Maryland Energy Administration

Success Stories

Baltimore City Leverages Energy Service Contracts to Save Energy!

As a result of the ongoing partnership between the Mayor’s Office and Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) to improve school facilities, the City's Energy Conservation Office crafted a plan for BCPSS managers to reduce energy consumption by 25 percent and fund more than $23 million in needed capital improvements via energy performance contracts.

The Baltimore City School board of commissioners recently approved 3 agreements with 3 Energy Service Companies or ESCOs: PEPCO, Johnson Controls and NORESCO. These agreements entail performing Phase I Energy Performance Contracts to perform detailed audit and cost estimates to implement energy savings measures at 76 Baltimore City schools and central headquarters, covering about 6.3 million square feet.

Based on initial evaluation estimates and current utility cost of about $8.6 million for the seventy six schools, the district anticipates reducing the energy consumption at these schools by about $2.2 million (or 25% on average). In accordance with Performance Contracting guidelines, BCPSS plans to implement such energy related improvements at these schools by approving soon to be negotiated Phase II contracts with the three ESCOs at a cost of about $23 million, all paid from the energy savings to be realized by the reduction in energy consumption. Additional savings from avoided maintenance cost are estimated to be around $750,000 annually. This additional annual O&M savings could provide for supplementary improvements of about $11 million.

According to their initial schedule, Baltimore City plans to start implementing these major improvements in the summer of 2006. For more information about the Baltimore City energy management program, contact Hatim Jabaji at (410) 545-6071.

For help in utilizing this type of funding for your own school district contact us!