Competitive energy provider Energia has reduced Pettitts supermarkets’ carbon footprint by 480 tonnes by upgrading their lighting and fridges systems.
The project was part of a major new grant funding scheme to incentivise Irish businesses to increase their energy efficiency while reducing their energy costs.
After an extensive audit of the Pettitts group’s stores, Energia identified significant savings that could be made from an upgrade to the lighting and refrigeration systems. Over 2,000 fluorescent lights were replaced with energy efficient LED lights in the Pettitts Gorey, Pettitts Arklow and Pettitts Supervalu – Wexford stores. The fridges in Pettitts The Quay in Wexford and Pettitts Arklow were also upgraded – existing freezers were replaced with new sealed units.
These changes have reduced Pettitts annual electricity use by roughly 1,000,000kWhs, cutting their carbon footprint by 480 tonnes of CO2 and generating yearly cost savings of almost €140,000.
The work was carried out under Energia’s “Cash for Kilowatts” scheme that provides grant funding to companies for energy efficiency projects. It means that any company spending more than €5,000 on an energy efficiency project can qualify for grant funding of up to 30% of the project value. The new scheme is open to all businesses, whether or not they are customers of Energia.
As well as benefitting from the generous grants, businesses will also make very significant on-going savings through the energy efficiency projects. For example:
· Lighting: LED and high efficiency lighting can reduce your lighting costs by up to 75%
· Heating: a new boiler or heating controls can save over 25% of your annual fuel costs
· Refrigeration: new systems can reduce your costs by up to 30%
Cormac Pettitt, Director, Pettitts Supermarkets commented, “We are delighted with this energy efficiency work by Energia. It is helping us to significantly reduce our energy usage, which benefits the environment through a big CO2 saving. It also makes strong business sense as we save significant amounts on our energy costs.”
Cormac Mannion, Energy Service Manager, Energia commented, “Our ‘Cash for Kilowatts’ scheme is an important new initiative to promote energy efficiency upgrades among Irish businesses.”
“Energia is offering companies a double incentive. They benefit from the reduction in their ongoing energy costs by installing new efficient systems in areas such as lighting and heating. Reductions of 75% and 30% in lighting and heating bills respectively are possible. But we’re also offering grant funding for up to 30% of the project cost to a business upon its completion”
“Through the scheme we’re delighted to be supporting the national upgrade programme ‘Better Energy’ and the National Climate Change Strategy. Businesses can find out more by contacting Energia. Full details are available on www.energia.ie/funding or by emailing energyservices@energia.ie.”
“Energia has a long standing commitment to sustainability. This is one of the reasons why we are one of the leading providers of renewable energy to homes and businesses across Ireland. We currently supply over 795MWs of green power and thanks to a number of wind farms currently in development, we will soon increase this to 1,000MWs. Energia Group remains one of the most significant contributors to the achievement of Ireland’s renewable targets and one of the largest investors in the renewable sector.”
Energia has a 23% market share of the Irish business electricity and gas market supplying the energy needs of over 60,000 business customers.
Energia has also entered the residential electricity and gas market with a great new offer for consumers nationwide. Consumers can up to €338 a year on their home energy bill. Energia has offices in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast and Omagh.