The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
Contents Executive Summary • Scorecard Results • Baseline Energy Use • Key Actions • Savings Estimate & Financial Evaluation • Goals & Measures 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Baseline Energy Use Planned Actions & Projects Savings Opportunity Assessment Financial Assessment Goals and Measures Budget Mandate for Energy Management
APPENDICES 1. SEP – Performance Scorecard 2. Baseline Energy Use Map 3. Facilities Ranking: Energy Use per SF 4. Facilities Ranking: Energy Cost per SF 5. Electric Usage and Cost Data 6. Gas Usage and Cost Data 7. 2006-2007 Year to Date Savings 8. Caywood Elementary Usage & Cost Data
The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
Executive Summary
Scorecard Results An assessment of current energy management efforts was performed; current performance falls into the BASIC category on the SEP-Performance Scorecard (appendix 1). The Kenton County School District has initiated action in all of the (five) key sustainable focus areas and is poised to obtain solid results in each area. In particular, the assessment revealed the following strengths in current efforts and initiatives. • Energy Data Management – The District has established a comprehensive program for collecting and analyzing monthly energy billing information, utilizing a desktop software program. This effort has produced a comprehensive database of facility, usage and cost information that is available for use in monitoring excessive variations, identifying and recovering billing errors, and targeting facilities for followup evaluation. Energy data for three schools, Caywood Elementary, Woodland Middle and Taylor Mill Elementary, has been entered into Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager. Portfolio Manager creates a ranking for each facility and tracks progress on energy consumption. This process has enabled Caywood Elementary to earn an Energy Star Award for its first year performance. • Energy Supply Management – All facilities are on standard tariff rates. Eight schools were on RTP rates and have been changed to standard tariff rates due to highly volatile market rates generating an estimated $75,000 per year in savings. Propane and Fuel Oil contracts are competitively bid. • Energy Use in Facilities – Most facilities have at least rudimentary control for key systems, e.g. time clocks and manual overrides for HVAC and lighting; eleven facilities have more sophisticated, building-wide control systems installed that are accessible from the central office. Temperature range control, increased heating offsets and scheduling control have been implemented at eight of these facilities resulting in $75,000 in savings since July 2006 and an overall district reduction in usage of 5.5%. Three of the eight facilities have shown dramatic improvements in the last five months: Taylor Mill Elementary realized $7,000 in savings with 6% reduction in usage, Simon Kenton H.S. realized $17,000 in savings with 10% reduction in usage, and Dixie H.S. realized $46,000 in savings with 24% reduction in usage. Commissioning of all new construction has been implemented. Post-commissioning of Dixie H.S. phase 2 renovation is directly related to the substantial savings realized at Dixie High School.
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
Executive Summary (continued)
• Equipment Efficiency – Maintenance programs are in place for all hot water and chilled water systems and quarterly filter changes to ensure equipment is operating efficiently. Upgrades have been performed for most of the lighting in the district. Duke Energy’s lighting incentive program is being used to replace remaining T12 lighting and upgrading exit signs. • Organization Integration – An individual has been assigned day-to-day responsibility for energy management, which is a primary accountability. NEED Energy Teams have been established in two schools. Baseline Energy Use KCSD’s energy mix is approximately 63% electric and 37% natural gas/propane/fuel oil. A breakdown of energy use and cost across the District for the 2006 school year is shown in the “Baseline Energy Use” map of Appendix 2. Appendices 3 and 4 contain rankings of each type of facility by Energy Use per SF and by Energy Cost per SF, respectively. Appendices 5 & 6 contain (respectively) Electric and Gas usage and cost data per SF. Actions The assessment also identified the following ACTIONS, which, if taken, can move the District to the next higher performance level. These actions are addressed in this Sustainable Energy Plan under the following categories. Process Improvement: • Rate optimization review process for electric and natural gas • Adopt energy metrics, set performance targets, and create Energy Report Cards • Adopt standards for temperature ranges, schedules, and operating
parameters for HVAC systems
Program Implementation: • Energy Awareness Program • Program to perform energy audits • Preventative Maintenance Program Projects: • Energy Management Systems Upgrade and Vykon Energy Suite Project • Standards for New Buildings and Renovations
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
Executive Summary (continued)
Savings Estimate The total estimated energy usage reduction potential is then 20% annually or $723,000, which will offset the 20% electric rate increase and yield savings of $225,000 or 9% of 2005-2006 energy expenditures arising from • 5% District wide reduction from process improvements • 10% District wide reduction and 15% reduction in targeted schools from program implementation • 10% reduction in targeted schools from projects. Goals & Measures The goals of the Sustainable Energy Plan are as follows: • Establish a District wide culture of energy awareness and conservation in all employees and students through education and example. • Decrease the District’s energy consumption by 20%. • Build all new facilities that can be Energy Star Certified by using District design standards.
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
1.
Baseline Energy Use
The Kenton County School District (KCSD) currently has no formal Energy/Utility Management Program in place. In the 2006 school year, The Kenton County School District had a baseline energy cost of approximately $2.5 million or $192.00 per student. Duke Energy has announced a 20% increase in electric rates beginning in January 2007. This will increase total energy costs by an estimated $360,000 annually. The KCSD has established a comprehensive program for collecting and analyzing monthly energy billing information, utilizing a desktop software program. This effort has produced a comprehensive database of facility, usage and cost information that is available for use in monitoring excessive variations, identifying and recovering billing errors, and targeting facilities for follow-up evaluation. According the 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, Energy Information Administration, KCSD’s average usage per square foot, 82.8 kBtu is slightly better than the national average for educational buildings, 83.1 kBtu. KCSD’s energy mix is approximately 63% electric and 37% natural gas/propane/fuel oil. A breakdown of energy use and cost across the District for the 2006 school year is shown in the “Baseline Energy Use” map of Appendix 2. Appendices 3 and 4 contain rankings of each type of facility by Energy Use per SF and by Energy Cost per SF, respectively. Appendices 5 & 6 contain (respectively) Electric and Gas usage and cost data per SF. The KCSD has not compiled data for energy usage by key system or equipment. Data from the Energy Design Guidelines for High Performance Schools, U.S. DOE, 2002 indicates that for educational facilities, the following end-use energy usage percentages can be used in initial cost and savings estimates. Cooling: Lighting: Heating: Hot Water: Misc.: 30% 30% 23% 10% 7%
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan As shown in Appendix 3, Energy Use per SF shows a wide variation within each facility type as summarized in this table. Energy Use per SF (kBTU/SF) Low Average High 38.51 73.21 107.81 53.29 69.95 83.36 101.00 107.62 112.53
Elementary Schools Middle Schools High Schools
Comparing each school’s energy usage per SF to the average value for their respective group allows an estimation of potential savings to be achieved by improving each school’s energy usage to at least the average value for the group. This review identified the following schools as using more than the average kBTU per SF for their respective group: • Elementary Schools: Taylor Mill, Kenton, Beechgrove, Piner • Middle Schools: Summit View Campus • High Schools: Scott, Simon Kenton These schools should be prioritized for energy audits to determine the causes for and remedies of their higher than average energy use.
2.
Planned Actions & Projects
The SEP Performance Scorecard, Appendix 1, reveals the processes, programs and projects that should be undertaken to drive the District’s energy management performance to the next higher level. These actions, encompassing each of the five focus areas: energy information, energy supply, facilities operations, systems & equipment, and business integration; can be grouped into the following three categories. 2.1 Process Improvement:
• Implement an annual rate optimization review process to compare the various tariff rates for electric and natural gas at each facility to ensure lowest available rates are utilized. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 01/2007 • Adopt specific energy use and cost metrics and utilize comparison and benchmarking to set performance targets for each facility. Establish a process and schedule whereby Energy Report Cards are distributed to the Superintendent and school Principals for review. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 03/2007
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan • Adopt standard temperature ranges, schedules, and operating parameters for use in all HVAC systems with Energy Management Systems. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 03/2007 2.2 Program Implementation:
• Establish an “Energy Awareness Program” to promote a sense of responsibility and aligned action among all District students, teachers, staff, and administrators. Implement student NEED “Energy Teams” for each school to promote energy management and education. Implement Energy Management Programs for each school in the District which recognizes energy as a controllable operating expense and a performance responsibility of accountable administrators and staff and reward schools based on performance. Reflect responsibility for controlling energy usage and cost in employee job descriptions and vendor contracts. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 01/2008 • Implement a program to perform energy audits and system evaluations of facilities found to have higher than normal usage and cost; identify reduction opportunities based on the results of audits and system evaluations. Usage and cost reduction opportunities should be comprehensively identified based on the results of facility audits and system evaluations. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 06/2007 Establish a preventative maintenance program for mechanical equipment and associated controls to increase/maintain equipment efficiency, controlling energy usage and cost. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: 06/2007 Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Projects:
•
2.3
• Energy Management Systems Upgrade and Vykon Energy Suite Project Upgrading the existing Energy Management Systems at seven schools from Signal graphics with modem connections to a centralized Niagara Web based system will improve monitoring and control capability of installed control systems for HVAC equipment. The Niagara Web based system is currently implemented in five schools and is directly related to significant energy savings at Dixie and Simon Kenton High Schools. Vykon Energy Suite software works with Niagara to provide comprehensive data and reporting capabilities to analyze consumption
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan and demand and perform statistical analysis on buildings, equipment, and energy. The Vykon Energy Suite will be implemented for twelve schools in conjunction with the Niagara Web upgrade. Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: TBD • Standards for new buildings and renovations Create District guidelines for High Performance/Green Design for use in the design and construction of all new building and renovation projects enabling the facility to earn Energy Star Certification. Energy efficient equipment and design can reduce energy costs up to 50% or more as demonstrated by Caywood Elementary energy usage data (appendix 8). Assigned to: Energy Systems Coordinator Completion: TBD
Facilities Director/Architect
3.
Savings Opportunity Assessment
3.1 In general, process improvements are quicker and more straightforward to implement with lower costs; typically they can be expected to generate a reduction in usage on the order of 1 to 2% annually. The District has already implemented a program for collecting and analyzing monthly energy billing information, and compiled a comprehensive database of facility, usage, and cost information. The Scorecard identifies additional process improvement opportunities. • Rate optimization review process for electric and natural gas to identify potential savings. • Standardize energy metrics and establish a process for regular review of facility report cards. • Adoption of standard temperature ranges, schedules, and operating parameters for use in all HVAC systems with Energy Management Systems is projected to reduce consumption by 5% or more annually. These initiatives can yield a reduction in energy consumption of 5% or more. 3.2 In general, programs take longer to implement with moderate costs; typically they can be expected to generate reduction in usage on the order of 5 – 10% annually. The District has been utilizing Duke Energy’s lighting incentive rebate program to upgrade existing exit signs and lighting. The Scorecard identifies additional program implementation opportunities. • An Energy Awareness program is projected to yield a reduction in usage of 5% per year. • Energy Audits and subsequent implementation of recommendations in higher than average use facilities could yield 5 - 10% reduction in energy usage. • Implementing a preventative maintenance program is projected to generate a reduction in energy usage of mechanical systems by 5%.
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan In aggregate, these initiatives are projected to yield energy consumption reductions of 10 – 15%. 3.3 In general, capital projects to upgrade equipment and facilities are the most costly to implement and entail detailed planning; however, such projects can be expected to generate the largest reduction in usage, typically of the order of 10 – 20 %. • Upgrading the existing Energy Management Systems combined with the addition of Vykon Energy Suite would generate a usage reduction of 10% in applicable schools. • Standards for new construction and renovations could result in energy reduction up to 50% in new buildings. The total estimated energy usage reduction potential is then 20% annually or $723,000, which will offset the 20% electric rate increase and yield savings of $225,000 or 9% of 2005-2006 energy expenditures.
4.
Financial Assessment
The financial assessment including estimated costs, projected savings and payback figures is currently under development.
5.
Goals and Measures
5.1 The KCSD has established these goals: • Establish a District wide culture of energy awareness and conservation in all employees and students through education and example. • Build all new facilities that can be Energy Star Certified by using District design standards. • Decrease the District’s energy consumption by 20% which will offset the 20% electric rate increase and yield a $225,000 or 9% savings in annual energy expenditures. 5.2 The KCSD will track progress in the implementation of the Sustainable Energy Plan with the following metrics. • Total Energy Cost for the District and for each facility. • Electric Usage, Cost and Unit Cost for the District and for each facility. • Gas Usage, Cost and Unit Cost for the District and for each facility. • Total Energy Usage for each facility. Trend graphs if these metrics will be plotted each quarter through the school/fiscal year. Facilities will be grouped by similar type and rank ordered annually on the basis of these metrics.
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The Kenton County School District
Sustainable Energy Plan
6.
Budget
The budget for the above planned actions and projects is currently under development.
7.
Creating an Energy Mandate
Improved energy and cost management must become a vital initiative and an integral part of the District sustainable plan. Without an adverse impact on the learning environment, energy must be recognized as a controllable operating expense wherein savings are available for education and other critical areas of need. All members of the KCSD community: students, teachers, administrators and staff, have important roles to play in a successful energy management program. Of particular importance is the role of the Principal, who communicates the priority of energy management to everyone on-site. An Energy Mandate for the Kenton County School District has been developed and is proposed as an integral part of this Sustainable Energy Plan.
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