Helping Pembrokeshire County Council maximise their energy and utility opportunities

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Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) is a Unitary Authority which is predominantly rural and covers an area of 1600 square kilometres with a population of 124,000. In May 2019, the Council declared a Climate Emergency after pledging to be a net zero carbon local authority by 2030, and following this an actionable roadmap was established to support their target. Since then, measures undertaken have included upgrading streetlighting to LEDs, carrying out a review to identify EV alternatives for owned vehicles and exploring and delivering opportunities in conjunction with the Welsh Government Energy Service for large-scale renewable energy projects.

PCC recognised that a structured, evidence-based strategy was essential to support their goals and LASER worked with the Council to calculate and analyse their carbon footprint and develop a realistic and actionable plan to net zero. This supported PCC’s ambition to decarbonise its operational and estate-wide emissions and provided an understanding of how these pathways aligned with national targets.

The challenge

Creating a strategy to understand carbon savings & financial impact at a high level

The council faced the dual challenge shared by many local authorities – understanding where to start with decarbonising a large, diverse estate whilst managing long-term financial sustainability. They wanted to explore carbon savings and financial impacts at a strategic level, allowing them to:

Formulate an approach based upon a good understanding of how far selected projects would take them towards net zero.
Understand the associated levels of investment and financial returns.
Identify remaining emissions left for further mitigation.

Net Zero tailored roadmap and Carbon Descent Plan Our solution

LASER’s tailored approach to the councils specific needs, enabled key stakeholders to understand the levels of financial impact and emissions reduction across the council’s buildings and transport. Following the production of carbon footprints, a BAU forecast and a year-on-year comparison, LASER produced two Carbon Reduction models for the Council. The Models were generated using LASER’s in-house tool, which has been developed and honed over several years to deal with the complexities of the data, industry standards and the interaction of different Carbon Reduction Options.

During an Options Appraisal workshop with the project lead and key stakeholders from across the Council, potential projects for modelling were reviewed. These were discussed and suitable assumptions and timeframes for implementation were selected. Projects, scale and timeframes were informed by historic work carried out by the Council, which included surveys, desktop assessments for Solar PV and their vehicle replacement strategy.

Using the selected projects the Carbon Reduction Models were generated, helping the council to visualise both the emissions and financial trajectory. This provided details of projected investment, ongoing costs, potential savings, and the overall financial impact.

The models were based on two levels of action and are summarised below:

Low action: conservative levels of investment in renewable technology (rooftop solar & solar farms), longer timescale for implementing projects, with smaller vehicles moving to EV.
High action: increased levels of investment in renewable technologies, shorter time scales for the implementation of projects, and additional explorations of moving a proportion of larger vehicles to an alternative low-carbon fuel.

PCC were very happy with the approach taken by LASER and the project was undertaken at a good time for the Council with the focus of Net Zero by 2030 being very forthcoming. Communication was very clear and project members were available at our convenience to provide advice and clarity on what was required. We have confidence in the data and numbers in the project, which will further support decision making for high level business plans. The Carbon Descent Plan also provided the possible next steps for PCC and how LASER would be able to progress with our plan and assist with chosen initiatives.

Dan West – Energy & Sustainability Team Manager Pembrokeshire County Council

The outcome

By conducting a review of their current status, Pembrokeshire were able to understand their current position and how emissions had reduced from their baseline year. The Carbon Reduction Modelling provided an understanding of costs, how emissions would reduce if undertaking chosen projects and the challenge remaining to reach net zero by 2030.

High Action Model, key headlines:

A 65% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050 was seen when compared to the BAU baseline.
Potential cumulative offsetting costs by 2050 were reduced from £26.8M to £10.7M, with annual offsetting costs for 2050 reduced from £1.4M to £0.4M
Total investment by 2050 was £48.9M with cumulative savings of £20.8M

It was important to the councile that there were clear and practical actions from the Roadmap project. The Carbon Descent Plan provided an in-depth ‘Next Steps’ section detailing each project, how to move forward and the support available from LASER to help implement identified projects and recommendations.

Conclusion

With our expert carbon reduction insight, knowledge and support, PCC have a realistic and actionable roadmap to help reach their net zero target.

LASER remains committed to supporting PCC on their journey, with our dedicated account managers who will regularly check in to offer ongoing support with our Roadmap Service and details of our other Net Zero Frameworks. LASER can also provide expert carbon reduction insight and knowledge to support with:

Adding a further level of detail, either with a desktop assessment or site surveys.
Progress monitoring of projects.
Understanding reductions and remaining emissions.
Pathway and strategy comparisons.

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