KVA review immediately saves £12K per month for warehouse and office customer!
Client Overview
The Fragrance Shop is a prominent leader in the fragrance and beauty industry in the UK, with over 220 stores nationwide. In line with the company's continued growth, a strategic decision was made to consolidate their head office operations into a unified 190,000 sq ft warehouse and office space on Trafford Park, Manchester.
The Challenge
The client was facing consistently high electricity capacity and standing charges. We suspected they were paying for more available supply (kVA) than they actually needed and also placed on the wrong TCR banding.
Despite investing in energy-efficient, their electricity bills hadn’t reflected these improvements due to the high fixed charges on their invoices. They wanted clarity and control – and to ensure they weren’t overpaying.
Our Approach
We carried out a detailed KVA (kilovolt-ampere) demand review, which included:
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Historical data analysis: Reviewing 12 months of half-hourly consumption data to identify true maximum demand.
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Site load profiling: Understanding operational patterns and load peaks across time.
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Consultation with the DNO: Engaging with the Distribution Network Operator to assess the site’s capacity agreement and explore amendment options.
Findings
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The site’s agreed capacity was set at 2,500 kVA, but actual peak demand over 12 months never exceeded 350 kVA.
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Load peaks had never reached the demand set or expected by the initial building design, but the contracted supply level had not been updated accordingly.
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The client was being charged for 2,150 KVA in excess capacity, resulting in unnecessary annual costs.
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Due to the high KVA, the client was also placed in TCR Band 4 meaning they were also paying higher standing charges than they needed to.
The Solution
We supported the client in submitting a formal request to reduce their agreed supply capacity from 2500 kVA to 1250 kVA, leaving a buffer so we could continue to monitor.
This was completed without any disruption to operations.
12 months later we completed the exercise again and reduced the capacity further to 500KVA.
This change allowed us to reduce the TCR banding to Band 2 which resulted in a further saving on the client's standing charges.
The Results
✅ £12,300 per month ongoing savings on capacity charges and standing charge
✅ Improved energy contract negotiation position
✅ Reduced non-commodity charges going forward
✅ Confidence in operational energy planning
Client Feedback
“The KVA review is an example of the detail that Andy delivers for us. He works with us throughout, to help keep control of our costs. The great point with this exercise is that we could implement the savings recommendation straight away as we didnt have to wait for our energy renewal date due to it being a seperate piece of work, which Andy carried out with the local electricity distributor"
Could You Be Overpaying Too?
If your site has undergone operational changes, energy efficiency upgrades, or load shifting – there’s a good chance your KVA agreement no longer reflects reality. Or you may have taken on a property where the previous occupier needed a higher KVA than you require.
