XCO2 were approached to undertake a series of Energy Audits at the British Airways Operations Base at Heathrow Airport. The site consists of a number of technical buildings and ancillary spaces, with the majority of its area being aircraft maintenance hangars.

The audit specifically focussed on the building services; considering performance of heating, ventilation, cooling and compressed air systems. The audit consisted of a number of site visits to the various buildings and key areas, proceeded by analysis and post-processing of the data gathered in order to establish a set of recommendations for the site. A review was undertaken of the available utility data for the site to gauge overall consumption as well as patterns and trends throughout the year.

The overall energy consumption for the buildings in scope was compared to recognised ‘good practice’ energy use, in order to give an indication of the building’s relative performance against standard industry benchmarks.

A significant number of recommendations were made for the various systems on site. To support the translation into refurbishment projects these were grouped into site-wide, space type (e.g. hangars, workshops), and building specific recommendations.

Given the age and the complexity of the site and its systems, the recommendations were also categorised by complexity and impact, with quantifiable assessments of payback and savings made where applicable. Following a workshop with the client and detailed review discussions the next steps proposed are the implementation of all viable quick-win recommendations and a series of further detailed assessments for strategic and detailed recommendations that XCO2 and the client team will deliver together.