Louth County Council (LCC) has worked with Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Louth and Meath Education and Training Board (LEMTB) and provided a training course for Energy Assessors for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
That training course offers SMEs trained energy auditors to enable advice to businesses on the opportunities for energy saving. Energy bills are already being paid now by most businesses. This training course enables auditors to advise businesses on their current energy use and how that could be reduced and thereby how they could save money by reducing the cost of the regular energy bills.
A promotion event was organised in June 2017 to formally ‘launch’ the energy assessors – “Small Business Energy Assessor Launch”, attended by SEAI, LEMTB, LCC, media course participants and representatives from business in Dundalk and Drogheda. Presentations from that event can be found on the Council’s website.
That launch comprised included presentations by two course participants whereby one advised that by making a phone call to change the energy supplier for the company she audited, she saved €15K which would require a turnover of almost €100K to make a similar profit for that business. The course participants audited 40 companies with total energy bills of €800K. They identified energy saving opportunities of €267K for those companies.
The course participants also visited a Demonstration Commercial Kitchen in Dundalk which has the latest energy saving equipment. That is available to course participants to use to promote with SMEs the energy saving opportunities in commercial kitchens.
SEAI has now also provided a grant fund for energy audits undertaken by these trained energy assessors and that grant is available through the County Council’s Local Entreprise Office. That grant provides funding up to a maximum of €500* for each energy audit undertaken. That is a significant portion of the cost of each energy audit. The assessors can also then advise on further grant funding opportunities for energy works identified in the audit.
We would encourage SMEs to avail of this service and we are committed to supporting that in any way we can. For details on the energy assessors for SMEs – contact padraig.ohora@louthcoco.ie
* Note: Energy assessors can make a case on an individual basis for increased grant allocation.
