Major institutions flex buying muscles

The Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall have joined forces to take advantage of ‘The Arts Basket’, a collective procurement initiative that aims to help arts organisations reduce their energy costs. Launched by Power Efficiency, the new service will review the three organisations’ energy usage patterns and use the findings to obtain the best energy deal from suppliers, enabling electricity and gas requirements to be met at wholesale rates, leading to significant cost savings: a three-year framework agreement covering the organisations’ energy needs will be put out to tender. The agreement will combine a fixed charge for the distribution and transmission of electricity and a flexible element related to the actual units consumed. Power Efficiency will monitor the actual energy usage of the three partners to ensure their deal remains competitive. The company has been working with the Royal Opera House for the past six years and claims to be delivering its clients savings ranging from 5% to 35% of their wholesale energy costs. Sally O’Neill, Director of Finance, Royal Opera House, said: “The Arts Basket is a major opportunity for venues like ours to cut energy costs which are a significant overhead. We want to encourage other arts venues and theatre managers to consider applying to join the Basket.”