HENOC sector focus
Education
Term-time demand, public accountability and ageing estates.
Schools, academy trusts, colleges and universities buy energy on a term-time profile within tightly governed budgets. Consumption falls sharply in holidays — or should. Where it does not, the cause is usually plant left running rather than anything a contract can fix. We buy on the real profile and tell you plainly where the base load looks wrong.
Typical supply
HH electricity at larger sites, NHH at smaller schools, substantial gas for heating
Load shape
Term-time weekday peaks, low holiday demand, heating-dominated in winter
Main cost drivers
Gas heating, winter demand, catering and sports facilities
What makes education different
Holiday base load
Half-hourly data regularly shows heating, ventilation or lighting running through closures. This is a controls issue, and it is usually the largest saving available.
Budget certainty
Governors and trust boards generally value a predictable, defensible price over the chance of a marginally better one.
Framework versus open tender
Public frameworks are convenient but not automatically the cheapest route. Both should be benchmarked.
Mixed-age estates
A Victorian block and a new-build teaching wing on one meter make like-for-like benchmarking difficult.
How we work with education clients
Term-profile pricing
Contracts tendered on actual term-time consumption so suppliers price the real shape.
Budget-first contract shape
Where certainty matters more than optimisation, we say so and recommend accordingly.
Framework benchmarking
We benchmark framework pricing against an open tender so the decision is evidenced either way.
Holiday load report
A plain report on out-of-term consumption, with the controls actions that would reduce it.
Common things we find
- Heating schedules unchanged through holiday closures
- Contracts renewed on estimated rather than metered consumption
- Kitchen and sports-hall supplies sitting outside the trust contract
Findings vary by client and site. Nothing here is a guarantee of saving — we quote against your own bills, and where we quote savings our clients average around 15%.
Want a real number against your current spend?
Send us a recent commercial energy bill. We come back within 24 hours with a plain-English audit — no sales pitch.
Request my free audit →Other sectors we work in