Construction BUSINESS

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is working in partnership with the Office of Public Works (OPW) to help make government buildings more energy and cost efficient with the added benefit of making them warmer and healthier places to work. The Central Government Building Upgrade Fund, funded by SEAI and administered by the OPW, will provide up to €4 million to improve the energy efficiency of up to 15 government buildings across the country. This is part of a new pilot scheme to reduce the energy dependency of public buildings nationwide.

The buildings selected for the pilot are those that already have energy management awareness programmes in place through OPW’s Optimising Power @ Work scheme. Buildings that participate in the pilot can expect to see reductions of 60% in their lighting bills as a result of, for example, LED lighting upgrades, as well as brighter, more comfortable workplaces for employees. In addition to capital works, the programme will also inform the development of standard retrofit approaches that can be deployed across the entire public sector from 2018 onwards.

Commenting on the pilot scheme, Jim Gannon, Chief Executive of the SEAI, said: “Improving the energy efficiency of our public buildings is one of the biggest challenges we have in Ireland and we have an obligation to work together to address this challenge. This pilot scheme will allow us, together with the OPW, to identify the right approach to energy management for public buildings. This will then be rolled out across all public sector buildings with potentially significant energy savings right across the sector.”

Maurice Buckley, Chairman of the OPW, said: “Ireland has committed to increasing energy efficiency in the Public Sector by 33%. Substantial progress has already been made through OPW programmes such as Optimising Power @ Work which has been rolled out to 270 Central Government Buildings over the last 7 years. It has resulted in energy savings of almost 20% and cost savings of nearly €6million annually. The Central Government Building Upgrade Fund will build on this progress, benefitting staff whilst at the same time further improving energy efficiency in our public buildings and delivering cost savings for the State.”

Works have commenced or are about to commence on the following buildings to date:

• Cavan – Department of Agriculture
• Cranmore Rd Sligo
• Department of Justice, Killarney
• Michael Davitt House, Castlebar
• Tralee Government Offices
• Burgh Quay (Immigration Office), Dublin 2
• Chief State Solicitor’s Office, Little Ship St., Dublin 2
• Kilkenny Government Office Blk 1
• Kilkenny Government Office Blk 2
• Nenagh Government Offices
• Portlaoise Government Offices.

CAPTION:

Jim Gannon, Chief Executive, SEAI, and Mr Maurice Buckley, Chairman of the OPW, are pictured outside the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, one of several government buildings selected to take part in a pilot programme to reduce the energy dependency of public buildings.