DAA puts power contracts to tender

THE DAA, which operates Dublin and Cork airports, has put its multi-million-euro power contracts out to tender.

The current contracts end in March 2019, but the semi-state is already seeking a provider for a two-year term from that date.

The DAA, whose CEO is Dalton Philips, will have the option of extending the contract for a further year.

The tender is for electricity and gas supplies to both Dublin and Cork Airports. The contract is thought to be worth about €8m a year. The DAA’s electricity is currently supplied by Go Power, and gas by Vayu.

The DAA has been targeting continued reductions in energy consumption at both Dublin and Cork airports. In 2014, the DAA announced that it had signed an agreement with the ESB to cut energy consumption at Dublin Airport by 33pc by 2020. The then DAA chief Kevin Toland said at the time that the semistate body was committed to developing Dublin Airport as a “hub of energy efficiency”.

The DAA has told potential bidders for the power contract that its sites use a combined 76.7m kilowatt hours of electricity every year, it said in tender documents. The group uses the equivalent of just over 54 million kilowatt hours of gas every year.

The DAA has worked to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint across a number of its facilities, such as T2 in Dublin Airport.

Earlier this year, it also secured planning permission for a small solar farm that will help power a large reservoir that delivers 500 million litres of water to Dublin Airport every year.

The DAA said that the solar arrays will provide as much as 50pc of the reservoir’s power needs.