Information

The goal of many educators is to become a superintendent. You go to school to obtain the right degree, certification, and knowledge to lead a school district. The problem is that most of the education and training we receive does not fully prepare us to do the job that we are expected to do by staff, parents, and our community. When I became a superintendent, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of how to do the educational side of the job. I was not as prepared or educated on how to deal with the maintenance and upkeep of the district and everything that goes with it. Ultimately, I turned to an Energy Service Company (ESCO) to help meet the needs of my district. From my personal experience, here are some of the things you should consider if you feel an Energy Performance Contract (EPC) is in your school district’s best interest.

District Concerns

What is your pain? Meaning, what is your biggest issue you are facing in your district? Is it finances, deferred maintenance, or salaries, etc.? Who is the driving force behind these issues, the BOE, community, staff, or matters that you are concerned about? How can you address these issues in a way that will satisfy the needs of all parties involved? There are many avenues that a superintendent may go down to accomplish this, the goal is to figure out what best fits your district. Understanding the driving force behind hiring an ESCO is essential to starting the process of hiring one.

Energy Service Company (ESCO)

Understand how an ESCO can help your district can be accomplished in a few ways:

1. Through funding mechanisms. Using an EPC allows you to be more flexible with the districts money in how you approach your district’s needs.
2. Through guaranteed energy savings. An ESCO can evaluate your district and find cost saving measures through replacement or upgrades of current mechanical or electrical systems or items. There are considerable savings in LED Lighting, Building Automation and HVAC. For instance, when I used an EPC, I was guaranteed $30,000 dollars of energy savings every year, which I validated and saw a reduction of over $30,000 annually on my electric bills. This was a substantial savings for our small school district.

Deferred Maintenance

As I mentioned earlier, deferred maintenance was something I was not as prepared for. My district had so many needs. We needed a new roof and tuck pointing. We had HVAC issues (building automation), gym wall issues, building weatherization issues, and a few other minor issues. Trying to figure out how I was going to accomplish all these needs was a little overwhelming until I had my first conversation with an ESCO. As we had further conversations, it made complete sense for our district to hire an ESCO, as most of our district’s deferred maintenance needs could be met in one project. The next issue that arose was how the district would pay for all of this. If some of your projects fall under Missouri Statue 8.231, then looking into an EPC may be very beneficial to your district.

Funding the Project

Funding in public schools is always a concern. There seems to never be enough money to meet the needs of a school district. This is where you really need to have a good working relationship with your financial group. Learn how they can help you financially to meet your district’s needs. It could be through a no-tax bond, a tax levy increase, or maybe a lease purchase. I know there is a lot that goes into this from what your status of reserves to bonding capacity to AV growth, etc. Your financial group will help you determine what is the best fit financially for your district or even if it is possible for you to tackle these issues. I was fortunate that we had healthy reserves and a good bonding capacity that we were able to do a million-dollar lease purchase to address most of our deferred maintenance. The following year I rolled that lease purchase into a no-tax bond, which freed up money to put into teacher salaries. The teachers loved that!

Right Fit

You need to determine if hiring an ESCO is the right fit for your district or if going through an architect is a better path. It really depends on the needs of your district. Both are good avenues, and at times it may make sense to hire both! From my experience, hiring an ESCO was the right thing for the needs I had in my buildings, and it gave me guaranteed savings that I could then use for teacher salaries. It became a win for me with having lots of deferred maintenance and needing to bolster teacher salaries to be competitive. Educate yourself as much as possible about this process to make the best decision for your school district.

This information is to provide some direction as you consider moving forward with your construction and deferred maintenance needs. I know it can be scary and a little overwhelming at times but, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Find a company you trust that will have the best interests of district in mind and ask as many questions as you can through the process.

About the author – Scott Archibald is an Education Consultant with Navitas. His background as a school administrator and 28 years of experience in the education sector help him bring a practical approach to developing strategies for school districts wanting guidance on how to initiate an energy conservation program in their facilities. He can be reached at sarchibald@navitas.us.com. 

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has recently made a new program available for Missouri public entities. It is the Energy Audit Reimbursement Program (EARP), which will pay a reimbursement, up to $20,000, for the cost for an energy audit completed by a qualified energy professional.

There are only a couple of steps to get this process going, which I have outlined below. We also suggest that you take a couple of preliminary steps to set yourself up to take the best advantage of this program.

First, speak with a qualified, energy professional that can complete an energy audit. Talk with them about what you would like to accomplish with this energy audit. From what we’ve seen some public entities want the information to help them reduce utility consumption, but others want to address their aging infrastructure and use energy saving to help pay for those improvements.

Once the goal, or goals, of the energy audit is defined, the next step is to select a firm to complete the audit. The program requires that you select an energy auditor and that you be under contract with them to complete the audit.

A good choice is an Energy Services Company (ESCO). ESCOs are already set up to help public entities take advantage of this program. Not only will they be able to complete the energy audit, they are in a good position to give you ideas on how to save money and will also help you create a plan to implement the improvements in a cost-effective way.

The last step is to finalize your application for the Energy Audit Reimbursement program and submit it to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Your selected ESCO partner can assist with submitting it to the DNR.

This DNR program was designed to provide reimbursement for around 50 public entities. So, the funds are limited. At the current rate we see schools and other public entities applying for this program, we believe funding will run out in the spring of 2023.

Contact me at rterry@navitas.us.com, I would love to discuss if this audit reimbursement program can be a value to your operation!

About the author – Ryan Terry is Navitas’ Vice President of Business Development. His background as a professional engineer and 19 years of experience in the energy industry help him bring a practical approach to developing strategies for public sector clients who want guidance in how to initiate an energy conservation program in their facilities. He can be reached at rterry@navitas.us.com.

Key Objectives

• Temperature control – maintain heating and cooling set points
• Reduced utility expense – unoccupied / occupied modes
• Accessibility and usability

As with most technologies, there are numerous varieties, makes, and models of thermostats. The point of this article is to identify their purpose, and effective strategies in a general sense. While commercial buildings typically have a wall sensor that accept a few user inputs and contain the “smarts” on a controller elsewhere, the occupant’s interaction with residential and commercial thermostats are often similar.

Temperature control through maintaining set points is a primary focus of thermostats.

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit operates to maintain defined heating and cooling set point based on the information it receives from the thermostat. Desired set points lie outside the scope of this narrative, but it is worth noting that the topic has received a great deal of discussion throughout homes, facilities, and engineering design groups the world over. ASHRAE Standard 55: Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy was developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and addresses this topic, among others.

Typically, a heating set point, as well as a cooling set point, is defined within the stated standards of ASHRAE Standard 55. While these set points are aimed at satisfying most users, an adjustment range is typically included for some slight modifications. In other words, while these standards meet most of the population demands, an individual user may raise or lower the set point slightly to meet their preferences. Depending on the system type, the unit will likely switch between heating/cooling modes depending on indoor or outdoor conditions. Otherwise, the user selects the mode seasonally.

When the room temperature is outside the set point range, the unit reacts by heating or cooling the space. To avoid constant cycling of the unit on/off, the temperature is driven slightly past the set point before shutting down and allowed to drift slightly past it again before returning to heating/cooling.

Reducing utility expenses through unoccupied / occupied modes is another benefit of modern thermostats.

Reduced equipment wear/tear and energy consumption are also worth noting. As mentioned above, maintaining occupant comfortable is an important focus. Therefore, when the space is occupied, a tighter tolerance of set points is needed. Whereas when the space is unoccupied, it can be allowed to operate under a wider range of temperature conditions. Inanimate objects are largely unconcerned with the temperature (not withstanding exceptions of museums, specialized equipment storage, etc.). This approach reduces the stress and runtime on equipment substantially and is made possible through setting a schedule either online or at the thermostat itself.

Setting an “occupied” schedule is great, but what happens when a room inevitably becomes occupied without being scheduled? A local override on the thermostat allows the user to temporarily override the schedule for a timed duration. This allows the occupants to utilize the desired set points and then the system returns to unoccupied schedule thereafter.

Accessibility is key to achieving your heating, cooling, and ventilation goals.

The ability to conveniently set operating parameters around schedules and set points quickly and conveniently is critical. The feature to easily put the system into occupancy mode temporarily thermostat avoids the over/under scheduling. Without the override, occupants will be frustrated, or the space will run occupied while vacant more frequently. Offering a limited adjustment of set points at the thermostat provides greater occupant satisfaction without sacrificing equipment runtime and energy. Having the ability to view current conditions and make changes remotely is highly advantageous. Lastly, simplicity leads to greater results.

In summary, there are four main attributes of thermostats to be considered beyond accuracy, dependability, and functional needs of the equipment.

• Indicator of occupied / unoccupied mode
• Ability to temporarily override occupancy mode
• Ability to adjust the set points up/down within a defined range
• Web access

About the author – Zack Flageolle is Navitas’ Director of Optimization Services. His experience in planning, design, and construction has allowed him to gain a greater understanding of what makes a successful project. He provides leadership of our Optimization Services activities for our clients and is instrumental in ensuring the program is successful. He can be reached at zflageolle@navitas.us.com.

We routinely get this question as we assess buildings for potential energy efficiency improvements. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer. There are many variables that need to be considered when contemplating whether a solar project makes sense for your buildings. In this article we discuss some of the more important questions to ask before adding solar generation on your facilities.

1. Electric Utility Rate Structure and Each Building’s Utility Load Profile

This is perhaps the most important variable to consider when determining the financial viability of a solar installation. In a recent project, we evaluated 12 buildings in a school district. Several of them had the same utility rate structure, but the maximum demand and number of run hours of each building varied greatly; which affects the cost of electric consumption and therefore how much the solar production value would be for that individual electric meter/building. We saw a huge variance in the effective solar production value for each building. In some buildings a 100 kW solar array would produce around $12,000 annually, and in other buildings that same size array would only produce $6,000 annually. Both arrays would have produced the same amount of electricity for the building, but we projected a huge difference in actual dollars saved.

75 kW Array – Shawnee Fire Station 72

2. Cost and Quality of Solar Panels

Good quality solar panels should generate electricity for over 25 years. Make sure what you’re purchasing is from a reputable source with warranties on production for 20+ years.

3. The Roof Under the Solar Panels

Often the best time to install solar is right after a roof project. Most commercial roofs should last over 20 years. Typically, we don’t see an increase in insurance premiums when our public sector clients install solar on their buildings. But speak with your insurance provider to make sure.

If your roofs are old or approaching the end of life that’s OK. We have seen clients include in a bid to remove/reinstall the roof once after the first 10 years, to account for eventual need for roofing replacements. This should just be discussed with your solar designer/installing contractor.

4. How Do I Pay for Solar?

Our public sector clients typically finance projects through their financial advisor. We have seen many ways this this type of project gets funded. Most recently, one of our clients used a lease-purchase with a 20-year term to fund the construction. Financed in this way, their return on investment was around 9-10 years.

Commercial sector clients would also be able to take advantage of renewable tax credits, which could reduce the capital cost of an array by 35%.

75 kW Array – Orrick R-XI School District

About the author – Ryan Terry is a business development manager with Navitas. His background as a professional engineer and 19 years of experience in the energy industry help him bring a practical approach to developing strategies for public sector clients who want guidance in how to initiate an energy conservation program in their facilities. He can be reached at rterry@navitas.us.com.