Carlow County Council consumes approximately 8 million kWh of electricity per year to run all of its operations, equating to a total electricity bill of €1.25 M per year. To reduce the expense and carbon footprint of Carlow County Council, a pilot action was developed. It consisted of identifying and implementing energy efficiency improvement measures targeting the most energy consuming activities of Carlow County Council: water supply, wastewater treatment, building usage and public lighting. These measures included: efficient lighting retrofit, pump replacement, caretaker training, aeration comparison, control systems, equipment sizing, etc. Project partners also worked on a series of pilot demonstration actions to validate the priorities of the strategy. Based on preliminary assessments, the expected energy savings from each measure were calculated prior to commencing monitoring. These expected savings were then compared with actual energy savings recorded during the monitoring period. Carlow County Council has made a commitment to reduce its energy consumption by 3 % per annum from 2009 to 2020. The 2012 pilot measures contributed to approximately a 1.5 % reduction in energy consumption that year. The measures will continue to deliver savings as they are kept up in the following years.
NEEDS ADDRESSED:
• regional and local monitoring and reporting isn't undertaken to demonstrate process achieved towards regional or local energy efficiency targets (Art. 24)
