Mayo County Council is set to make €150,000 worth of savings due to a new energy contract which has been signed with Energia.
Mayo County Council is the first local authority to switch to the independent power supplier for its unmetered electricity services, saving significant amounts for the local authority. Energia recently became the first independent power supplier to be authorised by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER ) to compete in the unmetered electricity supply market. Up to now, only the ESB was licensed to operate in this market.
Under the terms of the new 18 month electricity contract, Energia will supply more than 8.5 GWh (Gigawatt hours ) of green electricity to Mayo County Council along with Ballina, Castlebar, and Westport town councils to power the 11,000 public lights in the existing network. This is the same amount of energy required to power 1,800 homes for a year. The local authority’s switch from conventional power generation to green power will result in an annual reduction of some 4,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The value of this new green power contract is more than €1 million, and as a result the local authority will make a significant saving of €100,000 on its annual energy costs.
The green power will be sourced from Energia’s extensive network of wind power facilities across Ireland.
The Government has adopted a target that 40 per cent of electricity consumed would be from renewable sources by 2020.
Commenting on the deal, Iarla Moran, Mayo County Council said: “Mayo County Council have a strong commitment to environmental responsibility, and this is the latest in a number of initiatives which have allowed us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint.
“A cost saving of €150,000 over the coming 18 months is to be warmly welcomed in the current climate. We look forward to working with Energia to achieve further reductions over the coming years of the deal.”
