Iain France - founder
The Ecofund Partners network
About Iain
Iain has played a key role in initiating and project-managing over two dozen NHS energy-performance contracts, delivering millions of pounds' net savings to the NHS every year. He has experience on both client and supplier sides of the transaction, giving important insight to achieve the best results.
Currently he is advancing Ecofund's battery-storage solutions to optimise the financial and commercial proposition to the NHS (and other sectors), and to ensure an efficient route to market that minimises clients' transaction costs.
NHS customers want solutions that are new and innovative, whilst simultaneously offering the reassurance that technologies are robust and risks are properly-managed. Working to get that balance right is a challenging and rewarding task.
Iain's expertise includes financial modelling, project funding, contract negotiations and effective board-level communication.
He has directed UK sales at major PLCs including Schneider Electric and Sage Software, and is skilled at working with private-sector companies to optimise their business propositions to the NHS and the wider Public Sector.
The partner network
MIKE FOLEY
ecofund partner
Mike is a CIBSE-qualified engineer, with over 25 years’ experience designing and delivering low-carbon technologies, including battery-storage, solar PV, bio-fuel and waste-to-energy solutions.
Mike established The Energy Practice in 2000, which he sold to Suffolk County Council in 2016, before joining Ecofund as technical lead.
Mike has designed a led a number of high-profile energy projects, including a recent biofuel generation project at Cramlington Hospital in Northumbria.
Sean McKeever
nhs strategy & finance
Sean is an experienced senior NHS executive; he is a strategic thinker and is expert in building valuable business cases for the NHS.
He is especially skilled at understanding the link between NHS trust strategy, operations, finance and estates, including NHS project funding and accounting.
Sean has served as chief executive at Southern Health and Social Services Board and finance director at Lincolnshire Community NHS Foundation Trust.
DAVID DE WET
FOUNDER, ECOVATE GROUP
David is MCIPS and PRINCE2 qualified, with 19 years’ experience in NHS and public sector procurement.
He has delivered effective and compliant procurement for some tens of £millions in NHS energy performance contracts, including George Eliot, Bolton and Northumbria NHS Trusts. He developed the SEAM (Strategic Energy and Asset Management) Framework, which provides an effective and compliant mechanism to deliver large-scale energy-reduction and infrastructure projects.
Modern Battery-Storage: Low-Loss Uninterruptable Power Supply
Powerstar is the UK's leading provider of battery-storage solutions placed behind the meter (within customers' own electricity networks).
All critical electricity supplies need to be covered by an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), that provides continued supply in the event of a power cut. Conventional UPS utilises lead-acid batteries in an architecture that consumes tremendous amounts of electricity.
The VIRTUE UPS system deploys modern battery-storage technology that avoids the vast majority of such losses, whilst enabling the site to optimise the use of electricity within the site, including locally-generated power (renewables or CHP).
Our solution is unique in being “HTM” accredited to protect critical supplies within the NHS.
Modular Buildings. Think Smart. Build Smart
Modular building solutions can deliver urgently-needed, high-quality building space, rapidly and with minimal disruption to site activities.
8,400sqm extension at Sunderland Royal Hospital, completed in just 24 weeks on site
Ecofund works closely with Premier Modular to deliver solutions to the NHS, helping to deliver to exacting healthcare specifications (such as HTMs and HBNs), and ensuring projects are funded in the most effective way within NHS financial guidelines.
Premier is one of the UK’s leading offsite specialists. Established in 1956, the company has an enviable track record in providing permanent and temporary building solutions to the NHS.
Flagship projects include the 8,400sqm extension at Sunderland Royal Hospital, including a 120-bed ward accommodation and an 18-bed Integrated Critical Care Unit.
The company is proud to have assisted with the Covid Nightingale emergency programme in Exeter, providing a 1,700sqm facility that was operational just five weeks after completion of the design completion.
We would be pleased to discuss potential projects and, if modular buildings are the best option, to help you to test feasibility or to develop an outline solution prior to procurement.
Strategic Energy and Asset Management Performance (SEAM) Framework
Ecovate specialises in strategic procurement within the public sector, having architected the first major NHS collaborative procurements for energy-performance contracts (EPCs), large waste-management projects and much more.
We worked closely to deliver EPCs for George Eliot and Bolton NHS Trusts, delivering £9m of project investment with exceptional financial returns and carbon-reductions.
Through our partnership with Ecovate we deliver bespoke procurement solutions for the NHS and other public-sector bodies, together providing the procurement, legal, financial and technical support required to secure first-class results.
IES - Advanced Energy Analytics for Building Optimisation
For over 20 years IES has been pushing the frontiers in energy analysis software to design tens of thousands of buildings across the World. Increasingly the technology is being deployed to improve the operation of existing buildings by analysing existing BMS data and diagnosing inefficiencies remotely. This enables maintenance services to target under-performing plant quickly, saving maintenance cost and improving energy-efficiency rapidly.
IES provided detailed energy analytics for the Girvan Community Hospital, integrating their technology with the BMS system, wind-turbine generation, AMR and sub-meter infrastructure to centralise information and provide detailed information to facilitate ongoing building enhancements.
The next stage will include a detailed investigation of under-floor heating manifold performance, domestic hot water and AHU control.
We work closely with IES and our specialist energy-management partners The Carbon Chain to help you to optimise your building performance.
Eurosite Power - Small-Scale CHP Delivers Guaranteed Energy Savings with No Capital Cost
Ideally-suited to community hospitals, the solution provides base-load energy (heat and power) with a guaranteed percentage reduction against your prevailing gas and electricity rates, whatever they may rise to, throughout the 15-year term of the agreement.
As the system is installed without any capital outlay, and maintainedwithout charge, all the savings can be redirected to deliver a core healthcare service.
The solution was deployed at the Clifton Hospital in Blackpool.
Eurosite works with Ecofund Partners because we understand the NHS and identify sites with the right energy profiles to benefit from the solution. We would be happy to discuss a free survey to estimate your potential savings.
CONTACT
enquiries@ecofundpartners.co.uk
07854 540325
Ecofund Partners Limited
7 Jardine House, Harrovian Business Village, Harrow, HA1 3EX
Company number: 12569443, incorporated in England and Wales
VAT number: 347 458 176
Case studies
A brief overview of previous projects delivered for both end-users and suppliers.
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
George Eliot Hospital
energy-performance contract
saving: £450,000 per annum
Ecofund introduced the Trust to the concept of Energy-Performance Contracting, and managed the £3m project from inception to delivery, including the feasibility study, business case, procurement, client-side management of the investment-grade audit, contract negotiations and monitoring & verification.
The project included CHP + de-steam + re-siting of energy centre. Project installation started January 2016. Savings £450k per annum, rising with energy inflation.
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust
Bolton Hospital
Energy-Performance Contract
Saving: £1.1m per annum
Developed the business case and managed procurement of a £6.6 million energy-performance contract, including new chiller plant, CHP, decommissioning of ageing coal-fired boiler plant and demand-reduction measures.
Contract signed June 2016. Savings £1.1 million per annum, guaranteed over 15 years.
Private Sector
Won £4m energy-performance contract
Led the bid team to win a £4m guaranteed energy-performance contract in the South-West of England. Provided strategic bid-management and execution of the entire sales process, to enable them to win Preferred Bidder status in 2014. Project delivered 2015-16.