Energy Master Plans for Irish communities
Moving your Sustainable Energy Community from Stage 1 (Learn) to Stage 2 (Plan) means procurement, scoping, and paperwork. We're SEAI-aligned energy advisers who bridge that gap — securing 100% grant funding for your Energy Master Plan at zero cost to your committee.
You've formed your steering committee. You've signed the SEC Charter. You may even have completed your SEAI competency assessment. The energy is there — but the next step requires technical procurement, an application form, and a scope of work most volunteers haven't written before.
This is where most communities lose momentum. We help committees just like yours handle the technical heavy lifting required to unlock your Energy Master Plan funding — so you don't stall at the moment things should be getting real.
Talk to us about your next step →12+
Energy Master Plans in development
13
Communities supported nationwide
SEAI
Aligned consultancy
EI
Engineers Ireland member (TBD-confirm)
We're a community group thinking about getting started
You've heard about the SEAI Sustainable Energy Community programme but you're not sure what's involved or whether your group qualifies. That's the most common place to start, and we can walk you through it. We'll help you understand whether forming an SEC is the right next step, what your local SEAI mentor will do, and how to get from initial interest to a funded Energy Master Plan.
→ Talk to us about getting startedWe're a registered SEC ready to develop our Energy Master Plan
If you've received your Letter of Offer from SEAI or you're preparing to procure a consultant, we'd welcome the opportunity to quote. We work to a clear methodology, stay within the SEAI grant envelope, and deliver an EMP your community can act on — not a report that sits on a shelf.
→ Request a quoteAn Energy Master Plan (EMP) is the strategic roadmap your community uses to reduce energy costs, cut carbon emissions, and access further funding for projects on the ground. It's the formal output of Stage 2 of the SEAI Sustainable Energy Communities programme, and it's the document that unlocks everything that follows.
It quantifies your community's current energy use across electricity, heat, and transport, building a credible baseline.
It identifies specific, costed opportunities — building retrofits, renewable generation, transport changes, behavioural projects.
It prioritises those opportunities into a sequence your committee can actually deliver, with funding routes attached.
The communities that get the most from their EMP are the ones whose plan reflects their genuine priorities, not a generic template. That's what we do.
We don't just write the final report. We come in alongside your committee from the application stage onwards, so that by the time the plan launches, your community already knows what it says and is ready to act on it.
Week 0
We meet your committee — in person or online — to understand your community, your goals, and where you are in the SEAI process. No commitment, no charge.
Weeks 1–4
If you haven't yet applied for EMP funding, we'll work with your SEAI county mentor to define a technical scope that reflects what your community actually wants. Your mentor formally lodges the application — we make sure the scope behind it is sound.
Weeks 4–12
Once funding is in place, we carry out the desk study, BER analysis, and sample audits. Critically, we run community engagement properly — workshops, surveys, and door-to-door where it's needed — because the EMP is only as good as the data and the buy-in behind it.
Weeks 12–20
You review a draft. We refine it with your committee. We deliver the final EMP, the Register of Opportunities, and a community launch event so the plan lands with your wider membership and starts moving into Stage 3 — Do.
Strategic outputs
Technical outputs
Engagement outputs
Funding
SEAI provides a grant of €10,000 to €25,000 to cover the full cost of developing your Energy Master Plan. The exact figure depends on the scale of your community and its estimated annual energy spend.
In practice, this means your community pays nothing for the EMP itself. Once your SEC has its Letter of Offer, we invoice SEAI directly through your group's grant agreement.
Indicative grant bands
| Small (village / single estate) | Up to €10,000 |
| Medium (town / cluster of villages) | €10,000 – €20,000 |
| Large (large town / parish-wide) | Up to €25,000 |
Figures based on SEAI's published EMP funding bands. Your local SEAI mentor confirms the band that applies to your community.
We work with 13 communities across Ireland — north and south, urban and rural.
Not ready to talk yet?
Download our free committee checklist:
"5 things your SEC needs ready before requesting EMP funding"
A two-page PDF covering scope definition, committee documentation, energy data sources, your local SEAI mentor's role, and the procurement step. Written for community volunteers, not engineers.
Sustainable Energy Communities Ireland was founded by (TBD-confirm: founder name), a chartered engineer with extensive experience in the Irish energy sector. We work exclusively with communities and local authorities on energy strategy — it's not a side practice.
Our team includes energy engineers, BER assessors, and community engagement specialists. We're based in Dublin, which means we can be on site for workshops across Leinster without billing travel days, and we've built relationships with SEAI mentors across the region.
Nothing. SEAI covers 100% of the consultant's fee through a grant of €10,000–€25,000, paid directly to the consultant once the plan is delivered. The funding band depends on your community's size and energy spend.
Typically 4–6 months from kick-off to launch. The timeline depends on how quickly community engagement and data collection can be completed.
Yes. To access EMP funding, your group must first register as a Sustainable Energy Community with SEAI. Registration is free and we can help you through it.
An energy audit looks at a single building. An Energy Master Plan looks at a whole community — homes, businesses, public buildings, and transport — and produces a 5-year roadmap rather than a single-building report.
Your community group owns it. We deliver the final report, data, and supporting materials to your committee.
Yes — we've delivered Energy Master Plans for communities right across Ireland. Get in touch and we'll let you know whether we can support your community directly or recommend a colleague.
You move into Stage 3 — "Do" — of the SEC programme. The EMP identifies specific projects (retrofit programmes, solar installations, community heat schemes, EV charging, behavioural campaigns) and points to the SEAI and other funding streams that support each one. We can continue to support you on individual project feasibility, procurement, or grant applications.
Your SEAI county mentor lodges the application on behalf of your SEC. We'll help you prepare the technical scope before it goes in. The grant application itself is a short form once the SEC is registered.
Whether you're forming a new community group or you've already got a Letter of Offer in hand, we'd be glad to talk. Initial conversations are free and there's no obligation.