SPENCER, MA – October 5, 2020 - Energy Management Services (EMS), defined in section three of M.G.L. 25A, Energy Savings Performance Contracting or "ESPC" is an innovative financing technique that uses energy savings from the building owner's existing operating budget to repay the cost of energy efficient equipment and related facility improvements known as Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs).
ECMs include lighting, controls, boilers, building envelope improvements, etc. Building owners make no upfront investment but rather use the energy savings created by the ECMs to fully fund the project over a term that may extend to 20 years. All energy savings are guaranteed annually to meet or exceed project costs.
If a shortfall in savings occurs, the ESCO issues a check for the difference and they make any necessary additional improvements to ensure that future savings are realized. All savings in
excess of the guaranteed savings remain 100% with the building owner.
Back in 2018, Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District (SEBRSD) were experiencing ongoing issues with the school boilers, outdated controls and other building systems. “The boilers, controls, and systems had run their course and surpassed their useful life,” said Superintendent of Schools, Paul Haughey. The district spoke to other school districts and learned how Energy Savings Performance Contracting helped them upgrade their systems to modern energy efficient systems using energy savings and utility rebates. SEBRSD issued a Request for Qualification using the Massachusetts DOER template documents, solicited ESCOs and chose Siemens to partner with based on their references and local team.
Siemens audited the schools and admin building to come up with a variety of ECMs to improve, including LED lighting and IoT Enlighted controls, building automation standardization, weatherization measures, plug load controls, kitchen hood controls, walk-in cooler controls, new condensing boilers, pumps and domestic hot water among other things.
Siemens is now working with the school district to implement a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) offering to assist with their curriculum. Preliminary plans are to offer middle school students an energy auditing course and high school students a course using the new Enlighted IoT platform.
“Energy saving technologies continue to evolve and the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District will continue to work with Siemens.” added Haughey. “Our goal is to find future energy saving opportunities and renewable technologies to provide a better, safer, cleaner, reliable learning environment for the students, staff and visitors to these schools. “ @MASchoolsK12@MASCSchoolComm @Mass_SBA @Siemens