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Escondido Union School District Granted $597,659 for Prop 39 Energy Efficiency Upgrade Project

On June 5, Escondido Union School District became the first of San Diego County’s 42 school districts to have its California Clean Energy Jobs Act (Proposition 39) Energy Expenditure Plan approved by the California Energy Commission. Escondido Union School District will receive $597,659 to install new thermostats to reduce the energy consumption of their packaged single-zone heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) units. The thermostat upgrades will result in net annual energy savings of 520,093 kilowatt hours (kWh) and annual cost savings of $118,568.

New thermostats will be wirelessly integrated into a centralized energy management system and run on a programmed schedule that will automatically shut down HVAC systems during school holidays and scheduled vacant periods, thus eliminating excess HVAC consumption.

The district plans to implement these energy efficiency upgrades at six elementary and middle school campuses in their district: Central, Miller, L.R. Green, Del Dios, Felicita, and Hidden Valley. The project is planned for completion over the 2014 summer break.

“We are excited about conserving energy and looking forward to developing even more projects,” said Michael Taylor, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services for Escondido Union School District.

For the 2013/14 school year, the California Department of Education has allocated a total of $29 million in Prop. 39 funds to San Diego’s 42 school districts and charter schools. $11 million has already been made available to school districts for planning expenditures, which include the hiring of Energy Managers and completion of facility audits. $18 million will be distributed upon approval of Energy Expenditure Plans, of which Escondido Union School District is the first.

Statewide, the Energy Commission has received a total of 68 Prop. 39 Energy Expenditure Plans, of which Escondido Union School District becomes the fifteenth approved to date.

In an effort to help San Diego schools gain maximum benefit from Prop. 39 funds, CleanTECH San Diego and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) organized the San Diego K-12 Schools Sustainability Strategy Collaborative in June 2013 to expedite the process and foster the sharing of energy efficiency and clean energy best practices.

“I am delighted that Escondido Union School District has been able to leverage all of the tools and templates that we have shared with the school districts to simplify the Prop. 39 process,” said CleanTECH San Diego’s Greening San Diego Manager Marty Turock who leads the San Diego K-12 Schools Sustainability Strategy Collaborative. “Most notably, Escondido Union School District has been able to utilize SDG&E’s new Energy Assessment and Solutions Program to complete the energy audits for their 23 schools which has saved them an estimated $200,000 in outside auditing costs that will now be applied directly toward additional energy saving projects.”