Energy Contracting Support: Grant for Project Advice
Up to 75% of eligible external advice and project-preparation costs for Irish organisations procuring energy contracts with performance guarantees or local energy supply.
Questa opportunità è attualmente disponibile in inglese.
SEAI’s Energy Contracting Support Scheme helps the organisation hosting an energy project pay for independent expertise to assess the project and prepare its procurement. It funds contract preparation and specialist advice, including energy audits, feasibility studies, financial analysis, risk assessment, legal advice and plans for measuring savings. It does not pay for the main installation itself.
The grant supports three contract forms:
- Energy Performance Contract (EPC): a supplier guarantees energy savings, is paid from the savings achieved and covers any shortfall against the guarantee.
- Local Energy Supply Contract (LESC): a supplier provides heat, electricity or other energy to the site from a local generator.
- Energy Performance Guarantee (EPG): a supplier guarantees savings from its products or work and loses some or all of a performance payment if the savings fall short.
Support is up to 75% of approved eligible costs. SEAI publishes normal funding limits of €50,000 for EPC or LESC projects and €25,000 for EPG projects. Higher support may be considered where the work demonstrably helps solve a significant, widespread or national barrier to energy efficiency and decarbonisation, or adds substantial knowledge about energy contracting.
Initial materials and equipment used to establish the project’s energy baseline—the starting energy use against which improvements are measured—can qualify, including temporary meters and supplementary monitoring software. They cannot exceed 20% of total eligible costs. Installing a building management system itself is excluded. Research and development, internal staff costs, and the concept design and specification carried out by an energy services company as part of its detailed investment audit are also excluded. VAT counts only if the applicant cannot reclaim it and supplies Revenue confirmation.
Eligibility
Public and private host organisations can apply for sites in Ireland, including buildings, industrial and commercial operations, transport and utilities. The host organisation must submit the application. Residential-sector projects are excluded.
Complete an initial appraisal showing that the project is viable enough for further development and suitable for a contract that links payment to energy performance or supply. Establish the site’s energy use, energy and carbon objectives, and management commitment to procure external expertise. To receive support, the project must reach one of three alternative steps: invite suppliers to submit offers, formally select the preferred supplier, or award the contract. These are the invitation-to-tender, preferred-bidder and contract-award stages respectively.
SEAI particularly encourages projects targeting at least €50,000 in energy-cost savings and facilities or groups of facilities spending more than €250,000 a year on energy. These are preferred scales, not absolute minimums: smaller projects may be considered where SEAI judges them exceptional. Fossil-fuel technology is supported only where the application demonstrates that it is needed within the overall pathway to net-zero carbon.
Appoint an independent, competent consultant who is a certified, registered EPC Facilitator for the funded activities. A facilitator helps the host develop and procure the energy contract. Any project energy audit must be undertaken by an appropriately qualified individual or firm under SEAI’s Energy Auditing Scheme and meet its report requirements, including a breakdown of total operational carbon emissions and emissions directly from the site. Technology-specific assessments must account for connected energy uses and carbon effects.
An audit by an energy services company can be accepted if the host understands and accepts the auditor’s limited independence and ensures that the audit meets the required standards and scope. Additional independent advice on such an audit can also qualify.
Public bodies must follow SEAI’s five-stage process: organisation, feasibility and energy audit, final business case, procurement, then implementation. Private organisations may use another robust development process but must report on it if SEAI requests. Applicants must cooperate in sharing lessons and good practice after the grant.
Commercial public and private applicants receive support under the de minimis rules for limited amounts of public aid. Check previous award letters: the awarding body identifies funding given as de minimis aid. Declare that aid rather than treating every public payment as de minimis funding. The new award and other relevant de minimis aid from Ireland must remain within €300,000 over the rolling three-year period. The ceiling applies separately to aid from each EU Member State and is tested when the legal right to the new award arises, regardless of when payments reach your account.
Count businesses linked through ownership or control as one undertaking for this limit. This includes one business holding a majority of another’s voting rights, having the right to appoint or remove most of its board, or having a contractual or constitutional right to exercise dominant influence over it. It also includes a shareholder or member controlling a majority of voting rights by agreement with other shareholders or members. These links count through intermediary businesses too.
The same ECSS-funded elements cannot receive other State aid, although separate project elements, such as the later installation, may receive other support.
How to apply
- Stato
- Aperto continuamente
- Restrizioni del bando
- Applications are open all year; eligible awards are first come, first served while funding remains.
- Apply after initial appraisal and before incurring funded costs or commitments.
- Complete the agreed milestone work and final documentation within the offer’s funding window.
Read the scheme guidance and download the application and declarations from the official programme page. The host organisation uploads the completed application to SEAI’s PEP portal with its eligibility declaration, de minimis declaration, financial-resources declaration on headed paper, initial business case and any required VAT evidence. SEAI evaluates commitment, project quality, credible savings, innovation and contribution to energy-contracting practice; an application must score at least 65%.
Wait for the Letter of Offer before placing orders, buying products or starting the services you want funded. Costs and commitments before the formal offer are ineligible. Return the signed offer by its acceptance deadline; it sets the approved work and funding agreement. The approved grant cannot increase later.
SEAI reimburses the host for agreed eligible costs after the host has paid its suppliers. Payment also depends on satisfactory delivery of these milestones:
- Milestone 1, within nine months of the offer: complete the detailed appraisal before procurement. Submit the final business case, financial assessment and draft contract documents. SEAI can pay up to 50% of the approved grant.
- Milestone 2, within fifteen months of the offer: complete any one of these alternatives: invite suppliers to submit offers, formally select your preferred supplier, or award the contract. Submit the published invitation, formal approval of the preferred supplier or signed contract, as appropriate. If SEAI finds the evidence satisfactory, you can claim the balance, or the full approved grant if no earlier payment was made.
Complete all supported work and submit the reports, procurement evidence, completion and payment forms, itemised invoices, bank statements proving payment, valid tax clearance and any VAT confirmation within fifteen months of the offer. Follow the offer’s completion date and submit the payment request within four weeks of completion. SEAI may require corrections to unsatisfactory reports and refuse payment if they remain inadequate.
Request any extension before the original completion date, explaining the delay and proposing a new date. Use business@seai.ie or publicsector@seai.ie as appropriate. Extensions are discretionary and the revised date is final. Allow SEAI access to inspect and review the project; breaches can lead to reduced or cancelled payments and repayment. Annual funding limits can delay payment even where other conditions are met.
You may decide not to undertake or complete the project. Notify SEAI immediately if you abandon it; SEAI will not pay the grant in that case.