Sydney retrofit scheme saves on water, electricity and emissions

Electricity use in the City of Sydney’s buildings has been dropping significantly, with new figures revealing savings of as much as 50% from power and water efficiency retrofits.

The savings are a result of a major retrofit being undertaken by the city as part of its Sustainable Sydney 2030 scheme, which aims to reduce Sydney’s carbon emissions by 70% (compared to 2006 levels) by the year 2030 - the most ambitious of any Australian government. The City of Sydney is Australia’s first officially carbon neutral government.

The city awarded a $6.9 million contract to Origin Energy to retrofit 45 major buildings with energy and water-saving measures to reduce greenhouse emissions by 23% a year and water consumption by over 53,000 kL. The payback period is about 8½ years.

Electricity use is also being cut by 6.4 million kWh a year - enough to power 870 households and save the city an estimated $880,000 in power bills. The savings come from a variety of measures: from movement sensors on vending machines that switch off lights when they are not in use, to adjusting the voltage of entire buildings.

“These figures show what a major difference can be made by retrofitting buildings. As cities are the greatest emitters of greenhouse gas, we need to make our buildings more energy efficient,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“New buildings are designed with energy efficiency in mind. We need to retrofit older buildings if we are going to make a real difference.

“Reducing our environmental footprint this way makes good business sense,” she said.

The city has a target to cut its energy and water consumption overall by 20% compared to 2006 levels. So far it has made the following power reductions at city facilities:

• 68% at the recycling depot
• 52% at Alexandria Childcare Centre
• 39% at Glebe Library
• 32% at Goulburn Street Car Park
• 28% at Customs House
• 22% at Paddington Town Hall
• 21% at Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre
• 17% at King George V Recreation Centre
• 5% at Newtown Library

Some of the savings involved changes to a building’s engineering. Air conditioning at the city’s swimming pools and large buildings has been improved by installing variable speed drives to pumps and by using refrigerant additives to optimise the system. At the city’s recycling depot, induction lighting that produces instantaneous and concentrated floodlight has been installed and switches on and off with a movement sensor.

Across the whole portfolio, the city has introduced the practice of voltage power optimisation and is upgrading the power management system on personal computers. Other retrofit changes include efficient lighting retrofits, waterless urinals, water flow controls, and water recycling and recovery systems.

For more information, visit www.sydney2030.com.au.