Leadership
Ohio has had enabling legislation for energy savings performance contracting in schools going back to 1985. The state has separate state statutes that cover state buildings, local units of government, universities and K-12 school districts.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission’s Office of Energy Services administers Energy Savings Performance Contracts for state agencies. For universities, the authority is vested to their Board of Trustees. The OFCC performs technical reviews on school projects to ensure the proposed projects will generate the guaranteed savings.
Statutes require the ESCO to warrant and guarantee that the energy conservation measures shall realize guaranteed savings and shall be responsible to pay an amount equal to any savings shortfall.
The length of the contract is conditional or determined by a life-cycle calculation and allows for a scope of work to include all measures that pay for themselves in energy savings alone, operational savings, water savings and the use of renewable energy savings. The statutes also allow for the agency or end-user to retain excess savings in their department budget and requires the ESCO provide a savings guarantee. A reporting requirement calls for the state to receive a copy of the project performance in addition to the end-user.
Program
Ohio has multiple team members with roles that support the state’s GESPC program including a program administrator and an in-house engineer.
The GESPC program administrator participates as the public co-chair of the Ohio ESC Chapter.
The state has standardized documents for RFQs, an evaluation guide, a complete standardized contract set of instruments that must be used for state facilities. These documents have been reviewed and approved by the appropriate legal, finance and procurement authorities in the state and serve as the only terms and conditions for state facility work to proceed. The instruments are posted publicly.
Ohio does not benchmark building energy utilization, but does requires project M&V that cites savings achieved vs guaranteed savings. In addition, the state tracks and maintains a list of all GESPC projects including, when construction was completed, which ESCO did the work, the projected savings, the guaranteed savings amount, and the annuals results from the M&V report for each project.
The state does not have an awards or recognition program nor does it link to another existing federal of state program.
Ohio estimates that projects in excess of $160,000,000 have been implemented in the last three years. During FY 2015 the state completed $57 million in projects. During FY 2014, 30 districts were approved for projects totaling $54,024,527 in construction and renovation work that is expected to result in $3,925,912 in savings each year for the life of the projects. These project totals are in addition to $1,252.683,627 completed prior to 2013.
Successful projects include:
- In 2015, Youngstown State University entered into an energy performance contract that is expected to cut utility costs by at least $2 million annually and will result in $16 million worth of energy improvements for the university.
- Lorain County Joint Vocational School (JVS) entered into an GESPC project in 2013. As part of the comprehensive energy conservation measures Lorain County saves over $314,000 in energy and operational costs annually under the 15-year contract.
- Five years ago, Ohio University entered into a 15-year, $38 million GESPC for 72 buildings on its main campus in Athens. Ohio University used the guaranteed energy savings from the conservation measures to fund the project which were paid for through low-interest bonds from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority.
- Ohio estimates that projects in excess of $160,000,000 have been implemented in the last three years. During FY 2015 the state completed $57 million in projects. During FY 2014, 30 districts were approved for projects totaling $54,024,527 in construction and renovation work that is expected to result in $3,925,912 in savings each year for the life of the projects. These project totals are in addition to $1,252.683,627 completed prior to 2013.
Chapter
The Ohio ESC Chapter has been in existence for less than five years, and is comprised of multiple public and private sector individuals. The Chapter meets from time to time when necessary to work through a program challenge in an effort for constant improvement.