Schools Outstanding Gas Invoices
In order to reduce costs as far as we can on our Corona Gas Contract we undertake to manage debt across the portfolio ourselves. As we limit the contract to schools within the Bradford District it should not be too difficult to manage outstanding debts as
schools should have robust systems in place to ensure that invoices are paid in a timely manner and you have all signed contracts agreeing to pay invoices within the payment terms. However we are seeing an increase in the debt held on the portfolio and this
is impacting on the time we spend chasing up outstanding invoices with individual schools. The energy unit does not have the staff resources to commit so much time to debt management, and if the situation continues we will look at removing schools with long
term debts from the portfolio and/or we will ask Corona to manage the process on our behalf and the costs of this will be reflected in an increase to prices. As you can appreciate this is the last thing that the Energy Team want to do, and its completely
avoidable if we all ensure that invoices are paid on time, and any issues that prevent payment are raised to both Corona and us in the energy team. We are more than willing to work with schools to ensure accounts run smoothly.
You should have all seen the recent updates on utility pricing that we published on BSO last week, and I want to reiterate that there are a couple of steps that you can take to reduce costs where possible including;
- Avoiding electricity consumption between 4pm and 7:30pm, this is the most expensive period to consume electric. If cleaning is done during this time could it be done before school opens, are any dishwashers run in the evening, could they be timed to work
after 4pm? Each school needs to look at what is happening during this period of time and reduce consumption where possible.
- Ensure that all heating controls are optimised correctly prior to Autumn to ensure that settings are most efficient.
- There are more simple steps that we can all take to reduce consumption, i.e. turning off lights and equipment when not in use.
- If you are part of the SLA agreement we can offer energy surveys that provide further information on ways to make your site more energy efficient.
If you have any queries please contact utilities@bradford.gov.uk