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Dublin City Council to Tender for first Local Authority Energy Performance Contract

30th January, 2015

Dublin City Council and Codema will issue a public tender notice  in February which will revolutionise the way that energy conservation works are carried out and energy savings are achieved in local authority buildings in Ireland.
The tender to carry out energy upgrades to Ballymun, Finglas and Markievicz Sports and Fitness Centre will form Ireland’s first-ever Energy Performance Contract (EPC) for a local authority.

An EPC is a contract that is awarded to an Energy Service Company (ESCo) to deliver guaranteed energy savings within a building and in turn, these savings help to cover the cost of carrying out the works.

Through the EPC process, work will be carried out in the three leisure centres in the most cost-effective manner possible, while also enabling each building to become more energy-efficient and help the council to meet public sector energy targets.

Speaking in advance of the tender notice, Cormac Healy of Dublin City Council said:

This is a very exciting milestone for us.  Energy use in buildings has always been an area of concern for local authorities but the introduction of the EPC method can offer a real solution, providing a better quality service to the public and the best possible return on investment for the local authority.

Joe Hayden, Energy Engineer, Codema, added:

By using an EPC the risks - both technical and financial - are lowered considerably for the local authorities. This compares favourably to the traditional approach where there was no guarantee that the energy upgrades would deliver the savings as promised.  A major advantage with EPC is that the local authority can modernise their buildings for little or no investment while still achieving long term, guaranteed energy savings.

Dublin City Council and Codema put the leisure centres forward as part of the SEAI exemplar projects which arose from the launch of the National Energy Services Framework in June 2013. The exemplar projects have received training, legal and technical advice by SEAI and help to test the robustness and capacity of the new Framework.

At the same time, Codema is learning from European EPC experts through its involvement in the European Energy Services Initiative (EESI2020), which is co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Union. The EESI2020 project seeks to address the need of 20% energy savings in Europe through a broader use of Energy Performance Contracting, which was identified as an important tool for the refurbishment of buildings and for the upgrade of public infrastructures.

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