Richmond Marketplace makes energy savings

Property fund manager ISPT is the owner of Richmond Marketplace, home to a variety of retailers. Many of these retailers have their own sustainability targets to meet, but with ISPT owning the property, there is limited incentive for tenants to invest in energy-efficiency measures.

Forum Group’s powerPerfector voltage power optimisation (VPO) technology works with both landlords and tenants to help reduce energy costs and carbon within commercial buildings. The energy cost for the communal areas is met by the tenants by way of a fixed service charge. The centre will see the benefit of the energy-saving implementations, which they can pass on to the tenant once the cost of capital has been recouped, by the way of reduced rates or delays to planned rate increases.

ISPT has implemented a range of sustainability measures to improve the performance and efficiency at Richmond Marketplace, including:

• the provision of a new building management control system;
• the provision of variable speed drives on all pump and fan motors;
• carbon monoxide monitoring and fan control for the car park ventilation;
• efficient air-conditioning services;
• car park, mall and back-of-house lighting upgrades.

The centre installed three of Forum Group’s VPO units on the three communal supplies covering lighting and heating ventilation and cooling (HVAC) loads. The 105, 150 and 830 kVA units have led to a reduction in electricity use of 11.4% on average, saving $34,117 every year. The power quality has also been markedly improved, with an average reduction in reactive power of 42.7% and an average improvement in power factor of 6.85%.