The Cabinet has today approved a suite of energy-efficiency measures across the public sector, which are due to come into effect this month.
All public sector bodies will, therefore, from September, be asked to take a leading role in lowering their energy consumption and resulting costs.
The Reduce Your Use energy efficiency campaign was designed to target reductions in energy use and includes reductions in usage by public sector bodies.
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The changes will be rolled out in the form of simple and easy-to-implement measures, such as:
- reducing the temperature and duration of heating systems;
- reducing energy use from lighting;
- reducing electricity use at peaks times whenever possible; and
- making more efficient use of buildings where occupancy is low, at certain times, due to remote working.
Public sector bodies will also be required to:
- set temperatures to a guideline of 19 degrees where appropriate;
- to turn off the heat in office buildings at least 1-2 hours before the buildings close; and
- to ensure that there is no non-security/safety lighting in use after 8:00 pm
However, there will be some exceptions, for example, hospitals will not be required to reduce temperatures to 19 degrees.
The government has said it expects this campaign to deliver 5-10% on energy savings overall across the sector, and up to 15% in buildings.
As well as today’s announcement, significant measures will also be introduced in Budget 2023 to ensure that households and businesses receive help to meet their rising energy costs.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has urged people not to put their health in jeopardy while trying to reduce their energy usage this winter.
Mr. Martin said people should look into ways of cutting usage depending on their situation at home but said he would not tell people what they should or should not do.
“Energy efficiency is a no-brainer in this situation,” he said, however, “health comes first and people have to look after their health and people have to look after their heating where required, there’s no question about that”.
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