Bradford County chooses company to make county's buildings more energy-efficient

TOWANDA - Facing energy costs that are "going through the roof," the Bradford County commissioners on Thursday selected a Harrisburg-area company to undertake a large-scale project to make the buildings owned by the county more energy-efficient.

Under the state Guaranteed Energy Savings Program, the selected company - Johnson Controls Inc. of New Cumberland, Pa. - must guarantee that the project will pay for itself within 15 years, said Stephen Gates, a member of the Bradford County Energy Management Committee.

The exact measures that will be undertaken have yet to be determined, but Johnson Controls has proposed many measures at each of the county's buildings to save the county money, such as using hot water from the NTWSA landfill's methane-fueled generator to heat the county jail and the Bradford County Manor; installing automated lighting controls and automated controls for boilers and chillers in county buildings; and installing storm windows on the inside of the windows in the county courthouse, Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith said.

Among the many other components of the project that may be done are to replace boilers in the Bradford County Manor and county courthouse, which are more than 50 years old, and to install insulation in the courthouse dome, which currently has none, he said.

"We know our energy costs are going through the roof," Gates said in a presentation on the project that he gave at Thursday's meeting of the Bradford County commissioners. "Our (energy) equipment is old and we know it is going to have to be replaced. This is a no-lose situation - a no-brainer - and is something our county really has to do."

Under the provisions of the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act of 1998, the county will borrow the money to pay for the upgrades and will pay off the loan within 15 years using the savings it achieves in its utility bills, said Bradford County Fiscal Director Joan Sanderson and Smith.

"This project has needed to be done for a long time," Smith said. "This is the best way to do it, in an affordable manner, and at no cost to the taxpayers."

Because the project will not be paid for using taxpayer money, the county will aim to make it as extensive as possible, Smith said.

"We found that energy costs are a big-ticket item for the county," Gates said in his presentation.

In 2007, the county spent a total of $447,500 on electricity and natural gas for six county-owned buildings, namely the Bradford County Manor, the courthouse annex, the county's 911 center, the Bradford County jail, the Bradford County Library, and the Bradford County Manor, said Gates.

In 2008, the cost of providing electricity and natural gas for those buildings increased by 15 percent, to $516,873, he said.

In addition to the additional 10 to 12 percent increase in the cost of electricity that is expected in Pennsylvania this year, rate caps will come off the price of electricity at the end of 2010, which is expected to increase the price of electricity by another 18 to 35 percent, he said.

"Our facilities are old, but they have been well-maintained," said Gates, who is the controller at the Bradford County Manor. "The (energy) equipment and systems in the buildings are very inefficient."

One benefit of the project is that it will reduce the county's contribution to global warming, or "carbon footprint," he said.

State regulation

Guaranteed-energy savings programs, such as the one that the county will be undertaking, are regulated by Pennsylvania's Guaranteed Energy Savings Act of 1998, Smith said.

Under the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act, the total cost of the energy-saving project that the county plans to undertake - including the upgrades, the financing costs, and Johnson Controls' fees - must pay for itself within 15 years through reduced utility bills, said Bradford County Fiscal Director Joan Sanderson.

Companies that perform guaranteed energy-savings projects must register with the state, and the projects they undertake are monitored by the state, Gates said.

The state also requires that a company such as Johnson Controls guarantee the savings that the overall project will achieve, and that the if the savings fail to materialize within 15 years, Johnson would have to make up the difference, Gates said.

So if, for example, Johnson projected that Bradford County's project would achieve $1 million in savings over 15 years, but it only yielded $900,000 in savings, Johnson would have to write a check to the county for $100,000, he said.

Last year, the county commissioners set up the county's Energy Management Committee, which was charged with deciding whether a guaranteed energy savings project would be appropriate for the county, and, if so, finding a company to undertake the energy savings project, Gates said.

The members of the committee - Smith, Bradford County Maintenance Director Kim Corbett, Bradford County Planning Director Ray Stolinas, Bradford County Maintenance Supervisor John Hurlburt and Gates - determined that the project needed to be done, he said.

Three months ago, the committee sent out letters to all the companies that are registered with the state to do guaranteed energy-savings projects, inviting them to participate in Bradford County's project, he said.

Five of the companies responded with a letter of interest, and the Energy Management Committee selected three of them to submit comprehensive proposals to the county, which would contain the work they wished to undertake, their estimated cost of the project, the savings they thought they could achieve, Gates said.

The three companies - Honeywell Building Solutions of Wilkes-Barre, Building Control & Services Inc. of Tonawanda, N.Y., and Johnson Controls - each went on a walkthrough of the county's buildings in order to prepare their proposals, Gates said.

The committee investigated the financial stability of the three companies and checked their references, and met 10 times to evaluate the proposals and interview representatives of the companies, Gates said.

"It was the belief of the committee that all three of these companies could do the work," Gates said. "Johnson Controls' proposal showed the largest savings, but also the largest scope of work."

Johnson Controls' proposal was also "extremely comprehensive," he said.

In addition, unlike Honeywell, Johnson Controls will guarantee that it will pay any money it might end up owing the county by purchasing a bond from an insurance company, and that bond is also guaranteed by the federal government, he said.

While Honeywell would set aside any funds it might need to pay the county in an escrow account, Gates said he had no guarantee that Honeywell - like any other company - would be in existence in 15 years.

Johnson Controls will now conduct a much more comprehensive energy audit of the county's buildings, which is expected to take six to eight weeks to complete, said Sanderson.

After the audit is completed, the company will present a list of measures that it is willing to guarantee will provide a savings to the county over 15 years, Gates said.

The county will be able to pick and choose which of the measures on the list it wishes to go forward with, he said.

The county will also have the opportunity to suggest other measures that are not on the company's list, before the list is finalized, he said.

Smith declined to provide information on the estimated cost of the work that Johnson Controls is proposing at this time and the savings that work would achieve, as those numbers are based on preliminary estimates.

The estimated cost and savings for each measure could change significantly as a result of the upcoming audit, and some items could even be removed from the list of projects that the company is willing to do, Sanderson said.

The cost of the project will be made available after the more comprehensive audit is completed, county officials said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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