Sainsbury's Energy Management Contract

Just over a year into its four and a half year term and Sainsbury's energy management contract is already reducing energy consumption. The contract with RWE, the company that Sainsbury's energy management requirements are outsourced to, was signed in May 2002 with the aim of reducing Sainsbury's energy expenditure and improving efficiency.

Sainsbury's currently spends in excess of £50 million a year on energy. RWE Innogy (npower are the providers of gas and electricity to all of Sainsbury's UK sites including offices, depot and their 458 store. RWE Solutions UK Ltd are managing a £14.5 million investment programme of energy efficiency measures aimed at reducing consumption by 11 per cent over two years. It is this programme that will make a significant contribution to Sainsbury's environmental target of reducing CO₂ emissions from its buildings by 11%.

Current programme status shows that RWE are on track to deliver. Orders for £8.5M of energy management projects have been placed, of which £6.3M has been expended to date. Against these orders Sainsbury's is anticipating a 9% energy saving, 1.4% of which has already been delivered through completed works. Further projects are currently being prepared for approval and with their approval and implementation it is fully anticipated that the 11% of energy reductions will be achieved.

The type of projects that RWE Solutions projects are implementing in order to reduce energy expenditure include refrigeration system optimisation, voltage supply reduction, upgrade of lighting infrastructure, installation of variable speed drives & belt drive changes to ventilation equipment and general energy system improvements.

The project work being carried out by RWE is supplementary to Sainsbury's current programme of upgrading the whole of the supermarket estate to the standard of the best by April 2004.