The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., has urged schools to complete contracts aimed at significantly reducing their energy costs as soon as possible.

Some 1,700 schools across the country have been included in this new drive to cut electricity costs by between 10-15% per school. The savings that can be made are estimated to be in the region of €1 million overall.
Schools who are involved in the centralised electricity procurement competition are eligible for the savings. This initiative is being run by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) in cooperation with the Department of Education and Skills and school management bodies.

In order for schools to make the savings they need to return their completed contracts as soon as possible. So far around 1,000 schools have completed and returned their contracts.
The OGP recently sought tenders from electricity suppliers for the supply of electricity for over 1,700 schools. The rates that have now been secured through this tender process will reduce the cost of electricity to these schools substantially.

While overall savings are estimated at €1 million, some schools may be able to achieve higher savings particularly if they can change the loading on their electricity connection; this will be picked up during the analysis of schools electricity consumption data.

Schools that are not included in the current competition, and would like to be, can download a one page template that they need to complete or can contact their school management body for further details.
This new initiative is in addition to the Energy in Education initiative developed to help schools manage energy costs which was first launched in October 2012.
More information can be found at www.energyineducation.ie

Source: DOE Press Release

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