NHS Scotland assets and facilities 2016: annual report

Annex D: Review of Energy Performance

In support of the aspirations of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, and the associated duties incumbent upon public sector bodies, NHSScotland Boards continue to be proactive in reducing energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions.

In the reporting year 2014/15, the cost of energy across NHSScotland's hospital sites (as reported in the ISD Cost Book) was £100,602,613 - a 4.46% decrease on the previous year. Absolute energy consumption at these sites (not corrected for the influence of weather) decreased by 3.73% in the same period.

Since 2010/11, energy costs have risen year on year, and 2014/15 marks the first year of a decrease. This is due to global reductions in wholesale energy costs which have been passed through to NHSScotland Boards via the Scottish Public Sector Utility contracts (managed by Scottish Procurement). These utility contracts cover electricity, gas, water, some liquid fuels and biomass pellets.

It should be noted, however, that wholesale energy costs and the management fees associated with these contracts make up only 50% of total costs. The remainder is comprised of pass-through charges, regulatory charges, environmental taxes and levies.

Currently the only areas that NHSScotland Boards can have influence on are the wholesale energy costs and the management fees paid to suppliers for the services they provide. NHSScotland Boards have no ability to control the application of the pass-through charges, including regulatory charges and environmental taxes that are levied at a standard rate. Most of these are set at UK Government level.

Wholesale energy costs are subject to market forces. NHSScotland works with its other public sector partners in actively managing the purchase of energy on the wholesale market through a national Risk Management Committee run by Scottish Procurement. Through this committee, maximum target costs are set to ensure the least risk of exposure to market changes. In 2014/15, the Risk Management Committee was successful in achieving a 15.7% reduction in actual costs paid against maximum target costs for electricity and a 16.7% reduction in actual costs paid against maximum target costs for gas.

NHSScotland Boards' key response to rising energy costs is to drive costs downwards through proactive energy management and reduced energy consumption.

The table that follows summarises the energy consumption and cost figures for 2013/14 and preceding years. The percentage change in energy consumption between 2013/14, the preceding year and FY 2010/11 is also shown.

It should be noted that reporting year 2014/15 was milder in temperature than both 2013/14 and the first reporting year of 2010/11, and this may account for the decrease in consumption in 2014/15. It is also important to take into account changes in the size of the estate. Between reporting years 2013/14 and 2014/15, there was a 0.12% increase in the reported hospital estate areas (and a 5.62% increase since 2010/11). Therefore, it is more accurate to consider a performance indicator of energy consumption per m ² when reviewing relative energy performance.

During 2014/15, the average energy performance across the NHSScotland hospital estate was 426.1 kWh/m ² - a 3.85% reduction over the previous reporting year, and a 9.73% reduction since 2010/11.

The table that follows shows energy KPI performance for each Board since 2010/11.

Table notes:
*Board data based on single hospital site.
**During 2011/12, a new large-scale CHP system was installed at a site in NHS Grampian. This resulted in more kWH being used, but has significantly reduced GHG emissions.
***During 2011/12, the State Hospital underwent considerable refurbishment, including the installation of a new biomass boiler

HEAT Target Performance

In 2014/15, NHS Boards continued to report their hospitals' energy consumption and GHG emissions under the HEAT Target (Phase 2) ^[1] . This requires a year-on-year energy efficiency improvement of 1% on all energy sources based on an overall improvement by 2050 of 33% (or one third) on the comparative performance as at the 2009-10 baseline year. This equates to a 10% reduction in energy performance by 2020. For 2014/15, NHS Boards had to achieve a 4.34% reduction in energy consumption compared with 2009/10.

The HEAT Target also requires NHS Boards to achieve a 3% year-on-year reduction in carbon dioxide (CO ₂) emissions from fossil fuels only, based on a 2009/10 baseline. For 2014/15, NHS Boards had to achieve a 4.34% reduction in energy consumption compared with 2009/10.

Note that the HEAT Target figures will be different to those presented above. This is because the dataset used does not consider all the same sites, weather correction is applied, and the impact of site disposals/ additions is not included.

The HEAT Target performance figures for 2014/15 showed that NHS Boards' hospital sites reduced their energy consumption by 4.62% against the baseline year - 0.34% better than target. In the same period, CO ₂ emissions from fossil fuel use were reduced by 5.95% against the baseline year - 6.91% worse than target. The poorer CO ₂ performance was in part due to the ongoing operation of a large Combined Heat and Power ( CHP) plant at NHS Grampian's main hospital site. As the current HEAT target calculation method does not include GHG emissions from electricity, the positive impact of the CHP on overall emissions cannot be demonstrated.

Future Plans: Energy

Financial year 2014/15 marks the end of the current HEAT Target reporting cycle for energy consumption and GHG emissions. Going forward, energy and GHG performance will be reported on the whole estate (as opposed to hospitals only) and will follow the method outlined in the Scottish Public Sector Mandatory Climate Change Reports. In support of this, a new energy monitoring and targeting system - eSight - has been procured for NHSScotland Boards. This will facilitate more accurate recording and reporting of energy consumption and associated GHG emissions, and as the system uploads metered data automatically, it will allow more proactive energy management across the estate.