Schools turn to performance contracting for help

Engineered Systems, March, 2001 by Joanna R. Turpin

But Fortier's been happy with his performance contracts so fur. The school district has conducted two pilot programs under performance contracts: One set of four buildings was lighting only and the other set of four buildings was for comprehensive services, which included lighting as well as mechanical retrofits. The successful pilots led to Phase II, which included 22 buildings obtaining new lighting under performance contracting. A third phase is scheduled to get underway soon.

WHAT SCHOOLS SHOULD LOOK FOR

Even though a performance contract provider usually acts as a one-stop shop, the school district should still do the research necessary to determine if the provider is reliable. As Fortier notes, references are extremely important, as well as how a provider structures the energy savings a school can expect to see.

John Longo, of South Brunswick (NJ) Public Schools, says that the major factor in choosing a provider is trust. "You have to trust and be honest, candid, and careful with whomever you select as consultant."

"Beyond that, look at the provider's team. When performance contracting first started many years ago, a lot of the firms doing it had a lot of their own people in terms of their own fitters and technicians and people who actually did the work. Now it's mostly subcontracting, so you have to look hard at the project management team. Some performance contractors will deliver a proposal that identifies the project team as consisting of an attorney and a clerk. Work doesn't get done properly just because a contractor writes a contract for a subcontractor," says Fortier.

Longo has been involved in several performance contracts over the last eight years. The first involved an elementary school, in which all the ballasts and light tubes were replaced and all the fixtures were cleaned. The project cost about $50,000 and was paid off in less than three years.

"By reducing the wattage and not sacrificing the lighting quality, we have been able to hold the line for energy for the past four years. We have been able to budget the same amount each year in the energy code and apply the savings to pay off the loans. All of this has been done via our [performance contract] consultants," says Longo.

After the success at the elementary school, they decided to complete the rest of the buildings that would benefit from this kind of retrofit. This included the high school, middle school, elementary schools, and the administration building, for a total of nine buildings. There was an immediate savings in electricity, because the district changed from the old standard fixtures to those containing T8 tubes and reducing the number of tubes per fixture.

The last performance contract Longo was involved in included changing over from electric resistance heat to hot water boiler units at two elementary schools. This program has a 10-year payback with no upfront costs from the taxpayers. "We have been paying for the project from the savings Out of our energy account and once again have not increased the amount of money budgeted for electricity and natural gas for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning," says Longo.