Thomas Dudley - Business Energy Advice Service - Case study

Client Summary

Thomas Dudley is a 100 year old family run company incorporating a number of businesses that focus on designing, developing, manufacturing and selling specific products to suit customer needs. They have been manufacturing in the UK since the company’s inception in 1920. By the 1950s, the foundry was producing a wide range of products including cast iron WC cisterns. However, following a number of harsh winters, they began manufacturing frost-resistant, heavy-duty rubber cisterns. This move paved the way for the plastics division which started to manufacture plastic injection moulded models shortly afterwards. As the foundry expanded, they invested heavily in mechanised plant and installed seven automated moulding lines between 1966 and 1988.

Between 1969 and 1971, a new building was also erected to house the plastics division and their existing office block was completed.

Manufacturing excellence, made in the Black Country

Thomas Dudley is a fourth-generation manufacturer based in the West Midlands. The group’s five companies serve the construction sector, with a focus on foundry components and plastic plumbing systems. With 95% of products made in-house, the business is committed to UK manufacturing, local employment, and long-term sustainability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting smart about savings

Amid rising energy costs, the company faced an urgent need to reduce energy use across its energy-intensive plastic moulding division. As part of its broader net-zero strategy, Thomas Dudley joined the Business Energy Advice Service to identify the most effective actions to support its goals.

Pro Enviro conducted a full audit of the company’s plastics
operations. With 36 injection moulding machines running daily,
energy demand was high and variable. The audit highlighted
five clear opportunities: upgrading heating systems, replacing
fluorescent lighting, optimising compressor use, repairing air leaks, and replacing two older hydraulic moulding machines with energyefficient servo-driven models.

The data revealed excessive energy use during evenings and weekends, prompting behaviour change across the workforce. Maintenance teams and operators were retrained to shut off equipment properly and take responsibility for energy monitoring.
A new online portal visualised live data, helping the team spot inefficiencies and act fast.

With guidance from Pro Enviro, Thomas Dudley submitted a grant application for matched funding to support delivery of the upgrades.
They are now awaiting approval for a £100,000 grant toward the £400,000 investment.

More competitive, more sustainable

The planned upgrades are forecast to reduce energy usage by over 770,000kWh annually and cut carbon emissions by 156 tonnes.
That’s an estimated saving of £85,000 per year, helping to bring the payback period down and justify further investments.

Longer term, the savings will support reinvestment in automation, training, and product development – critical steps to keep Thomas
Dudley competitive in global markets. The success of the plastics division has already encouraged the company to roll out energy
assessments across other group businesses.

• Thomas Dudley (3.01 MB)

Installation of an aM&T System

An incremental approach has been taken to improve the business’ understanding of the drivers of energy consumption including a benchmarking exercise to determine the current position of the business against Best Available Techniques (BAT) in energy consumption per unit of casting.

The initial stages were to understand consumption patterns at macro level, utilising Envirotracks to provide half hourly data analysis of all manufacturing sites.

Below shows the overall consumption reduction from their baseline year 2019, to the most recent data period of July - September 2022.

Macro level study using half hourly data also allows Thomas Dudley to closely monitor the maximum demand of the operation, including the level of non-productive load in kVAr usage from inefficient plant.

At a lower level there is the daily consumption macro analysis, which allows Thomas Dudley to accurately see their consumption on a daily scale, identify consumption trends, see which days have an increase in energy consumption, and measure the level of non-productive baseload.

This was followed by the identification of consumption levels and patterns at the plant

/ departmental level in both foundries, using temporary sub meters to identify and measure the level of non-productive energy consumption and costs.

The next stage was the installation of a real-time automated Monitoring and Targeting system (aM&T - SEE Change) that collects and collates real-time data on energy consumption using 40 electric meters installed on all energy intensive plant and their ancillary equipment. These permanent meters provide production performance reports which are analysed on a daily basis by the management and engineering staff to optimise the production activities.

Alarms and alerts have also been set up for each item of plant to identify when energy consumption outside the expected norms occurs. This enables immediate action to be taken to eliminate any unexpected or unnecessary consumption.

With all this data collected and collated, Thomas Dudley now utilise an online repository of energy, carbon and production data, and have developed Net-Zero carbon strategies and objectives. This includes close monitoring of the firm’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 CO₂e emissions. The Pro Enviro Energy and Carbon Portal (ECP) allows Thomas Dudley to store all their energy and GHG emissions data into one easy to access location, and can provide comparative analysis from their baseline year of 2019 to the present, as well as the ability to monitor successful deployment of energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects.

With assistance from Pro Enviro, Thomas Dudley have taken a data driven approach to understanding its consumption drivers and use that same approach to identify opportunities for improvements.

Through installation of an automated Monitoring and Targeting system, Thomas Dudley has significantly reduced energy consumption and costs, Greenhouse Gas emissions and their impact on the environment, without impacting its competitive edge.

Using the developed baseline year of 2019, Thomas Dudley has managed to achieve total carbon savings of 435 tCO₂e by the end of 2021, with a total reduction of 6% of Greenhouse gas emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 within their 4 manufacturing operations.

With the application of a science-based approach and through the inclusion of Low Carbon and Net-Zero carbon strategies in their business development plans, all manufacturing operations at Thomas Dudley will achieve the ambitious target of becoming Net-Zero carbon by 2040.