Energy firms in the UK have been able to increase bills by 54% following the introduction of the new cap on 1 April, so millions of customers in England, Scotland and Wales will be paying a lot more for their electricity and gas. The increase is driven by a record rise in global gas prices over the last 6 months, with wholesale prices quadrupling in the last year alone.
Astronomical energy price increases for Education
Schools and colleges are facing unprecedented bill increases too – the Department for Education said they “recognise schools may be facing cost pressures in the coming months, particularly where energy prices have increased”. According to Tes, schools are being hit with “astronomical” gas and electricity bills that are swamping their budgets.
Headteachers have requested that the DfE take this crisis seriously and “at least talk to schools” about this, as for some the extra spending on energy bills equates to the cost of several new teaching assistants, a teacher or even means redundancies. The pandemic has amplified cost concerns further by having to keep classroom windows open to reduce the spread of Covid.
Many are researching new ways of making their sites more energy efficient, since the less energy used, the lower the bill.
One school trying to find a new deal is Wales High School, in Sheffield. Headteacher Pepe Di’Iasio, said he was expecting a major financial hit when he managed to secure a deal with the energy supplier.
Our initial research is showing that we are looking to incur price increases for each month from what is now an average of £5,000 each month to almost £9,800 while for gas we have an anticipated increase of an additional £1,700 each month to around £5,000. We’ve pulled together a ‘green’ section to our capital development plan, which will see the school investing in energy-saving strategies connected to full LED lighting throughout the school and the investment in a solar panel scheme following this.
Pepe DiIasio
In schools and colleges across the UK and Europe, zioxi onView is already helping customers save money and reduce their carbon emissions. Zioxi onView is a web app that works with a small computer built into our charging trolleys, cabinets and lockers so you can control and monitor the charging of multiple IT devices remotely, from your mobile phone.
You’ll use less energy with zioxi onView, and when devices are charging, green energy is sourced at the times of the day when renewable energy sources are at peak availability (from a data interface with the National Grid).
If you run 32 laptops, we estimate that you can reduce your laptop energy bill by nearly two thirds.
Save ££’s in your place of learning
Find out about zioxi onView charging trolleys, cabinets and lockers here.