Education
At LEGACY Energy Solutions, we understand the challenges faced by school districts, colleges and universities as a result of escalating energy costs.
Educational institutions are often self-contained communities, incorporating office buildings, restaurants, retail shops, residences, sports facilities and classrooms. Their ability to successfully control energy costs is impacted by energy markets, aging infrastructures and equipment. Budget constraints often limit the ability to invest is in upgrades, resulting in a Catch-22 scenario as energy costs continue to rise.
An Education on Energy
In 2001, schools budgeted $7 billion for energy, but spent $8 billion.1 The National Center for Education Statistics reports that energy costs per student have been rising at more than six times the rate of inflation. Volatile energy prices make budgeting for these expenses extremely difficult and, because budget uncertainty puts these institutions at risk, managing that uncertainty has become a priority.
Many schools and universities have found that the biggest challenge to implementing an effective energy management program is not technical, but administrative. By examining all the factors — existing practices, philosophy, assumptions, technologies, costs and desired outcomes — you can develop a well-defined energy policy and strategy to achieve your energy-related goals.
Building the Foundation
Many schools realize that to better control their energy costs and usage, they must focus on increasing their facilities’ energy efficiency and limiting their price volatility exposure. LEGACY can help you compile and organize your utility data, prioritize energy-efficiency and conservation initiatives, and give you the tools you need to measure the impact of those efforts.
While you may experience immediate benefits from ensuring that all meters have optimal pricing and contract terms, LEGACY can help you save energy in other ways that cost little or no money. Clients have realized significant savings through behavioral modification, equipment retrofits and upgrades, and building automation system improvements. We can also help you find publicly available funding mechanisms that may help reduce the initial impact of your investment.
Record-high energy prices and the market’s extreme volatility have made energy cost risk management a crucial component of a successful energy management program. You must be able to quantify and manage energy cost risk in order to forecast and budget accurately. For most educational institutions, energy risk management is unexplored territory.
LEGACY has the experienced professionals and sophisticated tools to effectively analyze the multitude of variables that may impact your financial objectives. Our expertise enables us to provide you with the procurement and risk-management capabilities and recommendations that were once available to only the very largest
organizations.
Gain Control
LEGACY offers a complete suite of solutions designed to help you achieve energy-efficiency and conservation measures. These include Utility Bill Verification, Energy Risk Management and Energy Procurement. Plus, our team is prepared to assist you in sustainable design development, central heating and cooling efforts, and thermal systems upgrades.
To measure and verify the success of your initiatives, we offer POWERVIEWS™, LEGACY’s proprietary, state-of-the-art, Web-based data platform. Users can log in 24/7 to view, analyze and understand your actual utility data for each meter from all of your electricity and natural gas providers. This platform has a user-friendly format, so you can easily obtain the information you need to develop budgets, benchmark key metrics, and monitor consumption and expense trends. In addition, POWERVIEWS™ meets the reporting and data accessibility requirements stipulated in Texas House Bill 3693.
Few can match LEGACY in experience, solutions, and personal service in developing a comprehensive energy management program to assist educational institutions in controlling their energy usage and costs.