OPW seeks to curb wastage with new green energy plans

THE LAST civil servant to leave Government offices at night is being asked to switch off the lights under new policies being promoted by the Office of Public Works (OPW). Ronan McGreevy reports.

A pilot project in five social welfare offices last year, involving this and other measures, led to savings in energy consumption of €75,000 in the space of six months, the OPW has said.

The scheme, in four welfare offices in Dublin and one in Longford, found that 440,000 kilowatt hours of energy were saved in that period by turning off lights at night and turning thermostats down.

An OPW spokesman said that as part of an energy awareness campaign, civil servants were being advised of the energy wastage that comes from leaving lights and computers on at night.

An audit of its own head office in St Stephen's Green led to the OPW turning off lights in the basement car park during daylight hours, while lights in the corridors were turned down to a minimum at night

Staff had been advised to boil only enough water in the kettle for their needs instead of boiling a full kettle every time.

An energy officer had been appointed in every major building to oversee the energy changes, which would become more apparent when the first audit of energy usage was made public in July, the spokesman added.

The OPW hopes its campaign will see a reduction of more than 15 per cent in energy use in buildings in its portfolio within 18 months.

The Minister of State in charge of the OPW, Noel Ahern, said a key part of the reductions would come from targeting "exceptional and excessive consumption outside normal office hours".

Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said yesterday he had also ordered an energy audit of his department in July, shortly after he took office.

It uncovered a small leakage in a gas pipe coming into the building, which, he said, had led to "significant savings".

The department now has plans to turn off the heat at weekends, provide biofuel for heating and solar panels for hot water. It also intends to consolidate its three buildings in Dublin into two by shutting its offices in Leeson Lane.

Labour's environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said the pilot project at social welfare offices demonstrated the "huge waste" of energy in Government departments. She criticised in particular the practice of leaving heating on in buildings all weekend.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times