Implement

In this section, the State Energy Office will begin implementing the program and make the decisions it needs to successfully run the program.

What staff does the state need to hire to oversee the program?

The number of staff needed to operate the ESPC program depends on the program’s scale and reach. If the program is smaller, the State Energy Office may only need one or two staff to manage it. As it grows, the State Energy Office can hire more staff as needed to ensure that school districts are able to access needed technical assistance.

  • Arkansas contracts with a third-party engineering firm to provide ESPC program technical review. They are overseen by a staff of two State Energy Office employees.
  • New Mexico has a staff of two engineers who oversee the ESPC program in the State Energy Office
  • Virginia utilizes one engineer to run its ESPC program.

How will the State Energy Office communicate the program’s availability to school districts?

State Energy Offices and state Departments of Education can partner together to help educate key school district personnel in the state on the benefits and value of ESPC.

State Departments of Education know the key contacts at the school districts and can make introductions to those contacts, while State Energy Offices provide educational information and support to help school district leaders understand more about ESPC. Strategies to help communicate about the program include:

  1. State Energy Offices helping to develop fact sheets and fliers and can circulate case studies of successful school district ESPC projects to build interest.
  2. State Energy Offices providing in-person and virtual trainings and webinars for key school personnel interested in learning more about ESPC. As part of that outreach, they can invite key school personnel to speak about their experiences and moderate peer-to-peer sharing to build trust in ESPC. Examples:
    • In New Mexico, the State Energy Office promotes the program whenever it gets an opportunity to do so. In the past, it has spoken about the program at school meetings and state conferences. The state also has an annual infrastructure conference that many public building owners attend and the State Energy Office has completed presentations there as well.
    • Virginia offers a yearly ESPC summit to educate key staff interested in learning more about ESPC that focuses on a different sector each year. While the state has not currently done a summit for K-12 school districts, it hopes to make one available for that sector in the future due to high interest from school districts in ESPC.
  3. State Departments of Education helping to identify key champions to provide peer-to-peer sharing on ESPC and their experiences.
    • In Arkansas, one of the first school districts to use the state ESPC program did so because the superintendent was familiar with ESPC due to having used it to finance upgrades to schools in the past. Leveraging the experiences of key champions can help persuade their peers in other school districts to use ESPC to make upgrades to their own schools.
  4. State Departments of Education and State Energy Offices building capacity by offering standardized technical contractor training materials across multiple districts that are subject to the same procurement and facility operation standards.
  5. State Energy Offices compiling template solicitation documents for Local Educational Agencies to hire contractors or ESCOs, reducing the procurement effort required by capacity-constrained agencies.
  6. State Energy Offices administering environmental education programs, including annual teacher workshops and packaged energy management lesson plans to help both K-12 school students and staff adjust their energy consumption behaviors to become conscientious users of energy.