CEEP's September Program Profile Series | Schools Programs

Some of the most valuable programs for public power utilities are those that deliver big kWh savings, while also benefiting the community at large. As CEEP's September program profile series demonstrates, partnering with local school districts provides tremendous opportunities to achieve energy and demand savings; however some of the greatest benefits are corollary ones like allowing schools to spend less on energy bills and as a result have more funds available for their mission - education; inspiring the next generation of utility customers to use energy more efficiency; and positioning the utility as an integral part of the community.

Tools for Schools

Here, we feature three examples of successful school-based strategies sponsored by public power utilities and utility organizations. To share information about your own program, add a comment below!

• Roseville Electric Department>>
• Johnson City Power Board and TVA>>
• New York Power Authority>>

Schoolchildren Driving the Resource Conservation Message Home in Roseville, CA

Kids Inspiring Lasting Changes in their Communities

Kris Blair, major account representative for Roseville Electric Department, compares the transformative potential of youth-focused energy efficiency education to the campaign to increase the use of safety belts in automobiles. For many adults it was a difficult habit to adopt, but the campaign was hugely successful in influencing seat belt use among the younger generation who in turn reinforced this habit in their parents.

The power of youth education is what has inspired Roseville Electric Department to offer the LivingWise program for area schools since 2001. Now in Roseville, CA, in addition to "dad, put on your seat belt!" kids are saying "don't forget to turn off the lights!"

Taking the Message Home

The utility-sponsored program recruits schools and teachers, who are provided with an innovative energy education curriculum that they can tailor to their classroom's needs. The curriculum includes workbooks and kits for each student that contain audit tools and high-impact quick-install devices such as CFLs, low-flow showerheads and kitchen aerators. These resource efficient measures are installed in students' homes as part of homework projects that involve the whole family, and allow children to share what they have learned about energy and water efficiency with their parents.

Over its history, the program has averaged 470 kW of energy savings per student participating, not including the energy savings attributable to behavior changes that will accrue for years to come. For Kris and the Roseville Electric Department, the benefits are cost-effective energy savings that contribute to Roseville's conservation goals and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents about their children's enthusiasm for the curriculum and desire to apply classroom lessons at home.

The future relies on our children learning better habits, and thinking more broadly about the use of our natural resources," Kris states. "This program speaks directly to students and empowers them to be smarter energy users."

Visit Roseville Electric Department's Program Profile to learn more about their experience with the LivingWise® program.

Johnson City Power Board and the Tennessee Valley Authority Empower the Next Generation

Back-to-School in the Tennessee Valley

Back-to-School: a time of students and parents descending on local retailers in droves for new backpacks and fresh boxes of crayons... of school buses ruling the roads once again... and, of teachers preparing lesson plans for the year ahead.

In the Tennessee Valley, several schools have recently added "going green" to their end-of-summer routine. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began a pilot of the "Green Schools" program in area schools during the 2009-2010 school year. Designed and implemented by the Alliance to Save Energy, the program's mission is to foster behavior change through hands-on, real-world learning about energy consumption and energy efficiency and to strengthen schools by saving them money on energy costs and freeing up more resources for education.

Johnson City Power Board (JCPB) is one of 16 TVA power distributors currently participating in the program. Director of Key Accounts Angela Shrewsbury from JCPB has been involved with her utility's Green Schools team since the program's inception in Johnson City, TN. For JCPB, helping the financially strapped school district was the main reason for doing this program. Around the same time that TVA announced the roll-out of its Green Schools pilot, JCPB was in talks with the local superintendent of schools about strategies to reduce high energy bills. Green Schools was a perfect match for the school district's needs.

Starting out with five schools in JCPB's service territory, local project leaders assembled Green Teams at participating schools. These squadrons of teachers, custodial staff, students and administrators followed the Green Schools planning process to develop customized lesson plans, opportunities to save energy in each school and strategies for encouraging students to take the energy efficiency message home and into the local community.

One Green Schools activity was to train a group of students to perform energy audits and to work with custodial staff to identify no-cost energy saving actions in their schools. As an important part of the green team, custodians also received training and support so that they could integrate the student's recommendations into their day-to-day facility management practices.

Behavior Change Improves the Schools Bottom Line

According to Jennifer Alldredge, local project leader for Johnson City Schools, when students see that adults are taking action on their audit results, it reinforces energy saving habits and inspires them to continue being energy leaders. The community will see the energy saving benefits of this behavior change well into the future.

The immediate benefits of the Green Schools program for Johnson City were the tremendous energy savings that resulted from student action.

In the 2009-2010 school year, the five participating schools reduced their energy bills $32,743. Johnson City will continue the Green Schools program for the next school year, adding three additional schools.

Based on the strong results of the Green Schools pilot phase, TVA plans to continue and expand the reach of the program, with sponsorship eventually provided by local power distributors.

On the unique position of the local public power utility to help schools save energy, Angela had this to say: "it's about one public institution lending a hand to another. Helping schools direct fewer resources towards energy bills and more in the future of our kids benefits the whole community."

Visit Johnson City Power Board and TVA's Program Profile to learn more about their experience with the Green Schools program.

NYPA helps School Districts Statewide Save Big on Energy Costs

New York Power Authority's (NYPA) energy efficiency programs were started in the late 1980's as an alternative to building new generation capacity. Early on, NYPA identified energy efficiency retrofits in school facilities as a win-win opportunity to achieve substantial energy savings, and significantly reduce operating costs for budget conscious schools. With early successes in New York City and Westchester County and interest from school districts in Long Island, NYPA quickly expanded "Power to Schools" services statewide and into a one-stop shop for schools seeking assistance in the design, implementation and financing of large-scale energy retrofit projects.

The strength of the program lies in the consultative process that NYPA offers to help schools determine which projects to pursue and how to minimize upfront costs by leveraging local utility programs, state aid and other complementary incentive or financing opportunities.

Throughout the history of the program, NYPA has financed 245 projects for schools outside of New York City, which improved the energy performance of 835 buildings. Combined, these projects have saved 118,732 MWh of electricity! Up until the mid-1990s, most projects were lighting retrofits; however, the vast majority of projects that NYPA works on today also incorporate motor upgrades, building controls and boiler and chilled water plant improvements. Two recent projects for the Albany City School District that included these equipment upgrades generated energy-savings equal to more than $131,000 a year.

Public Power Helping Public Institutions

Jim Bejarano, program manager for the Statewide Energy Services Program, the umbrella programs for Power to Schools, feels that providing energy management and project financing to schools is a natural fit for NYPA because as a public institution itself it has a mutual interest in reducing the cost of governance.

According to Jim, "one of the great things about this program is that it provides everything a school needs to complete an energy conservation project. All a school has to do is pull the trigger, and NYPA does the rest."

Visit New York Power Authority's Program Profile to learn more about their experience with the Power to Schools program.

Does your utility have a program that you'd like to share with your peers? Comment below!