BT initiative could cut carbon footprint by 5%

BT is launching a remote smart energy management and control system across its centres, which it claims could help it reduce its carbon footprint by 5% and knock £13m off its energy bills.


As part of the initiative, more than 22,000 smart energy meters and 1,500 building energy management systems, which monitor and control energy consumption, are in the process of being installed in BT’s UK offices, data and call centres.

If successful, BT, which operates in more than 170 countries, said it is plans to roll-out a similar programme globally next year.

The integrated energy management system, which will cover more than 90% of BT’s UK energy consumption, will be controlled via a broadband control network to monitor systems such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

This is expected to reduce BT’s carbon footprint by 60,000 tonnes per year – equivalent to the annual emissions of electricity supplied to 23,000 houses.

Figures for 2010 -2011 show that BT consumed 2,342GWh of energy running its UK networks, data centres and offices, 0.7% of all the electricity used in the UK.

However, BT says the new system will allow it to identify anomalies in energy usage across its buildings and implement actions to cut energy wastage and inefficiencies.

BT director of energy and carbon Richard Tarboton, said: “Having real-time energy usage information for thousands of buildings at our fingertips will really help us drive down BT’s carbon footprint and energy bills.

“Thousands of smart meters placed at BT offices, telephone exchanges and data centres will help us monitor energy usage levels and identify areas where we can deliver savings and make buildings more efficient.”

In order to further reduce energy consumption BT said it is committed to a number of other major initiatives, such as integrated energy management, which it hopes, will help it reduce its carbon intensity by 80% by 2020, compared with 1997 levels.

In addition, it has plans in place to build wind turbines, with the aim of generating 25% of its UK energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2016.

Carys Matthews

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