DELWP – Energy and Water Audits
Background Challenge
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is a Victorian State Government department, which supports Victoria’s natural and built environment to ensure economic growth and liveable, sustainable, and inclusive communities.
DELWP’s facility portfolio consists of more than 170 sites and almost 3,000 staff located across Victoria and is committed to improving its environmental performance across all operations. Previously, DELWP had undertaken energy and water audits across a sample of its sites. Up-to-date and comprehensive energy and water audits were required to inform an implementation program.
Summary & Objectives
CarbonetiX was engaged by DELWP to conduct Type 3 audits across Victoria, including consumption sites at Heidelberg, Ballarat, and Bendigo. The objectives of these audits were:
- To identify practical and innovative energy and water efficiency opportunities;
- To evaluate baseline utility data to identify trends and anomalies;
- To identify efficiency improvements at each site, including costs and predicted annual savings;
- To inform of the wider social, environmental, and economic factors;
- To formulate findings in a detailed report for each site;
- To deliver the project findings to key stakeholders.
Results
CarbonetiX identified a range of measures to reduce energy and water consumption at 12 DELWP facilities. These opportunities included lighting and HVAC upgrades, control optimisation, refrigerant-to-hot-water heat recovery, building envelope improvements, water efficiency retrofits and rainwater harvesting. Overall, opportunities were projected to realise:
- Total cost savings of over $150,000 per annum;
- An electrical energy reduction of 28% and water reduction of 12%;
- Avoidance of 288,000 kWh of grid-sourced electricity, through harnessing solar energy;
- ROIs ranging from less than 1 year to longer-term investments.
Client Recommendation
“I have been impressed with the work produced by the team at CarbonetiX. They have identified practical and innovative solutions to assist us to better manage our energy and water consumption across 12 of our sites. The audits have provided valuable information about facility level issues. We are currently looking to implement many of the key recommendations and look forward to the environment and financial savings.”
- Shelly Franklyn, Environmental Projects Officer, DELWP