NEWS | DIGEST UKS FIRST BATTERY-POWERED HOTEL UP AND RUNNING The Premier Inn at The Gyle, Edinburgh Park, has become the UKs first battery-powered hotel in abid to improve energy efficiency and security. Italsoaims to reduce running costs by up to 20,000a year. The Premier Inn is trialling a new 100kW lithium ion battery at the 200-room site. It is 3m3 and weighs approximately five tonnes, and draws power from the National Grid during off-peak periods. The battery, installed by E.ON, has the capacity to run the hotel for up to three hours and takes two hours to fully charge. It will be used for at least two to three hours per day, depending on the needs of the National Grid. The Gyle was chosen as the first site to trial the battery partly because Scotland is a large producer of renewable power, which can be prone to volatility so the battery will provide valuable back-up. ASHRAE aiming for net-zero energy HQ A US$15.7m renovation of ASHRAEs new headquarters building in Atlanta, Georgia, aims to create a net-zero energy facility. The site, 10 miles north of the societys current headquarters, was chosen to demonstrate how a 1970s building can be transformed to give modern, high performance. ASHRAE will work to reduce energy consumption to below 22kbtu/ft2 year, with a limit of maximum daytime plug load to 0.5 W/ft2, so that its building can be a model for reducing the carbon and environmental impacts of business operations in a costeffective and replicable way. Death prompts review An infection linked with pigeon droppings has been identified as a contributing factor in the death of a child patient at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Glasgow in December. Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman said that a review was taking place into the design, build and maintenance of the 842m hospital, which opened in 2015. The likely source of the infection has been traced to a 12th-floor room containing machinery that is not open to the public. Small traces of pigeon excrement were discovered in the room, which had a small break in the wall though it is unclear how the bacteria entered the ventilation system. As part of the hospitals additional infection control measures, portable HEPA air filter units have been installed in specific areas as a precaution. 10 February 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Feb19 pp10 News.indd 10 Parliament debates adoption of project bank accounts New Bill aims to ensure small businesses are paid directly and promptly A new Bill calling for payments on government and public authority contracts to be made through a project bank account was put before Parliament last month. The Public Sector Supply Chains (Project Bank Accounts) Bill, backed by the Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group, was proposed by Debbie Abrahams MP to help ensure small businesses are paid directly and promptly. It will also protect them from the kindof losses sustained by supply chain firms after the collapse of Carillion. Late payment by large businesses is a massive issue across all business sectors, leading to billions of pounds being owed to smaller companies for work that has been done, said Abrahams. When payments take a long time working their way along a supply chain from the contracting authority, there is a risk thatthe cashcould be cut off at any time because of payer insolvency. My Bill aims to set in law the requirement that parties delivering government and publicauthority work from the lead contractorright down through the supply chain will receive payment from the same secure potof money. Carillion collapsed in January 2018 owing more than 2bn to smaller suppliers, which created a catastrophic effect that must be avoided in the future, Parliament was told. Abrahams added that the precarious position of other large construction firms meant the government should take urgent action. SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein said project bank accounts were acknowledged to be the most effective method of ensuring secure and regular cash flow. Unite union demands Carillion prosecutions A year after the collapse of Carillion, the trade union Unite has accused the government of risking another corporate meltdown by failing to take legal action against any of the companys directors or senior managers. It has also criticised the pension regulator for not delivering any recommendations from its investigation into the 800m shortfall in the firms pension fund. Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: The governments failure to take action to ensure there cannot be similar collapses in the future is a betrayal of workers, who still face being cast on the scrapheap without warning because of irresponsible directors who place profits and shareholder dividends before people. The fact that no-one involved in Carillion has yet had any form of action taken against them demonstrates either that the regulators are failing to do their jobs or that existing laws are too weak. Carillion was forced into liquidation on 15 January last year with a reported 7bn of liabilities and just 29m in the bank. It has been suggested that the company had been trading while insolvent for some time before going under holding more than 2bn of unpaid invoices to small suppliers. 25/01/2019 16:13