REXEL 2014

Activity and Sustainable
Development Report

03

Customer Innovation

Accelerating energy advances, Rexel integrates and combines the best products and technologies in order to create innovative solutions adapted to its customers’ needs.
Its customer proximity and its capacity to provide specific offers allow it to deliver solutions tailored for different market segments.

Cost-efficient Solutions

Cost-efficient solutions

Today, there are many ways of reducing energy bills, provided that users identify potential savings, select the most suitable solutions in terms of equipment and control, and find the appropriate means of financing to implement them.


A PROFITABLE RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Lighting technologies have led to spectacular progress in energy consumption. For individual users as well as businesses, the most effective product is the LED, which offers a particularly high ROI and is currently on its way to conquering all fields of lighting.
The reduction in worldwide lighting related energy consumption could be of 50% if all light sources were converted to LEDS (Efficient Global Forum, Beijing, November 2014).
Rexel is working on many lighting retrofit projects for its customers, enabling immediate savings of up to 80%.

70%

OF LIGHTING
WILL BE PROVIDED
BY LEDs BY 2020

(McKinsey, Lighting The Way,
Perspectives on the Global
Lighting Market, 2012)

Electric motors account for up to 65% of industrial electricity use. Increasing their efficiency reduces energy consumption while preserving mechanical power. Rexel offers the most powerful engines, which comply with the new European regulations. In the US for example, Rexel installs latest generation engines for demonstration at its industrial customers’ sites so that they can test their efficiency.

Rexel’s expertise in measuring energy consumption is a key asset. It allows us to prove the benefits of new technologies and to educate the consumer.

Brian Smithers, Business Development Director Rexel UK

Energy retrofit for BAE Systems in Endicott, US

The lighting retrofit carried out for BAE Systems in Endicott, NY, US, resulted in 32% energy savings at the site. The retrofit was a pilot for this defense, security, and aerospace leader, which is considering similar works at other locations.

Carried out by the Gexpro Binghamton office, the $1.3 million energy retrofit included the latest innovations in lighting, control, sensing and daylight harvesting technology. In addition to lowering energy costs, the lighting retrofit established a safer and healthier workplace environment for the 1,200 employees working there. Based on a limited range of products, it is simple to implement, monitor and control.



CONTROL AND REGULATION

LOWERING COSTS THROUGH CONSUMPTION CONTROL

Lowering costs through consumption control

Consumption monitoring and control lie at the core of energy efficiency. By using measurement and sensing devices, it is indeed possible to automate certain functions in order to optimize consumption and therefore reduce electricity bills.



Rexel Energeasy Advisor, a building energy monitoring solution

Rexel Energeasy Advisor

In 2014, Rexel launched an energy consumption monitoring solution designed for lessors, operators and users of commercial and industrial sites. Energeasy Advisor collects data on energy and fluid streams, hosts it on a remote server and uses it to set up optimization strategies aimed at lowering operational costs.

The initial audit identifies the main areas of energy consumption and defines the energy data counting plan. The building’s energy signature and consumption indicators are established based on the analysis of the collected data and SMS or e-mail alerts can be triggered if these indicators are exceeded.

This permanent monitoring solution, which complies with the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP), helps sites advance toward achieving the ISO50001 certification.




FINANCING

INNOVATIVE FINANCING SOLUTIONS

While building energy efficiency has the greatest energy savings potential, the main obstacle for businesses and homeowners lies in financing. In the last few years, Rexel has multiplied initiatives to help them find the financing solutions adapted to their projects.

In 2013, Rexel France launched Primexel, a service to manage energy efficiency certificate (Certificats d'Economie d'Energie – CEE) applications with energy suppliers, on behalf of its customers. Rexel also offers bridge financing and framework contracts allowing customers to finance their installations through the energy savings they generate.

90%

OF INSTALLERS
EXPRESS THE NEED FOR
BETTER FINANCING SOLUTIONS

(Rexel - OpinionWay study, 2013)

€80

Bn/year

POTENTIAL SAVINGS ACHIEVED
BY REDUCING ENERGY WASTE
BY 20% IN BUILDINGS
IN THE USA

(Department of Energy)


Financing lighting retrofits through energy savings

Financing lighting retrofits through energy savings

How can lighting installations be retrofitted at virtually no cost? When Rexel offered to replace the fluorescent tubes in a chain store with eco-efficient LED lamps, potential savings were estimated at 80,000 kWh and €8,000 per store, for a total of nearly €1 million.

This budget covered the lease of LED equipment, at no added cost for the client, who can decide at any moment to purchase the equipment instead of renting it. Moreover, since the lifespan of LED is over three times greater than that of fluorescent lighting tubes, the chain store also achieves maintenance savings. 40 stores were retrofitted by early 2015.

energeasy solar by Rexel

GUARANTEEING INVESTMENTS
As part of its Energeasy Solar
offering, Rexel guarantees the
solar energy production of the
photovoltaic installations it sells.



SUPPLY CHAIN

OPTIMIZING THE TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TCO)
FOR KEY ACCOUNTS

optimizing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for key accounts

In 2014, Rexel developed the TCO Tracking Tool (T3), a tailor-made solution aimed at identifying and quantifying all the potential savings customers could achieve by optimizing their purchasing and electrical equipment management operations. The TCO is the total cost associated with equipment ownership. It includes in particular purchasing (ordering, invoicing) and storage (handling, immobilization), which ultimately more than double initial costs.

T3 was rolled out in 8 European countries, and also in the USA, Canada and South East Asia in 2014. Available via the Internet, easy to use and customizable, the T3 is already a resounding commercial success. In the long run, it should emphasize tens of millions of euros of savings for customers.