Senior managers from 17 sports and leisure trusts have attended seminars at Bolton Arena and Hertsmere Leisure for an update on energy prices and the most effective solutions to reduce energy consumption.

Organised by Key Alliance, the purchasing consortium that works in partnership with sporta and FIA members, the presentations covered software for managing plant and energy usage, combined heat and power installations as well as a new generation of light emitting diode (LED) retrofit lighting designed to replace incandescent, halogen, low-energy and fluorescent lamps with reductions in electricity consumption of up to 80 per cent.

Gavin Froude, Technical Manager from Ideal Lights, explained: "LED lighting has long been known to be reliable and energy-efficient but until now required special solid-state fitments and was not bright enough to replace normal lighting.

"This new range of high specification, retrofit LED bulbs developed by Ideal Lights is certified to UK standards and slots directly into existing fittings so that switching to LED Lighting is much less costly and far simpler to carry out. This technology advance is now approved by the Carbon Trust and is included on their Energy Technology List."

The new LED lamps offer other advantages that are particularly relevant to leisure operations. LED bulbs last up to 50,000 hours, drastically reducing maintenance and bulb replacement costs. Additional benefits from their low electricity consumption and heat emission include reduced burdens on cabling, fittings, air conditioning systems and emergency back-up batteries.

Detailed lighting audits carried out by Ideal Lights at 14 small, medium and large leisure centres confirmed that annual savings at present prices of £157,000 in electricity and bulb replacement costs are available by switching to LED alternatives. Payback periods range from 12-24 months and are set to reduce further as electricity tariffs rise on forthcoming renewals.

A number of SpoRTA Trusts are trialling LED lamps in advance of installing them across all their sites while others are completing self-surveys prior to applying for interest-free funding from the Carbon Trust.