EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
The EVSC is considering a plan that could save the corporation up to $11 million.
It's an energy savings plan that school officials say makes sense at a time when their budgets are being cut.
School buildings are energy monsters. You have the heating and cooling systems, the lights, all the computers running, and they're running up the bill.
The school system projects it will cost $28 million over the next four years just for energy costs in their nearly 50 buildings.
But they're hoping to change that.
Monday night, board members heard from representatives from the Cripe Corporation. They're a company that goes into buildings all across the country coming up with a plan to reduce energy thereby reducing energy costs.
Cripe says it's estimated there will be a 10 to 30 percent reduction in supply costs as well as a 10 to 20 percent reduction in energy demand. Over the next 10 years, that could be a savings of $7.5 to $11 million.
"We see a lot of rate errors. It's roughly in the range of 5 to 10 percent, but if it's a large facility, such as a hospital, that could be a $100,000 issue," said Scott Chesrown with Cripe Energy Advisors.
"We'll look at spending less money on obtaining energy, spending less money on actually the energy usage itself by having less demand and also changing behavior," said EVSC Superintendent Dr. David Smith.
The contract with Cripe would cost just over $375,000.
The plan calls for several components:
Phase 1 (Months 1-3) – Will include a comprehensive
energy audit of all facilities. Data will be collected for the past 24
months and be input into the model. Facilities will be inspected to identify
the areas for the greatest energy demand. This will help develop a road map and
serve as the baseline.
Phase 2 (Months 4-36) - Will be devoted to
implementation of the energy master plan and managing the procurement process.
Negotiations are completed for utility rates, supplies, water and sewer rates.
All facilities will be benchmarked against metrics determined by EVSC and data
will be tracked in the model to analyze performance. There will be
demand-side energy projects (building system optimization) that do not
require capital expenditures.
Phase 3 (Months 37-48) - Will be devoted to
continued energy auditing, implementation of the energy procurement strategies,
solutions and sustainability. All data collection and monitoring devices will
be in place and Cripe will work with the EVSC energy team to help develop the
skills necessary to collect, analyze, measure and verify usage data, as well as
manage the energy procurement process – through the web-based program.
The board is expected to vote on it at its next meeting.
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School buildings are energy monsters. You have the heating and cooling systems, the lights, all the computers running, and they're running up the bill.
