Driving the Energy revolution for Network Rail

“Logica was chosen because their integrated approach was essential to make sure we delivered value for money to our customers. The OTM solution enables us to become more energy efficient.” Diane Booth, Head of Environment Policy, Network Rail

About Network Rail

Network Rail is the largest non-regulated electricity consumer in the UK. It spends £300 million on electricity with £250 million on rail traction alone, which is recharged to operators with little or no focus on carbon reduction.

The challenge

Network Rail negotiated the use of £8.7 million of funding to help train operators install meters on electric trains that would provide accurate billing. NR funded separately the billing system to process the data from the meters. The project aimed to help the railway become more energy efficient, immediately. Plus the company could easily integrate OTM with other systems that would help it continue to increase its energy efficiency in the future.

Our answer

Deadlines were tight. Network Rail needed people with unique subject matter knowledge to help it achieve a swift project take-off at lower cost and reduced risk. Having shaped the requirement for OTM solutions, we provided timely guidance. A Network Rail consulting paper (2008) by Chris Beard, Energy expert at Logica and author of “Smart Metering for Dummies” who is one of our experts, became the operational guide for the UK rail industry.

Our solution has three components:

  • Externally hosted OTM service: to collect and validate meter reading data from train operators and export it to Network Rail.
  • Data store (hosted within Network Rail): to hold meter readings in a format suitable for billing.
  • Updated Track Access Billing (TABS): Track Access Billing, Logica’s solution to bill the train operators for the use of the track managing £2.5 billion per annum of track access charges. Network Rail can now compare the train access charges with the meter readings.

A success story

The service is helping Network Rail reduce the carbon used by the GB’s rail network. Billing for electricity usage is spot-on. Operators fitting meters to their entire fleet will be billed for their trains’ electricity consumption during the invoice period. So, it no longer receives an estimated bill that may have to be adjusted at the end of the financial year through the ‘wash-up’ process. Instead, operators know exactly how exactly how much the total cost of electricity consumption is and can manage their cash flow better.

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