As public education faces turbulent times, Kentucky school districts have generated at least one bright spot, according to speakers at the opening session of KSBA’s School Energy Summit in Lexington April 16-17.
Largely through the work of local schools, Kentucky has become a national leader in improving the energy efficiency of school buildings.
State Rep. Rocky Adkins of Sandy Hook, who began the push for energy improvements 14 years ago, lauded districts for their leadership as he addressed attendees. “You all have implanted something that is unique and innovative, that has saved school districts millions upon millions upon millions of dollars of energy costs that can go back into the classroom and help these children and public school teachers,” said Adkins, the House minority floor leader.
Carolyn Snyder of the U.S. EPA said improving energy efficiency is ongoing.
Carolyn Snyder, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division, which works with Kentucky schools through the EPA’s Energy Star program, echoed that assessment for summit attendees.
“We hold out Kentucky as a true national leader, a national model when it comes to demonstrating success for delivering impressive statewide results,” said Snyder. Since 2010, Kentucky schools have saved $170 million on energy bills and “those savings have stayed in school districts,” she said.
Adkins, Snyder and Drew Fellon, business leader for Trane Energy Supply Services, one of KSBA’s partners in energy conservation efforts, all spoke during the opening session.
KSBA was an early supporter of energy-efficiency efforts, with its School Energy Managers Project spearheading the efforts. School districts also got involved and created partnerships with local utilities, national agencies like the EPA, and suppliers like Trane.
Today, said Snyder, 80 percent of Kentucky school districts participate in Energy Star, and Kentucky is ranked sixth among states in number of Energy Star-accredited school buildings.
“When we started this, said Adkins, “we had six school buildings that were Energy Star. Know what we have today? Four hundred forty-one buildings.”
That places about 35 percent of the school buildings in Kentucky certified among top energy performers, according to Snyder.
Snyder gave other examples that illustrate Kentucky schools’ leadership in energy efficient school buildings.
Their best practices are being shared with other states through the combined efforts of the EPA and National Association of State Energy Officials. They continue to receive national recognition (see this month’s Take Note) For the past several years, Kentucky high school students have taught business leaders what they know during an Energy Star gathering in Washington, D.C. “The student interns explain to energy managers from Fortune 500 companies how the student has solved energy management problems in real buildings,” said Snyder.
Adkins, too, described how work at the school level has made impressive differences, with innovation and research improving new buildings and retrofitting old ones. “We saw districts within their own schools start to have committees of students and teachers and other folks,” he said.
He pointed out that while the legislation that got the movement going, Kentucky’s Energy Independence National Leadership Act, was originally aimed at supporting coal gasification, it became a much broader effort because sectors including agriculture, higher education and school districts wanted to be involved. “You carried out the mission and the objective of this legislation,” said Adkins. “You put a lot of things in writing folks, but to actually implement it and put the game plan in action is another thing. And you all have done that.”
Snyder reminded school energy managers and leaders that improving energy efficiency is ongoing and that they must continue to use partnerships, mentoring and innovation at the school level to further improve. For example, in late August, Energy Star will update the measures used for its certification.
Because buildings in the U.S. are more energy-efficient, scores on Energy Star certification will go down. For school buildings, the decrease is expected to be about 13 points. Snyder encouraged schools to use the scoring change as motivation to find new and additional ways to improve energy management.
Fellon provided an overview of energy markets in Kentucky. Trane works with a number of school districts through its gas aggregation program, which has saved those districts $640,000, according to Fellon.
He said that Kentucky’s energy picture is changing as Kentucky’s coal-fired generation continues to be replaced by natural gas and renewable resources like wind and solar. Natural gas prices have gone down, but Fellon said there will be volatility in costs, because it is a worldwide commodity.
Kentucky has ample electrical generation as well as natural gas supply and transmission, Fellon said. And, because it has more varied access now, the state’s natural gas supply is not impacted by hurricanes or other problems that affect production in the Gulf of Mexico.