School Districts Improve Efficiency, Reduce Costs with Energy Management Platform

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Several school systems and a Florida community are implementing an energy conservation platform to help them become more efficient as well as help to reduce costs.

Twin Rivers Unified School District in California, Sarasota County Schools in Florida, Kean University in New Jersey and the City of Clearwater, Florida, recently partnered with Cenergistic to use the company’s smart energy efficiency tools. The energy conservation platform will help the entities with building and equipment optimization.

Cenergistic says its conservation program has been shown to help organizations reduce their energy consumption by more than 24%. Improving energy efficiency continues to be a priority of many businesses and groups, and a recent survey from Johnson Controls showed 62% expect to increase investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy or smart building technology in 2022.

Twin Rivers is using the system to monitor every building’s energy load throughout the district in real time to optimize energy use. The school district also has one of the nation’s largest fleets of zero emission electric buses, with 40 of the vehicles, as well as 37 compressed natural gas buses as it strives to create what it calls a sustainable school district.

Clearwater says it will use the platform to aid with the goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The program will also help with reducing electric, water and natural gas consumption.

The city has significant sustainability goals, including a 20% reduction in energy use in city buildings by 2030, as well as receiving 20% of electricity from renewable sources by that year. By 2050 Clearwater aims to have 90% of its existing municipal buildings complete energy efficiency improvements in addition to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% based on 2007 levels.

Sarasota County Schools and Kean University are using Cenergistic’s software system and onsite energy insights to identify operational deficiencies to help prevent energy waste.

Energy management projects are common within schools and governments. In Arkansas, for example, similar public energy efficiency efforts have saved $229 million since 2010. Schools in Pennsylvania, Missouri and Virginia have also tackled energy projects with solar installations, lighting improvements and HVAC system upgrades, among other improvements.

Cenergistic says it has partnered with more than 1,500 organizations since 1986 which has helped achieve $6.3 billion in utility savings.