Community Benefit Funds

Energia believes local communities deserve to benefit from the construction and operation of our wind farms.  Our Renewables team works with Community Foundation Ireland, Community Foundation NI  and the Fermanagh Trust to ensure our wind farm community benefit funding has maximum positive and lasting impact in the areas where we operate.

In addition, we have also donated €158,750 to community initiatives including Grow It Yourself, Seachtain na Gaeilge, Christmassy Homes and donations to local charities.

Energy Efficiency Funding

Via the Domestic EEOS in the RoI, Energia Group provided almost €150,000 towards SEAI’s Better Energy Communities programme. This programme focuses on utilising government funds and contributions from energy companies to carry out energy efficiency retrofits in communities across Ireland. Works are carried out in 2 main categories: community groups and residential dwellings and homes suffering from energy poverty. Retrofit measures include attic and cavity wall insulation, installation of energy efficient boilers and solar thermal and solar PV systems. These measures will result in CO2 savings of around 280 tonnes per annum.

Equal Opportunities & Special Assistance 

Power NI offers a ‘For Your Benefit’ service for its customers which includes a benefit entitlement check, budgeting and energy advice for particularly vulnerable customers. In the year, 134 (2018 – 130) customers availed of the service. Power NI also offers a number of services to its customers that are promoted through its codes of practice (produced in several different languages) and through various advice providers, including Citizens Advice Bureaux and Advice NI. Power NI aims to assist its customers with special needs through a number of these services. Over 2,400 customers (2018 – 2,400 customers) with special requirements benefit from a range of services through Power NI’s special needs register.

Power NI engages with a wide range of organisations in the voluntary, public and private sectors focusing on social action and energy saving. Within the last year Power NI continued to work in partnership with Age NI in order to help improve older peoples’ lives.  Social media was used to provide practical information to older people, their carers and families and energy clinics ran in Age NI shops to provide advice on energy efficiency and relevant grants such as NISEP.

Debt Prevention & Management

Energia Group recognises the social dimension of debt prevention and management and Power NI continues to offer a wide range of payment options and debt prevention measures. Approximately 157,665 residential customers (2018 – 157,090) use ‘Keypad’ meters. These pay-as-you-go meters enable customers to budget for their electricity payments, while Power NI offer a 2.5% discount off the standard price of electricity and provide user-friendly credit and consumption information.

Charity

Energia Group has a fair and ethical charity policy. Each year Energia and Power NI choose a charity as the focus of their fundraising activities. The Group also supports various local good causes nominated by staff and partially matches staff fundraising.

Overall, we choose to support those charities which our people, customers and suppliers can relate to. We opt for initiatives which allow us to make a difference by raising public awareness as well as raising money. Just some of the charities we support help raise awareness and funds to alleviate inner city homelessness and help to educate the wider public on serious cardiac and circulatory health issues and general well-being.

Sponsorship

Getting behind worthy community organizations is especially important to us. In 2017 alone sponsorship of organisations rose to a 6 figure sum.

One of our latest sponsorships includes getting behind one of the oldest rugby grounds in the RoI – Old Wesley/Bective rugby grounds in Donnybrook, now heralded as Energia Park.