Obligated Party Support – Louth County Council and Energia 2023 partnership
Energia, an Obligated Party, provided technical and financial support to Louth County Council, enabling them to complete home energy upgrades at 195 homes. They then claimed the resulting energy savings credits against their Residential and Energy Poverty targets.
Introduction
Energia is an obligated party under the Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme (EEOS). In 2023 Energia partnered with Louth County Council to assist them in the delivery of home energy upgrades under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP). Louth County Council sought both technical and financial support in the completion of works, in addition to funding from the Department of Housing. Energia provided this support, enabling Louth County Council to complete home energy upgrades at 195 homes. They then claimed the resulting energy savings credits against their Residential and Energy Poverty targets.
Background
Louth County Council sought additional support and funding for their Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) from an EEOS obligated party. They partnered with Energia, who agreed to provide the following supports, at no cost to the local authority:
- Pre and post BER’s for all homes that received and energy upgrade
- Technical assessments of all homes identified. for an energy upgrade
- Post works quality audits
- Adhoc consultation and advice
- Financial support paid per resultant energy credit. The financial contribution varied depending on the category of energy credits resulting from the work. This was broken down as follows:
- Energy Poverty energy credits – Higher rate of financial support per kWh of energy savings from homes which went from a pre-BER of a D2, or worse to a post-BER of a B2 or better.
- Residential energy credits – Lower rate of financial support per kWh of energy savings from homes which achieved a minimum uplift of 100 kWh/m2 2/year.
- No financial support was provided for homes which did not meet the minimum requirements.
These supports were provided by the Obligated Party, Energia, to the partnered local authority at relevant stages throughout the works and were in addition to the €36,000 to €45,000 in funding provided by the Department of Housing for each home renovated.
Partnership Achievements
The retrofit works commenced in March 2023 and final checks were performed in November of the same year. Over this period, 195 homes were retrofitted by the local authority, with the support of the Energia. This resulted in 1.9 GWh of final energy savings for which the local authority received the agreed financial support. Of the 195 homes retrofitted:
- 103 were renovated from a D2 to a B2 or better and were therefore eligible for Energy Poverty energy credits and received the higher rate of additional financial support from the Obligated Party
- 79 achieved the minimum uplift of 100 kWh/m2 2/year and received the lower rate of additional financial support from the Obligated Party
- 13 did not meet the minimum uplift criteria and received no additional financial support from the Obligated Party
A number of different energy efficiency measures were identified across the 195 homes as part of the technical assessments. The installed measures varied depending on the house type and pre-BER rating. The following table shows the measures carried out throughout the 195 homes:
| Meaure Type | Number of Houses |
| Air to Water Heat Pump | 195 |
| Airtight Doors | 195 |
| Airtight Windows | 193 |
| Mechanical Ventilation | 102 |
| External Wall Insulation | 101 |
| Heating Controls | 66 |
| Attic Insulation | 47 |
| Cavity Wall Insulation | 26 |
| Internal Wall Insulation | 1 |
| Floor Insulation | 1 |
For the partnered Obligated Party to claim the resulting energy credits( only after which the the local authority would receive the financial support), the energy savings achieved had to comply with the EEOS requirements. The partnership contained three requirements from the Obligated Party to the local authority:
- The Obligated Party’s main objective was to obtain energy poverty credits from the partnership, so a high percentage of the homes covered under the partnership were required to be eligible for energy poverty credits, with a pre-BER of a D2 or worse.
- A paper trail was required to ensure the Obligated Party could provide the necessary documentation to support the energy credits claimed under the EEOS. This included commissioning and RECI certification for heat pumps, product information for installed measures, waivers, contractor invoices, etc.
- An accessible shared drive was required by the Obligated Party to facilitate the gathering and storing of all supporting documentation, as well as tracking of the works completed and resulting energy credits.
