Energy usage

The FCO is taking part in a government wide initiative, to make available to the public, the energy it uses.

Find out more and access our energy data from the past week.

The data shows the electricity consumed at the FCO's King Charles Street building on Whitehall. It captures the energy required for heating, lighting and power. The FCO cannot currently report on gas usage nor heat drawn from the Whitehall District Heating System. We do not yet have the required connectivity, although this is being put in place as soon as possible. Gas is only currently used for cooking in the commercial kitchens and for providing domestic hot water and winter heating to one small area of the building, and its usage is equivalent to a domestic environment. Gas use accounts for only 2.4% of King Charles Street energy consumption.

See how the FCO is performing against other Government Departments in reducing its HQ energy use in October. The FCO's data is for the previous 24 hours. We shall be publishing live data shortly.

There are many initiatives underway to reduce the energy used within the organisation.

These include:

• voltage optimisation to reduce the incoming electricity voltages
• reducing the number of servers in use at any time, thereby reducing the associated electricity use
• installation of more energy efficient lighting
• reducing winter heating target temperatures
• installing timer equipment on electrical equipment where possible.

10:10

In common with other Government Departments, FCO has committed to cutting carbon emissions from its UK Estate by 10% during 2010. FCO is working closely with its staff, Facilities Managers and other contractors to minimise energy use. Activities already carried out and planned for the remainder of the year include:

Installation of Voltage Optimisation equipment in key buildings

This is expected to reduce annual electricity consumption by approximately 9% at each location this equipment is supplied and is anticipated to save 140t CO2 during the 10:10 campaign and 628t CO2 annually.

Conversion of oil fired heating equipment to run on lower carbon fuels

This conversion is currently ongoing and is expected to save 287t CO2 during 10:10 and 766t CO2 annually.

Consolidation of outgoing IT infrastructure and switching off redundant servers

This is expected to complete in December and is estimated to save 2t CO2 during 10:10, but 26t CO2 annually.

Reducing the temperature that the building is heated to, to a standard of 19C

This will commence from the time the heating system is switched on during October 2010. It is expected that this will save approximately 118t CO2 during 10:10 with an annual saving in the region of 235t CO2.

Installation of more energy efficient heat exchangers on the Headquarters Building heating system

This is expected to complete in November 2010 and is anticipated to save 60t CO2 during 10:10 and approximately 170t CO2 annually.

Beyond the 10:10 target, additional energy saving measures are planned. These include

Consolidating server use at the Headquarters building, for new IT infrastructure

This is expected to complete in early 2011 and is expected to save 70t CO2 annually. The cost of this implementation is still under investigation.

Carrying out a full energy use audit of the buildings

This will identify any areas where energy is being used unnecessarily and will inform steps to reduce this. Whilst these measures are still unknown, typically such audits are anticipated to generate savings of approximately 400t CO2 annually, given our current energy usage.

Install trigeneration equipment at the London Headquarters building

This is a winning proposal following the Energy Efficient Whitehall Competition run recently. The work is still subject to a successful feasibility study, but is anticipated to complete by March 2011. This will use gas to generate electricity on site, with the waste heat subsequently providing cooling for our IT equipment on site. The full implications of the Carbon saving will be developed during the feasibility study.

Installation of more energy efficient lighting

As part of the FCO's ongoing Estate improvements, the FCO will be replacing old and inefficient lighting with more modern and efficient versions. This is a rolling programme, but the 2010/11 financial year programme is anticipated to save approximately 100t CO2 annually. However, as a separate exercise, FCO is looking at options for installing LED lamps in place of existing, with trials planned during October and November 2010. Savings of up to 80% are feasible, dependant upon the nature of the lamp they replace.