STATE COMPANY Bord Gáis will create 250 jobs by the end of next year in an expansion of its home services business.

The company is targeting homes in the Republic that have low building energy ratings (BER), which means they use more energy than necessary and thus cost more to run.

It is estimated that over 900,000 homes need to be refitted to meet the standards set under the BER system.

Another State agency, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), is making more than €100 million in grants available to householders who need to upgrade their homes.

Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins, said yesterday the company would provide a “one-stop-shop” for energy efficient home services, which will take in everything from carrying out an initial BER inspection to completing the work that needs to be done to each home. “It will reduce people’s carbon footprint, but, more importantly, it will cut their energy bills,” Mr Mullins told The Irish Times.

The initiative is an expansion of its existing home services business, where it supplies customers with energy products and appliances.

Mr Mullins said Bord Gáis was close to signing a deal with a contractor that would carry out the work, and would begin rolling out the new business next year.

Bord Gáis supplies natural gas to over 600,000 homes in the Republic and operates the network that supplies the fuel to both domestic and business customers.

The company began supplying electricity to households in competition with fellow State company, the ESB. It has been supplying electricity to business and industrial users for several years.

It is in the final stages of building a gas-fired electricity plant at Whitegate in Cork Harbour, which involved an investment of over €400 million. It will begin commissioning this facility this year, and expects to begin generating electricity there from midway through 2010.

The power plant is part of an overall investment plan to spend €2.5 billion over five years.

The company will spend around €1.2 billion on renewable energy projects, and a further €300 million on peaking plants, flexible electricity generators which can be switched on as demand for power increases and powered off as it decreases.

Mr Mullins outlined details of the company’s plans to Cork Chamber of Commerce yesterday.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, yesterday welcomed the company’s plans to expand its home services business.