SWITCHING to ‘green’ electric power is expected to cost Dorset Council an extra £16,000 a year for its own sites.

But the extra cost would be more than offset by a new gas contract costing 20 per cent less than the £1.4million the council paid last year – potentially saving up to £280,000 a year.

The authority had been paying an average price of 15.1p for each electricity kilowatt hour for 2019/20, consuming 17.7million kWh of power, at a total cost of £2.68m for the year.

It is now committed to a new contract, from this October, described as a ‘Green Tariff’ which will add to the cost, but be more in line with the council's declared climate emergency, councillors were told on Tuesday.

The overall expected increase assumes no fluctuation in the price and that it consumes the same amount of power as it did in 2019-20.

Overall fuel costs at the authority are expected to go down because of the new gas contract at a lower price and its buildings being be used less.

The pandemic is expected to bring the consumption of both gas and electricity down as many of the council’s building have only had limited use since the March 2020 lockdown and most are expected to remain closed until at least the spring of 2020.

Councillors heard that the authority is also investigating bringing the cost of its fuel bills down in the future by generating power on its own sites via solar power, ground source heat pumps, and other methods.

Portfolio holder Cllr Ray Bryan said he was ‘absolutely passionate’ about the council finding its own power sources.

“It has to be part of our green agenda," he said. "Is going to happen overnight? Obviously not - but we will be working together on this, and it is imperative that we become as self-sufficient as we can in the shortest possible time.”

Councillors also heard how the council committed to buying its gas through a local authority consortium, at a time when gas and oil prices were at an historic low because of the pandemic.