FOI release

Annual electricity bill at Shap interchange highways depot

Case reference EIR2024/00833

Received 15 August 2024

Published 10 September 2024

Request

To whom it may concern. I have noticed now for a number of years now. That there is an unnecessary amount of night time lighting at the shap interchang highways depot. Bearing in mind that budgets for motorway maintenance is tight. I consider it totally unreasonable, for the amount of energy being wasted, which could be far better spent on maintaining motorway surfaces. Particularly the dire state of the surface on the bridge over the M6 at junction 39. It has been like this for a number of years and continually gets "bodged"occasionaly. I appeciate some of your staff members may be frightening of the dark, but I think to have every light burning in the yard, every night is unnecessary. From over a mile away it resembles a scene from the film close encounters of the third kind, and competes with blackpool illuminations. This is Particularly wasteful of tax payers money, and bad for the environment in general, and causes unnecessary light pollution. If it is a case of staff working at night, or operating the gritting centre , obviously that would be different. I also realise that for security reasons some lighting may need to remain on. But not every light. It would be interesting under a FOI request, to know what the annual electricity bill is for this particular highways depot.

Response

Information provided

 

It would be interesting under a FOI request, to know what the annual electricity bill is for this particular highways depot.

 

The annual consumption of Hardendale Depot in 23/24 (April ‘23 – March 2024 as we report in financial years), was 83 MWh with a total electricity cost of £20k.

 

 

Advice and Assistance 

 

In addition to the security of materials held on site, the lighting is imperative to the safety of the workforce. A reduction in lighting would create shadows at the compound and limit visibility. This is particularly relevant as the depot is operated 24/7 with heavy plant vehicles being commonplace. As such the current lighting arrangement is deemed necessary to provide a safe environment for our staff and supply chain.

However, please note that plans are in place to upgrade the lighting, heating and water systems at the site, as well as installing solar panels by the end of March 2025. Overall, this is estimated to save approximately 7.5MWh of energy each year along with the solar panels producing approximately 25MWh of renewable energy.

This project is part of our wider works to decarbonise our corporate estate by 2030.

 

We have also liaised with the site operator to fully understand the lighting requirements at the depot and to assess whether any further efficiencies can be made.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

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