The district is committed to advancing our energy conservation program for two reasons – to lower our energy costs (which gives us more money to spend on our programs) and to benefit the environment. Since our program began in the fall of 2016, we have eliminated over $2.4 Million from our energy budget over the past 4 fiscal years!
There are 2 major components of our program; the part that most people see and what goes on behind the scenes.
Visibility
We work with staff and students to convey how the “little things” we do have a big impact on energy use and to help us find ways we can all conserve. For example, turning off lights when exiting a room, shutting down computers when not in use, and ensuring that windows and doors are properly closed are just some of the small things that we can do to help conserve energy.
It all comes down to this – we can’t control the weather or the cost of utilities, but we CAN control our behavior. Doing what we can and making smart choices about our energy-using systems can have a big impact.
Behind the Scenes
Utility Bill Monitoring - Ensuring that there are no billing errors has uncovered over $100,000 in cost avoidance over the past 4 years.
Demand Charges - Paying attention to how much energy we are consuming at one time lowers these charges on a monthly basis.
Procurement - Shopping around for a better price for our utilty supplies has reduced our costs by over $200,000 per year!
Demand Response - Paticipation in PJM's program has brought in just under $250,000 in capacity payments to the district.
LGEA - We have traken advantage of NJ Clean Energy's Local Government Energy Audit program. This audit has opened up the door to even more savings through the ESIP program.
ESIP Program
Currently, we are in the construction phase of our Energy savings Improvement Program. (ESIP) This is a $26 million energy efficient constreuction project that provides a net zero cost to the taxpayer because of the savings that are created through the building upgrades. Among the capital improvements we are implementing are:
- New LED lighting throughout all of our buildings
- New and improved insulation
- High efficiency boilers installed in several of our 天美视频s
- New Unit Ventilators in many of our 天美视频s
- Upgraded HVAC controls
- New roofing on most of our 天美视频s
- Over 4MW of solar installation
- Plug Load Controls
- Motions sensors in every 天美视频
- New high efficiency transformers
- and much more!
