Howard de Walden Estate metering procurement

Location: Marylebone, London

Portfolio: 800+ buildings: residential, office, retail  and medical

Scope: Competitive tender for an estate-wide  metering vendor

Focus: Metering, data integration and dashboards

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The client

The Howard de Walden Estate is one of thegreat London estates. Its portfolio spans more than 800 buildings acrossMarylebone, including Harley Street and Marylebone High Street.

The estate contains a variety of building types. Residential,commercial office, retail and medical assets sit side by side, from newdevelopments to heritage buildings, many of them listed.

Howard de Walden has committed todecarbonising its estate over the next few years, and a comprehensive meteringupgrade is central to that strategy.

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The challenge

Trustek's earlier OpTech audits across 30+assets had mapped the estate's metering in detail. They showed inaccurate datain many buildings, a reliance on manual meter reads, and a mix of automaticmeter readers (AMRs) and old, non-MID compliant meters.

The next step was finding the right partner tofix it. That meant one vendor able to work across very different buildings,from listed townhouses to modern offices, without a one-size-fits-all approachthat would waste existing investment or disrupt occupiers.

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What the vendor had to deliver

The requirements came directly from the auditfindings. The successful vendor needed to:

• Work across every asset class: residential, office, retail and medical, in both heritage and modern buildings
• Make the most of what is already there: use existing metering and infrastructure wherever it was fit for purpose
• Fill the gaps: install new hardware where the audits found metering missing, inaccurate or non-compliant
• Integrate with Howard de Walden's IT: connect to the estate's internal systems, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365)
• Deliver usable data: provide dashboards and portfolio-wide usage data for electricity, gas and water

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Our approach

Trustek ran the procurement end to end, actingas an independent advisor between the estate and the market.

1. Built the brief from evidence: the audit data gave bidders an accurate picture of the meters, connectivity and building systems in each asset, so they could price real conditions rather than assumptions
2. Went out to market: we approached metering vendors with the capability to work at portfolio scale across mixed asset types
3. Evaluated like for like: responses were assessed against the same technical, integration and commercial criteria, with particular scrutiny on D365 integration and the quality of the dashboards and data
4. Supported the decision: we presented a clear comparison of the shortlisted vendors to help Howard de Walden select its preferred partner

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The outcome

Howard de Walden selected a metering partner through a fair, evidence-led process, with confidence that the solution fits the reality of its buildings.

Because the brief was grounded in audit data, existing infrastructure is being reused where it works and new hardware will only go where it is needed. Once live, the estate will have portfolio-wide electricity, gas and water data flowing into its own systems, giving it the visibility to track progress against its decarbonisation goals.

Following the tender, Howard de Walden retained Trustek to project manage the mobilisation of an initial tranche of buildings, carrying continuity from audit and procurement through to delivery.

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Need to procure building technology across amixed portfolio? Talk to Trustek about PropTech Advisory.

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Image source: Trustek Audit, Wellbeck Street