Six west London councils could potentially cut their energy demand by up to a quarter, according to research carried out by “built environment” scientists at the Building Research Establishment (BRE).

The report, commissioned by the six-strong group of councils in the West London Alliance (WLA), highlighted key energy saving opportunities in the west London boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.

Operational efficiency opportunities

The study found that energy use reductions of between 5% and 25% could be made through improvements to the councils’ properties, with further savings in the offing from improvements to operational efficiencies and by encouraging energy saving behaviours.

“The financial benefits of these savings could be very significant,” said Charlene Clear, a sustainability consultant at BRE, “The six WLA boroughs spend an estimated total of £27 million a year on energy use and carbon taxes. These costs are predicted to rise by 37% by 2022, as a result of fuel price increases.”

After looking at the policy drivers, financial incentives and possible actions that would help the six boroughs push through the energy savings, BRE identified 17 opportunity areas for making energy savings and 55 potential actions.

Forward action

The six councils have since prioritised these into two action areas to be taken forward. The first will see the councils carry out a number of energy efficiency retrofits across their respective estates, while the second will see them developing key performance indicators (KPIs) for energy use across the six boroughs.

The report comes as Ealing Council saw work completed at three of its buildings as part of an energy performance contract (EnPC) with E.ON, which guarantees savings of 29%.