How The London Marriott County Hall saved over 1.5 million kilowatt hours.
In the era of online reviews, guest comfort takes priority. Yet, while ‘front of house’ delivers business, what happens behind the scenes drives profitability. Here’s how the smart hotel operator can stop burning power, and start saving.
Try this simple sum. Let’s say a kilowatt (kWh) costs 10p and a hotel room costs £100 per night. How many rooms cover the cost of 1.5 million kWh?* At SSE Enterprise, we make energy saving concepts as real as we can for our hotelier customers. Of course, no guest ever left a five star review of your heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system (HVAC) on a hotel rating website. And if no-one complains, all may seem well with your HVAC, which is why hotels often put ‘behind the scenes’ upgrades on the back boiler. Yet the business case can be compelling. Among a range of projects for Marriott, our energy management solution helped their London flagship save 1 million kWh of electricity and 0.5 million kWh of gas, year on year.
The London Marriott County Hall. A wake up call for every hotel.
If your hotel guests don’t complain that it’s too cold or too hot, if the plant is operational and the building energy management system (BEMS) seems to be working, what’s the problem?
Challenge
- Classic London hotel with iconic
- views over the River Thames
- Over 200 rooms and a luxury spa
- Outmoded BEMS
- Low investment in systems maintenance
- High energy consumption
Marriott guests expect a warm welcome. But it takes effort – and energy – to make any classic building provide the kind of comfortable environment a modern luxury hotel must provide. Without investment in maintenance and modern systems, hotel operators end up throwing money and manpower at the problem
Solution
- Short survey to identify energy savings from existing HVAC plant
- Payback on investment in 12 months
- Tracker to show success of BEMS upgrade
- Full BEMS upgraded including 10 panels, new terminal and sub-metering
- Upgrade of 211 room fan coil units begun
Investment in BEMS improves the guest experience through efficiency and cost-saving. The partnership between SSE Enterprise and Marriott delivered improved ROI on their BEMS investment. Centralised automated control of the building also saves man-hours as well as money. Staff don’t need to traverse the building to monitor plant or check rooms.
Results
- Year on year, savings of 1GW electricity
- Year on year, savings c.0.5GW gas
- Savings in region of £150,000p.a.
- New BEMS pays for itself in Year 1
- Normal hotel operation and guest
- experience unaffected by onsite works
- Room level control enhances guest experience
The results speak for themselves. However, they also say something important about the new mindset among hoteliers, building managers and investors. Every major hotel, indeed every major building, now needs to ‘look under the hood’. Waiting until something breaks down is no longer an effective strategy. With the support of SSE Enterprise, there’s an opportunity to take control of your energy.
Finance
- Smart financial options
- Support for ‘green’ initiatives
- Capital efficient funding
- No deposit/extended terms
- ‘Pay as you save’ target
- Cost-effective alternatives
Surprisingly, some businesses find it hard to finance energy efficiency. Backed by SSE, we can introduce your business to smart ways to fund money-saving ‘green’ measures. Our goal is to ensure that savings fast outweigh the project cost. This can help you meet carbon emissions obligations. Green credentials can also help attract business from other companies and customers who share the sustainability agenda.
The London Marriott County Hall began a project to replace our ageing BEMS. This upgrade was a huge success in saving energy. Year on year, we reduced electricity use by more than 1GW and gas by just under 0.5GW. The new BEMS gives the flexibility to tightly control plant operation.
Want to know how a major hotel can upgrade its BEMS to make massive savings with no negative impact on its luxurious ambience? Be our guest.
SSE Enterprise is no ordinary energy solutions provider. For a start, we’re part of one of the UK’s leading, longest established energy companies.
As a division of a major energy supplier, we have decades of experience and expertise in energy efficiency.
Fresh thinking
For Marriott hotels, we’re proud to provide a range of essential services:
- Energy saving analysis
- Survey of plant operations
- Building energy management systems
- Room level control linked to central plant via BEMS
- Upgrade room fan coil units
- Control fan speed for optimum saving
But it isn’t just end-to-end excellence which makes a major hotel chain like Marriott turn to SSE Enterprise. Our expertise is technical, but our goal is strategic.
In an increasingly complex world, we look to understand our customers’ aims and simplify their working lives.
Our aim is to save your business money over the long-term. Across a wide portfolio of essential energy services, we can connect seemingly divergent strategies. For example, how to reduce energy costs in a hotel and help enhance the guest experience.
So, if you’re a hotelier, project manager or property investor looking for new insight and strategies to control costs, get in touch with SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions.