BP Sunbury

The Challenge

BP wanted to modernise the lighting across ten buildings at its International Centre for Business and Technology in Sunbury while avoiding the cost, disruption and environmental impact of replacing thousands of existing luminaires.

The existing fluorescent lighting was energy intensive, with each fitting consuming 110W, while outdated lighting controls limited functionality, prevented effective dimming and increased maintenance costs. The estate had evolved over time to include four different wired lighting control systems across the ten buildings, resulting in compatibility issues, multiple system failures and little to no effective dimming capability. The existing maintenance contractor also recognised that fluorescent lamps were being phased out, making the long-term maintenance of the installation increasingly difficult.

BP also wanted to retain the existing luminaires due to the ceiling construction, making wholesale replacement both costly and disruptive. In addition, the project needed to comply with strict CIBSE lighting guidelines while maintaining normal business operations throughout the refurbishment. Emergency lighting testing alone was costing approximately £125,000 per year.

The Solution

DRK Lighting adopted a remanufacturing-first approach, upgrading the existing luminaires rather than replacing them.

Across ten buildings, every fitting was converted from a 110W fluorescent system to a high-efficiency 21W LED solution, reducing the power demand of each luminaire by almost 90W while retaining the original housings.

More than 8,500 existing luminaires were retrofitted with new high-efficiency LED boards, drivers and intelligent smart controls rather than replaced. The original louvres were retained and professionally cleaned using an ultrasonic cleaning process, while new diffusers were fitted to improve light distribution and occupant comfort.

The original fluorescent fittings typically delivered approximately 81 lumens per watt. By designing bespoke LED boards in multiple lengths (140mm, 280mm and 560mm) to suit the existing luminaires, DRK achieved lighting efficacy of up to 190 lumens per watt while maintaining like-for-like lighting output.

The project was completed using DRK’s in-situ remanufacturing process, minimising disruption to BP’s day-to-day operations while eliminating unnecessary transport and waste.

To further minimise disruption, works were completed in carefully planned zones and carried out out-of-hours wherever possible, allowing approximately 75% of the office space to remain operational throughout the refurbishment programme. Much of the remanufacturing work was designed and assembled off-site, significantly reducing installation time on site.

Alongside the LED conversion, the buildings were upgraded with HubSense Bluetooth mesh lighting controls, creating one of Europe’s largest single-site deployments of Bluetooth smart lighting. The intelligent control system incorporates PIR occupancy sensing, daylight harvesting and open API integration, allowing lighting to respond automatically to building occupancy and available natural light.

The system utilised an open-source Bluetooth Mesh Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) protocol integrated into the existing Building Management System via the local network and open API. A combination of smart drivers, wireless nodes, PIR occupancy sensors and integrated daylight sensors enabled precise lighting control while allowing lighting levels to be adjusted to achieve the CIBSE-recommended 500 lux for real-world working environments.