Franca Shopping fights back: reducing the impact of rising costs and economic recession by increasing energy efficiency

Challenge

The energy analysis enabled the Franca Shopping team to identify key instances of inefficient electrical energy use. These included:

• Lighting in use during hours of reduced operations, i.e. late at night when shops are closed but the cinema is still open.
• The high height of the lighting – at 9.5 metres – in some of the mall area, which makes the lamps difficult to maintain and means that they do not provide efficient light levels to the areas they serve.
• The external lighting infrastructure did not match with the actual lighting needs, creating room to increase efficiencies.

Solution

First of all, the shopping centre team reduced the lighting intensity during low operation hours (the time between shops’ closing and the cinema closing), delivering a saving of over 40%.

Secondly, they reduced the height of the lamps in the mall areas, which increased the light intensity, achieved greater efficiency, and improved the ambience for tenants and visitors. Going forwards, it will also reduce the maintenance costs as the shopping centre will no longer need to hire a ladder for electricians to reach the lights.

Thirdly, night patrols were made of the entrance and car park areas with help of the energy map to identify ways to improve the lighting. As a result, the team found that the number of reflectors and lamps in place in the parking lot entrances and exits could be reduced, as could the light intensity of the decorative lighting in the mall entrance. Furthermore, by re-organising lights in the parking lots, efficiency was increased by around 25%. Overall these changes improved the quality of the lighting and CCTV monitoring and reduced electricity demand.

Finally, by installing a timer on the building’s exhaust system, the management team was able to deliver savings of over 48% on this equipment’s energy consumption.

Overall, the project delivered a monthly reduction in electricity consumption of more than 16% in the shopping centre’s common parts areas, equivalent to an annual cost saving of €9,524. This has a positive impact on the balance sheet and enables Franca Shopping to reduce its energy consumption in line with Sonae Sierra’s environmental target. Moreover, the project enabled Franca Shopping to develop the expertise of its management team in resource management, create new tools for energy control, and enhance its relationships with tenants who have also benefited from the changes implemented.

Abstract

Franca Shopping in São Paulo was faced with a difficult situation: electricity costs were up due to reduced hydropower capacity; tenant sales were down due to economic recession. In this context, increasing energy efficiency became an even greater priority. Franca Shopping’s management team worked hard to develop a deep understanding of the energy consumption patterns of the entire shopping centre site. Having identified areas for improvement, they implemented a series of measures to deliver an annual energy saving of 16%, equivalent to around €9,500 in costs, with no capital investment.

Introduction

Between 2014 and 2015 São Paulo was crippled by drought. This led to a serious water crisis, impacting on the supply of water to the entire state. The lack of rainfall also affected the country’s electricity supply, as 60% of electricity is generated by hydropower. In response to the situation, the federal government has introduced tax policies (“Bandeiras Tarifárias”) to limit consumption, and the cost of electricity has increased significantly as a result. In Franca, electricity costs rose by over 85%; in some regions it increased by 100%.

At the same time, the Brazilian economy has been mired by recession. This has impacted on our shopping centres’ tenants’ sales, rental income and cash flow.

The combination of these factors made electricity efficiency a great imperative at Franca Shopping. By reducing electricity consumption, the shopping centre could reduce costs for the shopping centre owners and tenants in the context of challenging economic conditions, whilst also indirectly reducing its environmental impact.

Background

To start with, the Franca Shopping management team wanted to gain better insight into the current electricity consumption patterns of the shopping centre. They started by undertaking daily monitoring of energy consumption to identify times and installations with particularly high consumption levels and they developed a comprehensive energy map which included compiling an inventory of all electrical equipment and voltages.

Working together, the management team and a group of electricians used the energy map to analyse key challenges and potential solutions that could be implemented to reduce energy consumption.

All this was done by adhering to the spirit of ‘Improving Our Work’, Sonae Sierra’s continuous improvement programme based on the Kaizen methodology which involves challenging the Company’s culture and work practices in order to increase knowledge and productivity.

Closure

Facing the drastic scenario of a severe water crisis, increasing energy costs and pressure from tenants to reduce common charges, the highly motivated management team at Franca Shopping made the impossible possible and achieved significant energy and cost savings with no financial investment. Throughout the data collection process, analysis and implementation of the changes, meetings were scheduled with all the staff. This helped us to share knowledge and information to come up with the best practical solutions.