Green Deal Loans
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/RUGBYCLUBMAG
Rugby Energy Club and
RFF Green Deal Loans
T
he RFU has launched a range of initiatives to
help rugby clubs across the country save money
on their energy expenditure known collectively as the ‘Rugby
Energy Club’.
The cost of energy bills is rising rapidly; 15% in the last 18
months with another 20% rise expected in the next two years. It
will be an increasingly significant challenge for rugby clubs to
remain financially viable as this trend continues.
The Rugby Energy Club initiatives can be broken down into
the following four key strands;
1. The ‘Energy Purchasing Partnership’ to help each club get the
best possible tariffs for its energy contracts
2. Offers with suppliers to help clubs use technology to reduce
their energy use and expenditure
3. Simple advice to help clubs manage energy better and reduce
their bills
4. Funding opportunities for technologies that enable clubs to
save energy or even generate their own!
To promote these offers the RFU will be running a series of
‘Energy Nights’ across the country. These are two hour events
that showcase all the offers that make up the Rugby Energy Club.
They are essentially a range of short and snappy presentations
and an opportunity to meet pre-verified suppliers to discuss
6 Issue 66
options for each club. The RFU also provides free gadgets to
each club that attends to help reduce their energy bills.
A key part of Rugby Energy Club is the Energy Purchasing
Partnership. This has two key stages:
1. At no charge to each club, the RFU’s appointed independent
consultant will work with individual clubs to procure them the
best possible energy tariff contract available. This will provide
good savings over a short time period.
2. These contracts will all end on a common end date in May
2017 and the consultant will then negotiate a central bulk
purchasing agreement on behalf of all clubs which will lead to
even more significant savings for the long term.
The average saving across 40 clubs in the pilot scheme was
£1,768 per season.
The Rugby Football Foundation also has a funding source
to support Rugby Energy Club; the Green Deal loan. Rugby
Football Foundation Green Deal loans, up to the value of £20,000,
are available to clubs at level 3 and below to support them in the
installation of facility solutions that reduce utility costs. Green
Deal Loan repayments are structured to be the equivalent
of the projected savings over the agreed ‘payback’ period.