Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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71. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the current annual economic value of cumulative energy efficiency savings resulting from intentional energy efficiency campaigns undertaken over the past five years, for each local authority which is undertaking such campaigns.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56573/23]

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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70. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to provide a list of the local authorities which have ongoing, managed energy-efficiency campaigns. [56572/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 70 together.

The information below sets out local authority activity in relation to energy efficiency where it has been reported on the SEAI’s energy Monitoring & Reporting system, or where the local authority has interacted in other ways with the SEAI. Beyond that, local authorities may have undertaken other energy efficiency activities which they did not report on to SEAI and further information may be available from local authorities.

Energy awareness campaigns

Over the winter of 2022/23, while there was a national Reduce Your Use (RYU) campaign on energy efficiency measures and energy savings, there was also a dedicated separate RYU campaign for public sector bodies that was launched by my Department. All local authorities joined the RYU community of practice for public bodies, indicating they were accessing the campaign material.

SEAI has produced two mini case studies on local authorities energy efficiency initiatives, summarising actions taken during the 2022/23 campaign.

Clare County Council reported savings of between 5% and 10 % in 2022 in its large corporate buildings. See: www.seai.ie/reduceyouruse/public-bodies/energy-efficiency-campaig/Clare-CoCo-RYU-Final-Approved.pdf

Fingal County Council reported savings of 19% in 2022 compared to the previous year. See:

www.seai.ie/reduceyouruse/public-bodies/energy-efficiency-campaig/Fingal-CoCo-RYU-Final-Approved.pdf

Following the success of the 2022/23 RYU campaign, a new RYU campaign for public bodies for this winter of 2023/24 was launched in October 2023. Minister of State Ossian Smyth, to whom I have delegated responsibility for public sector energy efficiency, wrote to 348 public bodies (including local authorities), notifying them about the new campaign and encouraging them to participate in the initiative in Winter 2023/24. Most local authorities have already joined the SEAI RYU community of practice for public bodies for this Winter, indicating they are accessing the campaign material, as set out under.

The Engaging People Accelerator Programme is an SEAI programme that helps public bodies to develop their own energy saving awareness strategies and campaigns and 8 local authorities have participated in it since 2021.

Energy management

Local authorities report on the SEAI’s Monitoring & Reporting system on their energy management status – see table below on status of ISO50001 accreditation as at 2021. ISO50001 is an internationally recognised energy management standard.

The table also contains information about attendance at SEAI’s energy management training (EnergyMAP and ISO50001 Accelerator) in the last two years, indicating local authorities that are currently working on implementing or upgrading energy management processes.

SEAI tracks the energy performance of all public bodies on its Monitoring and Reporting (M&R) system. Using the annual data, a public sector energy performance report is produced annually. See:

This system has been in place for over a decade. An individual scorecard is created for each public body showing how its performance has changed from the relevant baseline. This information and the latest annual report are available online and it is possible to look up each individual body to ascertain its performance. See:

By 2021 the aggregate impact of the improvements in energy efficiency made by the 31 local authorities since their energy efficiency baselines was equivalent to avoiding approximately 700 GWh of primary energy use in 2021. This was calculated by subtracting each local authority’s actual 2021 energy consumption from its business-as-usual energy consumption. The business-as-usual energy consumption is the amount of energy that each local authority would have consumed in 2021 had it not made the reported efficiency gains since its energy efficiency baseline. These calculations incorporate adjustments to the business-as-usual consumption for local authorities to account for the transition of water services to Irish Water at the end of 2013. The SEAI estimates that the euro value of the avoided energy consumption in 2021 was €49m. Cumulative cost savings from the baseline to 2021 are estimated by the SEAI to be €323m.