
or considered it. They want to know benefits and problems. They
are doing some soft market testing and it would be useful for them
to learn from the experience of others.

RENEW025 - Car Clubs in your local area - 16.08.17

A member authority is seeking to implement a Car Club in their local
market town and would be very interested to hear about established
schemes in other local authority areas.

They would be grateful for a short outline of the scheme including
some detail about how the club is managed, how users participate
and what features of the scheme seem to be most fundamental to
making it work. In particular, if you have seen Car Clubs in outside
of city areas, in smaller localities and if you have seen Car Clubs
established alongside new developments, as proposed by
developers, they would be especially interested to hear more.

RENEW024 - Energy management and Building Management Systems - 16.08.17

This authority is keen to hear from other local authorities who use a
Building Management System (BMS) as part of their energy
management.

They are keen to see examples of business cases put forward for
gaining approval for the purchase/installation of a BMS and any
specific benefits and /or problems experienced.

RENEW023 - Ensuring value for money when purchasing energy - 09.08.17

This authority spends approx. £6.5 million on gas and electricity
annually. They are presently reviewing their arrangements for
purchasing these utilities and are interested to hear how others
have undertaken competitive processes to ensure their purchasing
arrangements are giving them the best deal.

Any comments and documentation would be gratefully received.

RENEW022 - Electric vehicle policy and charge point procurement - 22.06.17

This authority is undertaking research on existing and potential
electric charging infrastructure across a county and working with the
boroughs and districts therein. The intention is to develop an EV
Charging Strategy for the County.

They are keen to see other EV strategies including the element of
the strategy for charging.

They are also interested in the driver for the policy and whether that is:

1. Income
2. Air quality or
3. Other

They are also keen to know whether others have a rapid charge
point procurement framework in place that other LA's can join.
Please respond if you can help with these questions.
For information the London Borough of Richmond has an EV
charging strategy - see link:

http://www.richmond.gov.uk/electric_vehicle_charging_strategy.pdf