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With the Climate Change Levy preying on the minds of companies in the UK and pushing up the cost of using energy, facilities managers are faced with the task of seeking green alternatives to existing energy supplies in order to reduce carbon emissions.

Green energy, widely seen as the expensive alternative, has yet to hit the mainstream. But Woking Borough Council's green energy schemes could be the first step towards re-educating customers.

The council's energy services manager Allan Jones has developed and implemented around 85 energy projects and integrated private finance into energy and environmental services.

He formed a joint venture with Danish company ESCO International to create Thamesway Energy — the first energy and environment services company in the UK — to deliver the council's ideas.

The package Thamesway offers is a first for the UK. It includes the UK's first small-scale combined heat and power (CHP)/ heat fired absorption chiller system and the first local authority 'private wire' CHP schemes.

Private wire means that Thamesway can sell green electricity straight to the customer. By bypassing the national grid it reduces the price of electricity to the customer and guarantees power during a power cut.

'The private wire circuit is designed to suit the customers,' said Jones.

Although other councils implement CHP, they still transport electricity to customers via the grid. So customers pay for transmission and distribution charges.

'Put simply, it's like having a mobile phone network but still having to pay BT,' he said.

Jones also developed and implemented the largest domestic photovoltaic system (a system that relies on light to create a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity) and the first photovoltaic system to be integrated with CHP.

'There is no combustion gas from the reaction and only a minimal amount of trace elements so it is a very clean device,' said Jones.

If customers want to be extra green, they can have fuel cell CHP supplied by the council. This generates heat and/or cooling, plus pure water, without combustion.

Jones said Thamesway Energy is an energy service provider not an energy supplier. This means it doesn't just sell its business and domestic customers electricity, it also provides and services the appliances for heating, cooling and lighting. The venture can supply green energy at a reduced cost, while covering its own costs, because it does not have to pay the national grid through payback from the energy services it uses.

The price of the energy service is agreed at the beginning of a long-term contract (five years plus) and is index linked annually to guarantee benefits.

This system lets the customer transfer financial risk to the energy service provider. Under the agreement, Thamesway will be responsible for the primary energy source — boilers, cooling systems. It also takes responsibility for the design and implementation of the energy source, and its financing and maintenance.