D-11 digs savings on energy costs

In the mid-'90s, Colorado Springs School District implemented its first energy policy, hired an energy manager and began looking for low-cost or no-cost ways to save energy.

Has the program been successful? Consider this: In the past decade, the district has saved an estimated $7 million on utility costs by taking the simple step of turning down the heat and turning off the lights when school is out.

But the district's efforts go beyond basic conservation measures and into the realm of alternative energy, with projects that rely on solar power and a technology that uses the earth's own consistent temperature to save energy and money.

The district's 12-year energy-saving program has resulted in numerous energy awards from entities that include the Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado Springs Utilities and the Association of Energy Engineers.

And other school districts have shown interest in D-11's projects, said Thomas Fernandez, D-11's energy manager.

One of the biggest cost-savers has been an automated control system that tracks all energy systems and activities in the district's 70 buildings, which reduced energy use by 25 percent, Fernandez said.

"We're switching things off that were running all the time," he said.

For example, if the district has a snow day, a technician can access the master calendar and keep the heat and lights from ramping up as they would on a normal school day.

"You can imagine with 70 buildings the savings in just one day are significant," Fernandez said.

D-11 now has a comprehensive map of each building showing every utility system, including thermostats that can be manually changed.

That means that if extracurricular activities are going on in one wing in the evening, the lights and heat in other parts of the building can be turned down without interfering with the activity.

The system encourages building managers and principals to keep activities in portions of the building that are heated by one boiler, rather than requiring several heating systems to remain turned up after hours.

Most of the district's utilities are now on a master schedule, and nobody has to regularly flip any switches. The heat or air conditioning begins to come up just before school starts so the classrooms are comfortable when students arrive.

Another tactic implemented early in the program: conducting regular checks for billing errors - a practice that has helped the district recover $250,000 in erroneous billings, Fernandez said.

Such errors have decreased as the district has stayed on top of replacing meters and keeping closer track of its data, he said.

The district also spent $2.5 million to replace old lighting fixtures with energy- efficient ones, and it keeps a tight watch on system maintenance to keep things running as efficiently as possible.

Its alternative-energy projects include photovoltaic panels recently installed on the Facilities, Operations and Transportation Center to generate electricity. The solar-energy project was funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the governor's office and $92,000 in rebates from Colorado Springs Utilities, cutting the district's cost in half, Fernandez said.

"This really is a pilot project for us," he said. "We'll be able to learn about reliability, maintenance and so forth. We will be prepared for when the cost of these systems comes down."

If the system generates excess electricity, the district can sell it back to the utilities department.

The district also has six buildings with GeoExchange systems for heating and cooling.

These systems use the earth's naturally constant temperature to heat or cool water that, in turn, is used to heat or cool the buildings.

Fernandez said people who work where GeoExchange systems are in place report that the buildings are more comfortable and the heating is more consistent than with other systems.

The more difficult part of the program has been changing the behavior of those who "don't have to pay the utility bill," Fernandez said. To help with that, the district gives a portion of energy savings back to schools that have helped keep costs down.

Fernandez said the district pushed hard to ensure that its two newest schools, McAuliffe and Freedom elementaries, were built as "sustainable, high-performance buildings."

"The traditional architect-down approach, where the architect is in charge, doesn't lead to energy efficiency," he said. So the district set specific energy parameters for the two schools and insisted that the architecture stem from those requirements.

Such energy-efficient mandates will continue, he said, as utility costs rise and budgets shrink.

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Contact the Writer: 636-0251 or sue.mcmillin@gazette.com  

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Details of Colorado Springs School District 11's energy management program can be viewed at: www.d11.org/fotc/energy/