Energy Saving Program Saves Local Schools Millions
Local schools are getting an extra boost to their bottom lines thanks to a program offered by El Paso Electric.
Thousands of light bulbs have been changed in dozens of school district buildings thanks to the SCORE or Schools COnserving REsources program.
“It allows them to do more with less,” said El Paso Electric SCORE Program Consultant Angie Boone. “It’s bang for your buck. That’s one of the great things about this. Another great thing about this is that it’s at no cost to them. Since El Paso Electric sponsors it, they receive the consulting services that my company helps with.”
Those consulting services offered by El Paso Electric break down the school’s energy usage and then helps them assess where the best places are to cut back on energy costs.
Many of the retrofits are centered around lighting and cooling systems, which consume a large chunk of the energy usage of these schools.
“What it’s done is actually given us an opportunity to capture some cost savings and has allowed us to reinvest those cost savings into future projects, and most importantly, we’ve been able to divert those savings back to instructional for our students and our staff,” said director for support services for San Elizario independent schools George Luevano.
San Elizario has reduced its energy consumption by 18 percent across the district. Since 2009, the district has received $38,900 in incentives and reduced energy consumption by 149,300 kilowatt-hours. That’s nearly $50,000 in savings over the past three years.
It’s not just the energy savings that put money in the district’s pockets, El Paso Electric also gives the schools an incentive rebate that pays based upon the schools kilowatt-hour savings.
“Since then we have saved approximately $73,000 per year. We’ve had a rebate of about $60,000 back from El Paso Electric Company,” said Tom Eyeington, CEO Socorro Independent School District.
Socorro ISD has retrofitted 12 of their existing campuses and plans on adding six more schools next year. About $50,000 went into the renovations, but school officials said they’re already in the green when it comes to coming out on top.
That’s just the tip of the savings iceberg. Over the four year duration of the project so far, YISD has saved over $2.2 million, after investing about a million dollars in renovations. As a whole, the program has saved more than $14 million for area schools; that’s enough to power 8,000 homes for an entire year.
“At the end of the day when a school district can cut literally thousands of dollars out of their energy bills and their electric bills, you know, month to month even, there’s a lot more money to go around. That money can go back into trying to maintain the facilities. It could go back into more books, It could go into helping teachers keep jobs,” said Boone.
Now that the renovations are in place, they will keep saving schools money for years to come.
El Paso Electric officials said the reason behind paying schools not to use the energy they make their money of off, is that it will keep EPE from building another costly power plant in the near future.
The SCORE program isn’t just offered to school districts. Private schools, higher education and government entities in the CenterPoint Energy, Inc. electric distribution service territory can also benefit from the program.
