Automated meter reading data
Dear Liverpool City Council,
please could you provide me with the full set of data collected up to May 2010 from the automated gas and electricity meter reading equipment that Liverpool City Council has used for several years as part of its energy management system.
Please could you also provide me with annual summary data about gas and electricity use for each of the individual buildings monitored by Liverpool City Council.
Background:
1. "Liverpool City Council (LCC) has a real-time energy management system that allows it to identify increases or excessive power usage throughout its properties." - see http://www.ourcityourplanet.org.uk/
2. Newspaper article available here http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/environme... including "It [Liverpool City Council] is the first authority in Merseyside to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard which recognises the council's efforts to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of the 500 buildings it's responsible for. Every school, library, leisure centre, One Stop Shop and cemetery has been installed with special equipment which monitors the amount of energy being used. And, over the last three years, the council's energy team have been using live updates, identifying those areas which use huge amounts of gas or electricity - and coming up with solutions to reduce this." Also "The city council were awarded with the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard following an inspection from an independent assessor who described the energy management as "excellent" and said "there are few, if any, local authorities with such exceptional quality of data that can monitor live, virtually an entire estate"."
3. "The organisation [Liverpool City Council, LCC] has reliable information which it uses to monitor its performance and manage progress in achieving its objectives for reducing its impact on the environment." and "To date automated meter reading equipment has been installed across all the LCC estate, bringing the benefits of real time data into the unit." in a document dated 16th April 2009 available here www.liverpool.gov.uk/Images/tcm21-165119...
Yours faithfully,
Rebecca Lawson
Please see attached acknowledgement
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
[1][email address]
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/BLOCKED::mailto:[email address]
Dear Ms Lawson
I write in reference to your recent correspondence with Liverpool City
Council in which you requested the following under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000:
. Please could you provide me with the full set of data collected up to May 2010 from the automated gas and electricity meter reading equipment that Liverpool City Council has used for several years as part of its energy management system?
. Please could you also provide me with annual summary data about gas and electricity use for each of the individual buildings monitored by Liverpool City Council?
The equipment you refer to in the first part of the request has been in
place in some locations since 2002 and the compilation of this information
for all establishments across the City Council would take in excess of the
18 hours identified in the Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection
Act (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
We therefore need clarification as to whether you would be prepared to
accept data over a shorter time period e.g. the past 12 months/2 years or
whether you would prefer to come and view the information on the computer
system.
Once I hear back from you I will be in a position to progress your request
accordingly
If I can be of any further assistance regarding this or any other matter
please do not hesitate in contacting me.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/BLOCKED::mailto:[email address]
Dear Symm, Kevin,
I am prepared to have the information for only the past 2 years if that is easier for you to make available.
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca Lawson
Dear Ms Lawson
Thank you for such a quick reply, I will communicate this with the
appropriate department and ensure a response is with you as quickly as
possible.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
Please find attached response
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/BLOCKED::mailto:[email address]
Dear Symm, Kevin,
in your response of 19th July 2010 you first copied in my request then your response:
"Please could you provide me with the full set of data collected up to May 2010 from the automated gas and electricity meter reading equipment that Liverpool City Council has used for several years as part of its energy management system?
Please could you also provide me with annual summary data about gas and electricity use for each of the individual buildings monitored by Liverpool City Council?
Response:
Please find attached information for all Liverpool City Council premises."
However, you have only provided a response to the second part of my request (the annual summary data), not the full data set.
Please could you send me the full data set,
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca Lawson
Dear Ms Lawson
I write in reference to your previous correspondence below.
You have requested a copy of the full set of data collected up to May 2010
from the automated gas and electricity meter reading equipment that
Liverpool City Council has used for several years as part of its energy
management system
As I am sure you can imagine this is a huge task to gather, collate and
present the information in the format you have requested. Liverpool City
Council, as an organisation, is only required to provide information which
it holds and not create new information to meet a specific requestors
needs. Your request has been considered and as this work would take in
excess of the 18 hours identified in the Freedom of Information Act and
Data Protection Act (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 we are
refusing this element of your request as this would require a
disproportionate effort by the authority.
I trust this information satisfies your request.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
Dear Mr. Symm,
I wish to challenge your assertion that the data I have requested would take more than 18 hours to gather, collate and present.
In a separate FOI request that I made and that you have just responded to, you stated that, in order to gather, store and analyse the data from the automated gas and
electricity meter reading equipment that Liverpool City Council has used for several years as part of its energy management system, "Liverpool City Council uses the following: State of the Art's - Eco Warrior - Tools, Eco Warrior - Guardian, Eco Warrior - Virtual, Eco Warrior - Management Reports [http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/42...
Furthermore, according to the website for the Eco Warrior software [http://www.sotaew.co.uk/EcoWarrior.htm see also http://www.sotaew.co.uk/ReportePro.htm] this software permits "Data Saves To Floppy Disc If Required (1 year on one floppy disc)" and "Automatic Data Saving To Hard Disc And Across Networks".
You should therefore be able to provide the data that I requested within a few seconds or, at worst, a handful of minutes. I do not need the data to be "presented". I requested the raw data.
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca Lawson
Dear Ms Lawson
Please accept this email as formal acknowledgement of your request for a
review of the information provided in your response to request ref:
108731
Once I am in a position to provide any further information I will be in
contact as quickly as possible.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
Dear Symm, Kevin,
The response to my request has been delayed. By law, Liverpool City Council should normally have responded promptly and by 28 July 2010.
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca Lawson
I am currently out of the office and will not return until 9 August 2010
If your email is urgent, or you are submitting a request for information
under either the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Data Protection Act
1998 please forward it to: [email address]
Dear Ms Lawson
In accordance with guidelines set out by the Information Commissioners'
Office we have until the 23 August to respond to your request for an
appeal.
Once we have any further information we will be in touch as quickly as
possible.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
Please find attached response
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/BLOCKED::mailto:[email address]
Mr Symm,
Thank you for your response on 2 September 2010 to my request for the automated energy meter reading data collected by Liverpool City Council from their buildings.
You stated that the work to collect and present this information from 160 sets of raw data would exceed 18 hours and, by example, provided a copy of the raw data from the electricity meter at the Liverpool Aquatics Centre from 1 April 2009 to 21 March 2010. This runs to 42 pages of scanned A4 pages.
Needless to say, this was not in the format I indicated in my earlier communications. Nor is it in a form that anyone would reasonably expect such data to be provided in.
Can you confirm to me that this example set of raw data was printed out from its tabulated electronic form onto paper, and then manually rescanned by a fax machine or another low resolution imaging device before being sent to me as a PDF?
Can you provide an explanation for why the data couldn't be saved from its original electronic form and emailed to me?
Subject to your response, I expect to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision over this case.
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca Lawson
Ms Lawson
Thank you for your recent correspondence
I can confirm the reason why the raw data was supplied in the format
provided was that I received it in hard copy form and was only able to
send it to you after it had been scanned.
I have since been back in touch with the appropriate department who have
been able to re-format the information into a more user-friendly format,
namely Excel. Please find the requested information attached.
I trust this information satisfies your enquiry.
Regards,
Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3007
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