Cenex has announced it has been selected by the Environment Agency to undertake a technology review of its Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) fleet. The results of this work aim to provide accurate information that will enable the Agency to effectively plan its on-going low carbon fleet strategy.

As a stakeholder in the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme (managed by Cenex), the Environment Agency has been trialling 12 Ashwoods hybrid transit vans within its fleet operations over the past three years. This trial has highlighted a number of options available for reducing carbon emissions from its transport operations and as a result, Cenex has been tasked with undertaking a technology review of its LCV fleet. It has also been briefed to run operationally based simulations using the Cenex Fleet Carbon Reduction Tool (FCRT) to help the Environment Agency better understand the best deployment of different low carbon technologies within their operations.

“The Environment Agency has improved the performance of its fleet over the past few years, reducing mileage by 19 million, cutting carbon emissions by 5,000 tonnes and saving some £10m. We are leading the way across government to dramatically increase the environmental efficiency of our fleet operations” says Dale Eynon, head of fleet operations, Environment Agency.

As well as analysing the performance of different transport fuels and technology options in real-world fleet applications, the FCRT is a simulation tool that can calculate the fuel usage, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated and operating costs incurred by the operation of a fleet of vehicles. The tool is designed to be flexible in operation and employs drive cycle based whole life cost modelling so that the evaluation of a variety of differing powertrain technologies within a fleet can be compared on equal terms. In addition, the FCRT can be used to ascertain the vehicle power and battery size required to cover a specified duty cycle in order to identify the lowest cost vehicle capable of fulfilling the task.

“The results to date of the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme have already demonstrated the cost savings available by adopting low carbon vehicles. The reduction of carbon emissions from their fleet operations is crucial for the Environment Agency and we are pleased to be working with them to help them make informative decisions about their low carbon fleet strategy” says Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex.