Energy project sparks savings

The installation of nifty technology at a popular county attraction has resulted in cash and carbon being saved.

An annual saving of around £11,200 a year on its electricity bill has been seen by Snibston Discovery Museum after special voltage optimisation technology was installed at the site.

The move means that the Leicestershire County Council run museum, based in Coalville, has also managed to save around 61 tonnes of CO2 a year – the equivalent of the average yearly emissions of eight county residents.

The energy saving scheme was introduced at Snibston in 2009 and was last year rolled out to parts of the council’s County Hall headquarters in Glenfield, with the whole building due to benefit in the summer.

The technology monitors the electricity supply and reduces the voltage to 220v which is at the lower end of the legal limit. This makes it more efficient and saves money and carbon.

Lesley Pendleton, County Council Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: This is an example of something we have been doing as an authority to cut our bills and help reduce our carbon footprint.

We believe this technology is good value for money –we estimate it will take just over two years to pay back the investment and the savings will be ongoing.”

Leicestershire County Council is striving to become one of the top performing councils in the country when it comes to the environment by 2012.

For more information on what work it is doing to reduce its carbon emissions visit: www.leics.gov.uk/environment

ENDS