Press release:

Suffolk Life and IBM Work Together to Reduce Power and Save Money

Smarter Computing and streamlined storage delivers improved flexibility and business agility

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London - 12 Jul 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Suffolk Life, one of the U.K.’s leading providers and administrators of specialist pensions, has decreased energy consumption while meeting increased customer demand after adopting IBM's Smarter Computing approach to IT several months ago. In the four weeks following completion of the project in April, overall power consumption at Suffolk Life had reduced by 37 percent, delivering projected savings of approximately £30k per year.

Suffolk Life is one of the U.K.’s leading providers and administrators of Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs), administering more than 16,000 self-invested plans with gross assets in excess of £4.5 billion. IBM's Smarter Computing approach to IT is designed to provide customers greater system efficiencies and performance, while lowering costs, through the use of optimized systems. In the case of Suffolk Life, the company is now able to quickly increase infrastructure based on consumer and business demand while lowering energy consumption.   

IBM upgraded and consolidated the Suffolk Life IT server and storage infrastructure to deliver increased flexibility in handling and accessing pension data across the business while significantly decreasing their carbon footprint and energy costs. The improvements also allow for easy expansion as their customer database grows.  

“We are continually looking to find new ways of improving our business processes and infrastructure in order to deliver top class propositions and services for our customers,” said Ian Long, Head of Information Technology for Suffolk Life. “This project has been a resounding success for Suffolk Life. IBM delivered an updated infrastructure ahead of schedule that enabled us to significantly reduce our power consumption and associated running costs.”  

IBM migrated 84 percent of the existing physical environment to a new virtualized server and storage environment, switching from HP servers to energy efficient IBM System x3650 M3 servers. As a result, Suffolk Life has consolidated the physical servers from 66 boxes to only six across two sites, plus the additional nine IBM hosts providing the new virtual environment. As well as providing a new server and storage infrastructure, the project included the migration of 60 business applications to the new environment.  

“IBM has been able to apply our services expertise to provide Suffolk Life the IT flexibility needed to keep up with increased customer demand and provide the foundation of flexibility, efficiency and capacity to significantly grow the business into the future,” said Andrew Brierley, Vice President of Integrated Technology Services, IBM U.K. & Ireland.  

As a result of the project, data indicates that overall power consumption at Suffolk Life has reduced by approximately 37 percent since the implementation of the new infrastructure with a potential cost saving per year of up to £30k. The power reduction seen during the first 4 weeks of running the new environment equates to almost 13 tons of C0² (12,888kg).  

The System x3650 server is part of IBM’s Smarter Computing initiative. Through cloud technologies and systems optimized for their specific workload, IBM is helping organisations better access, organize, and utilize their own large amounts of data.  

About Suffolk Life

Suffolk Life is one of the UK’s leading providers and administrators of specialist pension products, primarily Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs). It has total assets exceeding £4 billion. Suffolk Life owns over 2,500 properties for over 4,000 SIPP investors. All figures are as at January 2012. Suffolk Life is part of the Legal & General Group. Established in 1971 and based in Ipswich, Suffolk Life employs around 200 people and has built an enviable reputation based on its expertise and knowledge of the SIPP market. 

About IBM

For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com/uk/services.

Post from Dept. of Energy Blog

Taking a Tour of Wilmington's Energy-Efficient Spaces

February 28, 2012 - 11:30am

Roya Stanley (left) on a tour of the Snipes Academy of Arts and Design with the building's architect -- Thomas Hughes. Through interactive real-time energy data tools, Snipes students incorporate energy use data in their classroom projects and studies. | Photo Courtesy of the Cape Fear Green Building Alliance.

Roya Stanley

Director, Policy and Technical Assistance

I
n Wilmington, North Carolina, local institutions are leading the way in building efficiency and sustainability. From the WAVE Transit Forden Station to the Wilmington Convention Center to the city’s street sweeper complex, Wilmington is saving money by saving energy and supporting job growth in energy efficiency technologies. 
 


Last week, I experienced first-hand how Wilmington public buildings are leveraging energy efficiency and clean energy technologies to save money and reduce energy waste. I joined Representative Mike McIntyre, Mayor Bill Saffo and Joy Allen, executive director of the Cape Fear Green Building Alliance, on a tour of the city’s energy efficient buildings. 
 


At the Forden Station -- the first LEED Gold registered public building to break ground in the state of North Carolina -- on-site geothermal heating and cooling systems have helped reduce energy consumption by 45 percent. Snipes Academy of Arts and Design utilizes a water source heat pump system and outside air system for the school’s heating and cooling. Through interactive real-time energy data tools, Snipes students incorporate energy use data in their classroom projects and studies. 
 


Reducing energy waste in buildings is an important element for a sustainable energy future. In the United States, buildings consume about 40 percent of all U.S. energy, contributing a significant amount to overall energy costs. In Wilmington, the Cape Fear Green Building Alliance is helping train local energy auditors and building analysts to conduct energy efficiency upgrades and capture the savings. 
 


Nationally, through the Better Buildings Challenge, more than 60 companies, cities, universities, hospitals and other partners have committed to upgrading more than 1.6 billion square feet of building space across the country -- which will jobs, eliminate waste and help make our commercial and industrial buildings 20 percent more efficient by 2020. 



Check out more on the Better Buildings Challenge HERE.

Oh, the (Energy-Related) Stories I Have Heard...

From the Energy Savers blog of the U.S. Dept. of Energy:


I don't have an interesting tidbit, video, or page to link to today, so I thought I would share a few things I've heard people say about saving energy. I'd call them "stories," except I'm paraphrasing and summarizing so much that it's more like random advice that I've heard people give. I think they're kind of fun reminders that, well, we are all pretty energy-savvy here, but there's still a lot of education that needs to be done.
Let's get this started!

Once upon a time, I knew someone who was sure that it would cost less to use a gas fireplace to heat their living room than it would to let the central heating run. They figured the fireplace could heat a small area better than the central air, which would have to heat the whole house.

Is that true? It depends! You need to check your utilities to know that, because they charge you differently for gas than for electricity. But to do that, you need to know how much gas your fireplace actually uses. (And that's useful information. I wonder if my apartment could tell me that much about my fireplace?) For me, though? Gas is kind of pricy. If I had a wood and pellet-burning fireplace I could at least look that up on Energy Savers.

I once knew someone who thought they could turn the heat off and use a space heater instead. This would only be the case if you had a space heater that used less energy while it was on than your central heating did. So! Look into how much energy your space heater uses. Learn about your space heater. I can assure you that every single one of the cheap-o brands I've bought were so grossly inefficient that they couldn't be used as my primary heating source.

...Of course, there's another reason to not try to heat your entire house with a space heater. And that's because most of you live in a place where it will freeze, and you can't decide to just turn your heat off to save money.

Because, you see, I also knew someone who thought it was fine to just turn the heat off all winter and rely on blankets and sweaters instead. Think of your pipes before you do that!

And, finally, here's a weird one. I knew someone who had heard the truism that running the oven heats up your kitchen. That's true! This person decided that, consequentially, this meant that running the oven with nothing in it was a good way to heat a kitchen. And... yeah, don't do that. If you want to heat your house, do it with something that's designed for heating. If you try to be creative about it you might burn down your house.

I think the lesson is this: If you're serious about saving energy, you have to do a little research. Yes, yes, "research" is a word that makes some people cringe. Sorry. But you have to know how much energy you use to know how to cut back in the right places.

Figure out where you're wasting energy. Read your utility bill. Know how much you have to pay for electricity or gas. Know how much it costs to run your appliances. (If you want to do the math, you can estimate your energy use with this handy formula) Then you can decide what you should heat your home with and for how long.

Elizabeth Spencer is a communicator at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which assists EERE in providing technical content for many of its websites.

From the U.S. Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

Lease Option Increases Rooftop Solar’s Appeal, Study Says Low Down Payment, Immediate Savings, Lure a New, Less Affluent Demographic Friday, January 20, 2012 Rooftop solar panels are attracting a new demographic of customers who are choosing to lease rather than buy, and enjoying the low upfront costs and immediate savings. The new third-party-lease business model lets homeowners save money the very first month, rather than breaking even a decade later after an initial investment of $10,000 or $20,000. Analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the solar lease models are surging in southern California. And they're being adopted in less affluent neighborhoods that had few customer-owned systems. The NREL study, "The Transformation of Southern California's Residential Photovoltaics Market through Third-Party Ownership," is in the current edition of the journal Energy Policy. The study indicated an attraction for third-party leasing in neighborhoods with less affluence than those most likely to go for the customer-owned option. It found a positive correlation between customers outright buying solar energy systems and customers living in neighborhoods where the average household income was $150,000 or more. But with third-party-leased photovoltaic (PV) panels, that positive correlation appeared in neighborhoods where the average household income was just $100,000 or more. If what's true in southern California proves true for the nation, it means that rooftop solar power could prove tempting for an additional 13 million Americans who live in households that earn between $100,000 and $150,000 per year. "What is so interesting about the southern California data is that the strong decrease in PV prices – from lower retail costs and stronger federal incentives – didn't pick up a new demographic. But the new business model – leasing – did pick up a new customer demographic," NREL's Easan Drury, the lead author of the report, said. Repackaging the value of photovoltaics as a simple savings on the monthly bill is an attractive alternative to the pitch that it will pay for itself in a decade, he said. "If someone comes up to you and says you can make money next month and forever, that totally changes how people see the value of solar." Among Drury's other findings: Third-party leasing usually eliminates the need for home-equity-style financing and, thus, the need for significant equity in the home. Without the hurdle of financing, more people can adopt solar, Drury said.  Along with the lower income threshold, Drury found a surge in solar leasing in neighborhoods with younger families. In the Los Angeles and Orange county markets, customer-owned PV was five times more prevalent than third-party owned in 2009. In 2010, the ratio had dropped to 2 to 1. And for the first quarter of 2011, the ratio was almost even. Homeowners can put as little as $3,000 down and see an immediate drop in their electricity costs,  albeit that first year the drop may be just a couple dollars a month. The real benefits come over the next two decades, when the $40 or $50 per month they're paying to lease the solar panels stays constant, while, presumably, the cost of electricity goes up. Third-party companies are touting potential customer savings of $10,000 to $15,000 over two decades. NREL is the Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. ###

New Fuel Economy Rules Win Broad Support

Excerpt from January 18 New York Times article with the above title.

Not everyone is so enthused about the new mileage standards.  See the January 10 post.

New Fuel Economy Rules Win Broad Support

By NICK BUNKLEY

DETROIT — Writing new regulations that will require cars and trucks to have significantly higher fuel economy by 2025 prompted years of fighting among automakers, environmentalists, regulators and consumer groups.

But now that the standards have been proposed, nearly everyone involved in the process is on board with the results, as a public hearing held Tuesday in Detroit showed.

More than 90 people who spoke throughout the day asserted that the stricter fuel economy requirements would create jobs, reduce oil consumption, create cleaner air and save drivers money, all while helping automakers increase their profits.

“We’re celebrating something that has taken a long time to reach,” said Representative John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who helped quash previous efforts to impose higher mileage standards. “There appears to be no significant opposition amongst responsible persons.”

The National Automobile Dealers Association, however, did speak out against the idea of setting requirements for vehicles made more than a decade from now until more is known about the strength of consumer demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Don Chalmers, a Ford dealer in New Mexico and the group’s government relations chairman, said he worried that vehicles would become too expensive for some consumers to afford. “Before rushing headlong into a set of new mandates aimed at doubling today’s fleet fuel economy, we need to understand better the potential ramifications,” Mr. Chalmers said. “If our customers do not purchase these products, we all lose.”

The proposed new standards call for automakers to increase the average, unadjusted fuel-economy rating of their vehicles to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, up from about 27 miles per gallon today. Because of the way testing is done, the 2025 requirement correlates to a window-sticker rating of about 36 miles per gallon, according to the automotive information Web site Edmunds.com, or roughly what Toyota’s tiny new Scion iQ car achieves today.

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