WilSon Energy, a leading provider of fully integrated Heating, Metering, Pre-Payment and Billing & Bureau Services, has been commissioned to carry out a full audit of the heat network system and private wire electricity network for commercial supplies and 48 residential retirement properties in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
WilSon Energy supplied the heat interface units (HIU) and metering for Lace Housing, a development catering for over 55s with supported living, back in 2010. However, since installation, the system had not been regularly managed or maintained in house, except for a few ad hoc purchases of spare parts, so had become dormant, reducing its efficiency and causing poor quality water.
Recently new staff members have joined the client team and have a new vision for the development. WilSon Energy has been appointed to support them in auditing and updating the heating system, eliminating water quality issues and improving metering and billing.
Andy Wilkinson, CEO at WilSon Energy, said: "Having previously worked with the client in 2010, we were pleased that we could step in to rectify some of the issues they were experiencing.
"Residents were complaining that their apartments were too hot because of heat gain from the HIU. We found that insulation jackets covering the complete HIU were effective, yet heat trapped within the unit was causing components to prematurely fail.
"They were also experiencing issues with a lack of transparency around metering information, billing details and could not access charging and consumption data for heating, hot water and electrical energy usage. Approximately 80% of the heat energy meters installed had error codes, so were not recording consumption. Many tenants had previously complained about incorrect bills and queried energy usage, while the management team was finding it difficult to manage billing."
Under the contract, WilSon Energy has conducted an initial site survey, which highlighted various issues, including system data collection, monitoring and component failure. In addition, there was air circulating within the system which was causing alarms on the heat energy meters.
Andy Wilkinson continues: "Having identified metering and data transmission issues, we installed a new data collection device and rectified existing faults to ensure 100% data accuracy across the network of water, electricity and heat. The team has also replaced numerous components and came up with a solution for the heat gain issue so by upgrading the HIUs to bring them up to modern standards, saving the client money."
As well as managing the private energy network and smart meters, WilSon Energy will support the landlord with a complete meter monitoring, billing and bureau service and a customer excellence team.
A spokesperson from Lace Housing added: "With the previous system, we were not receiving data and had issues with incorrect billing, which had repercussions for our residents.
"WilSon Energy has been pivotal in eradicating these issues by providing technical support and recommendations on reducing our costs while supporting our tenants with accurate readings and more transparent billing."
Andy concludes: "Monitoring energy consumption and data accurately is vital to ensuring systems operate efficiently and tenants are assured of fair utility billing. In the current economic climate, we were pleased that we could replace components in the most cost-effective way, while supporting the management team with our unrivalled customer service.
"Now that the project is back on track, our key focus is to assist on managing and maintaining the system and offering the best advice, so the commercial client gets the maximum return on their investment."
For more information about WilSon Energy's private energy networks and smart metering services, visit: https://wilsonenergy.co.uk/.