Christchurch Airport finding its sustainability sweet spot
Tweak, tweak, tweak. That’s the sound of a brand new building becoming as energy ef¿cient as possible.
Christchurch Airport’s new terminal building was created with sustainability in mind. All its systems including lighting, heating, and air conditioning were designed to minimise the building’s carbon footprint and electricity bill. The Terminal Facilities team is still ¿nding ways to do better even though the building opened in 2011. “We’re really surprised by the scope to improve,” says Mike Parker, manager of the three-person team. “Even though you have a brand new building with a lot of energy ef¿cient components, it doesn’t automatically work well. It’s got its own characteristics. It can take a couple of years to understand, and a couple more to tune all the systems so they work together.” Parker embarked on a long-term partnership with the Energy Ef¿ciency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and energy management experts Enercon to make the airport’s energy systems as ef¿cient as possible. This applied to the new area of the terminal, opened in 2013, and the international area of the terminal, opened in 1997. The process started with a thorough energy audit, to ¿nd out where energy was being used and why. “It’s a long process,” says Parker. “You have to see what happens in heating and cooling mode, in different seasons and on different days – like a day that starts off crisp and gets much warmer.” This provided the information needed to start a two-year programme of improvement. It was so successful the airport is now halfway through a second two-year programme of tweaking and re¿nement, a process known as continuous commissioning. “We found the central energy centre was working well but the heating and cooling systems were ¿ghting each other – one area would be trying to heat while the adjacent space was trying to cool. Sorting that out saved us a heap of money,” he says. They made another good saving – and “Energy savings come when you commit to an energy management journey over the long term.” Mike Parker slashed use of fossil fuels – by questioning the settings on the diesel-powered boiler in the international area of the terminal. “The heating water ran at a high pressure since it was installed 20 years ago but no-one knew why. So we dropped the pressure, bit by bit. There was no risk except that someone might ring up and say they’re cold. We’ve now found the perfect level and it’s made a massive difference in energy consumption.” The boiler is scheduled for retirement in a few years, and will be replaced with the innovative ground source heat pumps used in the new facility. Parker and his team get a buzz from seeing their problem-solving reÀected in the energy management dashboards Enercon produces each month. These tell the team how much energy should have been used, taking into account several variables including the size of the building and the daily weather conditions. “We’ve been consistently eight to 10 per cent below those predictions, so we like to prove it wrong,” says Parker. “We’ve given up setting benchmarks because we keep blowing them away. We’re just going to keep working until our results Àatten out, and that will be our new target.” Can your business bene¿t? EECA’s business programme focuses on helping New Zealand’s largest energyusing businesses reduce their energy use and carbon emissions. But the same principles can be applied to businesses of any size, in any industry, says Paul Bull, EECA’s business account director south. “Energy savings come when you commit to an energy management journey over the long term. For the airport, it’s evolved from an initial energy audit to a programme of continuous improvement, which hasn’t inconvenienced customers at all. “Mike’s done a great job of telling senior management about the programme’s bene¿ts. That really helped him secure on-going support. “Also, his team has totally bought into the programme. They keep bringing ideas and questioning the norm – that’s essential if you want to keep improving.” For more information on how your business can cut your energy costs visit www.eecabusiness.govt.nz.