How to make events more sustainable in energy management

It is clearly a journey to get from recognising that an event is not sustainable to identifying a pathway to staging a truly more environmentally conscious version of it. Event managers and organisers, therefore, face several challenges, often related to lack of knowledge and information about their event inefficiencies. As a result, they often neither understand the costs of these inefficiencies nor the potential solutions. Others, even if they have a basic appreciation, do not understand well enough exactly what they need in terms of planning, measurements and reporting to make the necessary changes. 

The simple answer is, yes: sustainability is already changing the business model of much of the event industry and with it the way we think about event management. And help and detailed information is nowadays out there. In fact, in the past decade it has become possible for event managers to organise their events to internationally agreed sustainability standards. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 20121 document lays out the sustainability standards for the entire event industry, from supply chains and caterers to logistics and builders. Its purpose is to provide some sort of framework for people in the events industry to examine and measure any event against the ISO standards.

The document’s authors describe it as, “a practical tool for managing events so that they contribute to the three dimensions of sustainability – economic, environmental and social.” Aimed at large and small events alike, it is now applied to everything from sports and concerts to conferences and exhibitions. Its framework offers “a common international language for events management” across the world, with accompanying identifiable standards, measurements and monitoring that aim to produce a more sustainable event.

Because of a lack of detailed information on the application’s load profile, event managers tend to rent a generator that is bigger than needed. They go big to make sure they can cover any load profile; however, this can be very inefficient. Often, these generators must deal with low loads, and the result is that the engine struggles. With low loads the generator engines can cut out, and this can reduce the lifespan of the engine and add maintenance hours – as well as interrupting energy supplies. It can be compared to driving a car at 20 kilometres per hour in fifth gear.

In addition, if the generator is too big for the size of the job it is doing, its fuel usage will be higher than required (even though it only delivers the same amount of power that a smaller generator would provide). An oversized generator, therefore, leads to two efficiency problems: firstly, the unit gives less power for every litre of fuel used; and, secondly, it creates more power than is usable. These inefficiencies in turn are costly both financially and environmentally.

A further problem is that some event managers believe that if they have their own dedicated power source, they will not need to worry about availability and reliability. This leads them to hire diesel generators dedicated to their own use, rather than share. Because of a lack of generator and power-usage information and knowledge, however, or simply because of generator availability, they end up with over-sized models – with the associated costs mentioned above. A final common example of energy inefficiency at an event is that some equipment, such as with an electric starter motor, needs a great deal of power to get going; but they then require much less energy once they are up and running.  

On the surface, an obvious alternative to a diesel generator is to take energy from the grid, and to choose a company that has a green tariff and delivers energy from a renewable source. Unfortunately, a music festival or a cultural event that is in a fairly remote location, such as Glastonbury, for example, means this is not always possible (town- or city-centre events are more amenable to this). Nevertheless, while it is sometimes not possible to get energy from the grid during an event, a solution is to use battery-driven Energy Storage Systems charged from the grid beforehand – or during downtime (typically during the night). These Energy Storage Systems can then work autonomously while the event is running, providing power without distracting noise and emissions. In addition, energy storage solutions can support the grid, partially taking on the load when it exceeds the grid’s maximum coverage.

Glastonbury is a good example of a festival that has become increasingly sustainable in recent decades: rooftops on the farm where the festival takes place now have thousands of solar panels that helps run the weekend-long summer festival, while for the rest of the year they continue to provide energy for other uses. Solar-generated electricity is a source of renewable energy that converts sunlight into power via photovoltaic cells. Of course, solar power is to some degree weather determined, and it works at its best when the sun is shining, during the day. However, recent technological breakthroughs enable an efficient use of solar energy, even if it’s cloudy. Battery-driven energy storage solutions store energy coming from renewable sources  for its immediate or later use, avoiding a waste of energy.

Wind power shares many of the advantages and challenges of solar. In the case of wind, kinetic energy provides renewable, zero-carbon power. As with solar, its most efficient use is enabled using Energy Storage Systems, though the weather also plays a role in dictating the power generated. With good planning, however, solar and wind hybrid systems can be highly reliable and hugely efficient methods of generating power, particularly due to the rapid advances in the performance of lithium-ion battery technology in recent years.

Right now, increasing numbers of those familiar outdoor music, book, food and other festivals are being powered by a generator-lithium-ion battery hybrid combination. Atlas Copco’s range of Energy Storage Systems, featuring the ZBP and ZBC models, is an example of the new developments in providing a constant and reliable supply of energy. Once the Lithium-ion batteries are charged, they efficiently use only the energy required and therefore overcomes any low load issues. And when running with a renewable source, the battery stores and supplies carbon-neutral energy.

The rapid development of battery technology in recent years is radically changing the event industry. This technology, combined with ambitious carbon-zero footprint aims, is pushing sustainability from the periphery to the heart of planning and managing events.