South East Ireland Energy Agency

The South East Energy Agency (SEEA), formerly known as Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency, was established by Carlow and Kilkenny Local Authorities in partnership with the Leader Development Companies in Carlow and Kilkenny.  

The mission of SEEA is to contribute effectively to sustainable development in the cities and towns of Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Waterford in Southeast Ireland. The agency does so by providing sustainable energy information, support, and services to citizens, local businesses, community groups, and local authorities in Carlow and Kilkenny. 

SEEA launched its Regional Strategy to 2030 – a strategy that helps map the path that the community will follow together. The partnership underpins the capacity to deliver the Climate Action Plan at the regional level through public and private actors supported by SEEA as the Trusted Intermediary.   

There is a huge renewable energy resource waiting to be tapped into in Southeast Ireland and the development of renewable energy sources is a priority at local, regional, national, and European levels. This is a task which SEEA supports.  

Activities 

The agency can be contacted for impartial information, advice and support by anyone considering energy management or renewable energy projects in Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Waterford.  

The agency can also offer support and advice to anyone wishing to utilise the renewable energy resources in the Counties, whether using wood, solar or geothermal energy to heat homes and other premises, for the development of wind and biogas projects, or for the use of biofuels for transport.  

SEEA’s activities and services also extend to the following:  

• Energy awareness and dissemination campaigns: providing information on renewable energy and energy-efficient products, local developers, suppliers, and installers. 

• Energy management and procurement: negotiation of energy supply contracts and management of electricity accounts and optimisation of Council operations for energy efficiency. 

• Energy efficiency and renewable energy projects: project management and facilitation for the Local Authorities, local community groups, and businesses. 

• Sustainable energy training: organising training courses and workshops for local Authority staff and the public. 

• Energy Policy Development: the agency works with the Southeast County Councils to develop specific energy efficiency and renewable energy policies in County and Local development plans and public building initiatives. 

Projects 

The SEEA staff works on projects in focus areas ranging from energy efficiency, energy poverty, renewable energy storage, and more:  

• Housing 4.0 Energy (H4.0E): looks to develop and champion a new way of constructing Zero-Energy Homes to help deal with issues such as the embodied CO2eq emissions in modern house construction, the lack of social housing available, and the low energy efficiency of older homes.  

• STEPS: a project that intends to accelerate development and innovation in medium-scale renewable energy storage for companies in Northwest Europe by helping them overcome two large obstacles: limited access to test beds and fragmented regulation.  

• RegEnergy: aiming to break up existing structures to increase the use of renewable energy in Northwest Europe regions. Creating renewable energy demand–supply partnerships between urbanised and surrounding rural territories will lead to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

• ENERGee Watch:  a network to standardise data at a European Level, enable comparisons across European territories to be made and for European-wide methodologies to be established.  

• Data4Action: a co-funded Intelligent Energy Europe project, which aims to mobilise energy data providers and public authorities in 11 European countries to design and demonstrate strong outcome-driven partnerships based on setting up win-win data exchange collaboration models that support the successful implementation and monitoring of Sustainable Energy Action Plans. 

• Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH): the leading EU initiative aiming to eradicate energy poverty and accelerate the just energy transition of European local governments. EPAH’s mission is to be the central platform of energy poverty expertise in Europe for local authorities and all stakeholders interested in taking action to combat energy poverty in Europe.