CHALLENGE

Over the last decade Gatwick Airport has grown from 31 million passengers a year to 45 million and is the UK’s second largest airport.
Gatwick wanted to maintain its Airport Carbon ‘Neutral’ Accreditation, achieved in 2017, and purchasing certified renewable electricity was a key part of this. Gatwick is also a member of RE100, a global collaboration of 138 businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity. Doing so also adds to Gatwick’s Decade of Change programme of ambitious environmental and community focused targets. In a market with increasing commodity and non-commodity costs the airport wanted a renewable solution that would be sustainable, contribute to the diversification of the UK energy system, but that didn’t come at a premium price.

OVERVIEW

Kinect Energy Group conducted a broad based competitive tender and thoroughly investigated the cost of purchasing REGO (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin) certificates. As part of this process we conducted a comprehensive risk workshop involving all the key stakeholders from within the Airport to get everyone aligned on an agreed strategy to achieve the challenging and diverse needs of the business.

SOLUTION

The competitive tender for electricity needed to secure a new electricity contract that would enable Gatwick Airport to maintain carbon neutrality, as well as deliver cost and operation benefits. Electricity accounts for 75% of the airport’s ground operations carbon footprint, so to achieve their renewable energy target of 25% by 2020, it was essential to buy from 100% renewable sources. Kinect energy specialists carried out an extensive procurement process analysing a large number of suppliers to improve all aspects of the contract, in addition to the renewable element. This included contract terms which optimized the trading terms and increased transparency which led to a significant reduction in transaction costs.