"EASE II Compact" helps HMP Bulwood Hall to reduce CO2 emissions
HMP Bulwood Hall is a small prison located on the outskirts of Hockley, Essex and houses 140 female offenders. As part of the Government's commitment to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in line with the recent Kyoto Agreement, money was made available in January 1998 to purchase metering systems. Bulwood Hall chose to buy an energy monitoring system from PRI, comprising CALMU meters and the "EASE II Compact" energy monitoring software.
The purchasing process was conducted quickly and efficiently using The Buying Agency (TBA), Suppliers Engineering Guide (SEG). TBA is an executive agency of the Department of the Environment, offering a professional procurement service to the public sector. The TBA invites suppliers and contractors such as PRI to tender for inclusion in SEG. Bids are technically and commercially vetted and the successful company is awarded as initial one year contract, extending to five after a period of satisfactory performance. This means that hospitals and prisons need not burden themselves with the rigours of the tendering process - they can simply refer to SEG and order the products and services required.
Following the release of additional funding in January 98, Bulwood Hall was able to contact PRI, have a survey carried out and a system supplied and installed within eight weeks. The system comprises CALMU meters, installed on key supplies within the prison, and a PACTLAN local area network which links the meters to a PC running PRI's "EASE II Compact" software. Although restricted to 32 channels, this Windows™ - based program offers much of the excellent reporting capability of EASE II Manager at the affordable price of a starter system. It can, for example, graphically display accurate consumption data at half hourly periods throughout the day or, alternatively, generate statistical data for weekly or monthly reports - a useful feature for budgetary tracking.
The "EASE II Compact" system in use at Bulwood Hall can directly or remotely communicate via a modem with CALMU meters, and the use of a PRI logger enables it to handle data from other utility meters. At any time the system can be upgraded to full specification and 1024 channels.
Within a few days of commissioning, consumption had been reduced in areas such as the kitchen and laundry by identifying waste and out-of-hours usage. Rob Rusling, Head of Works at Bulwood Hall, is delighted with the system as it offers him both energy profiles and instantaneous electrical power. He says "I was amazed when I saw the amount of power being used in the kitchen when no cooking was taking place! I phoned the kitchen up and when they started switching off the servery hot cupboards they didn't need, I watched the power drop by 15 kW within a few seconds."
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