2021 was a particularly difficult year for the hospitality industry, even more so in countries like Kenya - where tourism is a huge contributor to the economy. Low occupancy rates made their high energy bills all the more hard to stomach.
Fortunately, our Best.Energy Sister Partner Alcove Ltd was on hand to help this hotel - a Mövenpick Hotel in Nairobi - get control of their energy usage.
The facility stretches across 230 rooms, with kitchens, cold rooms, laundry facilities and extensive air conditioning - in particular - all contributing to high levels of energy spend.
Like all our sister partners, Alcove operate on the basis that ‘what you don’t measure, you can’t manage’.
They set about introducing real-time energy monitoring across the site - installing four Eniscope 8 Hybrid devices for a combined 32 three-phase channels of monitoring.
That gave Alcove and the on-site operators instant visibility of energy consumption down to the asset level in the Cloud, allowing them to immediately highlight areas to save energy; like:
- Introducing CUES into refrigerated units in the kitchen areas. These small-but-powerful devices allow a cold unit to operate by food temperature, not air temperature. That reduces compressor cycles - driving down energy consumption, and pushing up lifespan.
- Switching off equipment not in use, like mini bars in unoccupied rooms.
- Optimising energy-intensive processes, like laundry washing; which was being run for much smaller loads than usual.
What were the results?
Overall, this hotel is now benefiting from around $4,000 pcm energy savings across the site - equating to a 10-13% reduction in their overall bill. With energy prices expected to rise again next year, the value of those savings will only increase.
What did it cost the client?
Nothing. This project - like many across the partner network - was delivered on a no CapEx basis. The client and Alcove Ltd share the savings 50 / 50 across the life of the three year contract. Everybody wins
What does the client think?
We asked Thomas Mjomba, Chief Engineer at Mövenpick Hotels Nairobi, what he thought about the project:
“Their team have installed online energy monitors that give real time energy consumption data. In just 3 months of operation, we have been able to identify faulty pump controls that kept pumps running unnecessarily and wasting electricity, we have also been able to find faulty cold room doors that led to high energy usage from cold-rooms, besides leading us to identify idle consumption in vacant guest rooms from equipment on standby mode. We are satisfied with their level of detail and professionalism and have no objection to recommending them.”