Demand Manager Pty Ltd was established in 2006 to help Australian businesses, councils and government agencies make practical gains in energy and water efficiency by facilitating access to various State and Federal funding programs.

Demand Manager is an Accredited Certificate Provider holding a range of accreditations under the Energy Savings Scheme including a Commercial Lighting Aggregation Project. Demand Manager assists a range of different parties who are conducting eligible commercial lighting upgrades, such as Australian Technology Park, to realise the value of the energy savings achieved by those upgrades.

The energy savings activities that this accreditation targets are lighting upgrades (including the use of lighting controls) at commercial premises.

ESS Role

ATP is the original energy saver.

Demand Manager is the nominated energy saver.

Key equipment

Replacement of 35 double 36W T8 fluorescent tubes with 35 double 16 W LED tubes.

Opportunity

Australian Technology Park Sydney Ltd has set a target of reducing energy consumption by 15% by June 2012 compared to 2009/10 levels. To enable this target to be reached, a range of energy saving measures have been identified, including the implementation of efficient lighting solutions. An example of these measures is the replacement of light fixtures for a 180m exterior walkway. The works for this project were undertaken in December 2010.

Calculation method

The Deemed Energy Savings Method (DESM) – Commercial Lighting Energy Savings Formula was used to calculate the energy savings from this project.  The Commercial Lighting Energy Savings Formula calculates the energy savings based on the difference between the energy consumed by the original lighting equipment and the upgraded lighting equipment. The ESS Rule provides a set of standardised factors that are used for this purpose and allows energy savings to be created in respect of 10 years worth of energy savings upfront.

To ensure that the lighting levels supplied by the upgraded lighting installation are adequate, lux level measurements were taken, and compared with the levels recommended by the relevant Australian Standard for lighting design.

Finance

*Energy savings certificate value has been estimated at $25 per certificate and electricity at $150 per MWh

Outcomes

The implementation of the upgraded lighting has achieved an energy saving of 65% resulting in an annual energy reduction of 7.9 MWh. The energy savings certificates created from this project generated $2,100 in revenue, covering 27% of the project costs, and reducing the payback period for this project from 5.5 to 3.9 years.

Even though this project is relatively small in size, it represents a typical example of how considerable energy savings can be achieved by implementing efficient lighting technologies. Supported by the possibility of creating energy savings certificates, this proves to be an effective investment in achieving energy savings within organisations, which will be even more important with the expected increases in energy prices over the coming years.

Figure 1: The walkway that was subject to the lighting upgrade