Anyone with energy efficiency high on the agenda might be interested to read an article on Riello UPS’s corporate blog. It’s about ISO 150001 on Energy Management and it explains what the standard is, why it matters and what the benefits are.

Many of you will be familiar with BS 16001 for Energy Management, well, ISO 150001 was introduced by the BSI on 15^th June 2011 and is expected to replace the out-dated standard completely sometime this year (2012).

The International Standards Organisation states that ISO 150001 could influence as much as 60% of the world’s energy use and it is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes.

Riello UPS was one of the first UPS companies to latch onto the energy efficiency initiative and we have spent years investing in researching and developing the most energy efficient and yet robust and reliable power protection products available. We’ve not stopped at efficient operation either, for us efficiency is not just about electrical consumption. It’s about the lifetime of products and beyond. Running costs should be minimised and design life maximised. Then, when the product comes to the end of its useful life (which all technology products do) or is superseded (which all technology products are at some point), ensuring it can be removed, dismantled and/or recycled easily, efficiently and with minimal environmental affect.

Read more about ISO 5001 on Riello UPS’s corporate blog. It also mentions our Multi Guard modular UPS, which enables an N+X parallel UPS system to be created out of multiples of 15kVA, individual UPS modules. It incorporates a drawer style design inside a standard rack cabinet – excellent for right-sizing a UPS system for today, whilst allowing for easy expansion tomorrow – and achieving high operating efficiency.

In his speech at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this month, Chancellor George Osborne gave a strong signal that sorting out the economy is a higher priority than cutting emissions.

Britain’s businesses must not be jeopardised by the country’s low carbon commitments he suggested. “We must have investment in greener energy.” He said. “And that is why I gave the go ahead for the world’s first Green Investment Bank but we are not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.” he added.

Compared with other world-leading economies such as China and America that combined have a 40% share of the world’s carbon emissions, Britain’s is only 2%. Chancellor Osborne said that we should not cut our carbon emissions any slower but also not any faster than any of our fellow countries in Europe. He went on to mention the recent carbon budget, which came out earlier this year and put a floor price on carbon. Lobbyists and business leaders have warned it will drive business out of Europe, and the UK in particular. The CBI (Confederation of Business and Industry) has asked for major energy users to be exempt from the so-called ‘carbon tax’.

What’s interesting is the potential rift in the cabinet that may arise out of the apparent polarisation in priorities between the fiscal needs of the economy and the rebuilding of the UK power sector in order to meet increasing demand for electricity. Earlier on at the conference, Energy Minister Charles Hendry urged the rebuilding of the sector “in a way that is genuinely low carbon”.

The UK has a legally binding agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.

Well, there is always going to be a conflict between what’s best for the economy and what’s right for the planet and I am only glad that I am not the Chancellor or Energy Minister. However, Riello has made it our business over the past decade or so to ensure that our UPS products and power protection solutions offer the highest levels of efficiency and lowest total cost of ownership as possible. The UPS you buy today can actually go a long way towards saving you money in the future and using less energy. To find out more visit our website.

I read with interest a couple of articles this month in Marketing Week, entitled Studies Show it Pays to be Ethical and The Only Way is Ethics (nice pun).

Basically, recent studies carried out among consumers have established a link between business’s ethical credentials and the preferences of affluent, ethical consumers to buy their products. One study found that 91% of consumers take ethics into account when purchasing products.

A couple of other interesting pointers that grabbed my attention are that perception is just as important (or perhaps more so) than actual environmental performance. Top brands that scored higher on ethical perception than performance did rather better in consumers minds than other brands that are actually more ethical in their actions but not as vociferous.

Wealthy consumers of FMCG are happy to pay premium prices for goods and services they perceive to be ethical but I suspect it’s a little different in the business world. In business, cost is still king. Companies need to be seen to be ethical and environmentally sensitive but it cannot come at a cost. Products have to be ‘green’, ethical and cost less. The bottom line is as sacred as ever, especially in a struggling economy.

As a UPS manufacturer, we invest £thousands into researching how to make UPS more eco-friendly and in developing new products accordingly so that our customers genuinely use less energy and can be kinder to the environment at the same time. More details are available on our website.

SMEs should implement efficient UPS to achieve cost savings and reliable power protection

It’s been reported in an article on ELN (www.energylivenews.com) that Energy Minister Charles Hendry has been forced by his Shadow counterpart (Huw Irranca Davies) to concede that the Government’s energy policies could add as much as 43% to the average electricity price paid by small to medium businesses by 2020.

His revelation coincides with a predication by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that SMEs will be lumbered with nearly a quarter increase (24%) on gas prices.

Just how far will the Government allow these prices hikes to go?

A month ago, Scottish Power became the first to inflict horrendous, double-digit price hikes on its customers and last week British Gas followed suit. It’s only a matter of time before the other four of the big six (E.ON, EDF, Scottish and Southern Energy) do the same. It will mean the average dual fuel bill will have risen by 50% since 2007 to nearly £1,500 per annum.

For business energy users, now is the time to fix a price with energy suppliers and/or switch to another, more competitive tariff. Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne is fighting to open up the energy market to smaller players and make it more competitive. Quoted in an article in the Telegraph earlier this week, he said: “The energy market has been too cosy for too long and it is madness that 99% of people get their energy from large firms.”

But what does this mean for UPS (uninterruptible power supply) customers?

Older UPS equipment is not as energy efficient as newer models. Any system between 5-10 years should be considered old in terms of energy efficiency.

Since 2007, UPS manufacturers have been introducing new products designed around energy efficiency and reducing TCO (total cost of ownership). Older UPS could be responsible for consuming 18% of the total energy used in a typical data centre. And when you consider the average data centre can consume as much as 2MW of energy per hour, it’s a considerable amount.

Modern UPS waste less energy in the conversion process and can be as much as 40% more efficient than their older counterparts (depending upon various load and operating criteria). Many UPS are as much as 96% efficient in online mode, a rating that can rise to 99% when running in certain other economy modes.

Efficiency is not just about energy use it takes into account maintenance, floor space, scalability, flexibility and TCO. Modern UPS incorporate microprocessor technology that enables smarter, intuitive management and allows remote interrogation by users giving them more control over operation, and thus, the ability to proactively manage and influence efficiency.

Today’s UPS are smaller in size and lighter in weight, which reduces building and installation costs. They leave room for easy serviceability and maintenance – key to reducing lifetime costs. How a UPS draws energy from the mains (termed Input Power Factor) can influence energy efficiency. It should be rated high (0.99). The higher the input power factor, the lower the reactive power (wasted energy). How a UPS utilises energy while protecting loads also influences efficiency, as does how they deal with Total Harmonic Distortion (THDi) to produce a pure sinewave input current that reduces energy wastage. The management of consumables (such as batteries, fans and capacitors) so that they are replaced less often serves to reduce operating costs overall.

Return on investment on new UPS can be as low as 2-3 years. Upgrading to new UPS models equates to an investment in equipment designed for more reliability, that meets the latest regulations and standards, offers more features, better performance, increased power protection, higher efficiency and lowest TCO. For sure, the best antidote to the dilemma of rising energy costs coupled with the need for greater power protection.

According to new research by the Carbon Trust, and reported in MarketingWeek, nearly half of consumers said they would shun brands that aren’t taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. More than a fifth (21%) said they would pay more for brands that label their products with their carbon impact. 47% of respondents stated that they are likely to choose low carbon labelled goods over non-labelled.

The Carbon Trust says the findings underline the need for corporate leadership on carbon reduction. They also point out that only 59% of FTSE 100 companies have clear targets to cut carbon footprints.

I think it’s great when companies show a real interest in environmental issues but I have to say, I’m a little sceptical about such research. Firstly, the article was in MarketingWeek, which is a magazine dedicated to the marketing industry and focused on marketing messaging.

Actions speak louder than words and to me there’s a vast difference between a company or business purporting, through marketing verbiage, to be taking action on carbon change and actually doing it. Look no further than certain high-street clothing retailers recently claiming to be ‘ethical’ and yet unwittingly buying into child labour. It demonstrates how easy it is to say one thing and yet without proper controls in place to actually be doing another. Marketing messages are shallow but consumers are savvy and less likely to be taken in, in my view. It doesn’t take much to label a product green and broadcast a low carbon footprint without doing much to actually reduce your carbon footprint.

Over the last decade, we’ve invested a great deal in product design with energy efficiency, lowering total cost of ownership, and increasing performance and reliability across all our range. Our UPS use less energy, take up less space and are easier to maintain. We’re also at the forefront of new developments such as renewable energy (solar) and flywheel/rotary UPS that doesn’t require batteries. Equipment is lighter in weight, so cheaper to transport, smaller in size so it doesn’t occupy so much space and contains fewer component parts so over its lifetime it will cost less to run and create less waste. Of course, it gives us some really useful marketing messages but more than that it makes our carbon claims tangible – and it helps our customers in their efforts to minimise their carbon footprints. And that, to me, is what it should be about – not paying lip service to environmental issues.