Eastern Connecticut towns rein in energy bills
By JULIE A. VARUGHESE
Norwich Bulletin

July 31, 2007

In rural Salem, the rising cost of utilities has put a $100,000 tennis court project on hold.

And that is just the beginning of cuts to capital projects if energy expenses continue to soar.

"It's getting more and more difficult to absorb all of the increases," First Selectman Larry Reitz said about the 5 percent and 7 percent increases in the last two fiscal years.

If the trend continues, Reitz said services at Town Hall, the public library and other places would be reduced.

With double-digit utility-rate increases across the state, municipalities and public school districts either have had to absorb the increases, cut programs and services or increase their budgets.

The result: contentious budget seasons that have dragged on into the new fiscal year in several towns, including Colchester, Lisbon and Thompson.

William Leahy, director of The Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, said school energy use makes up 80 percent of total use in towns.

And the older the school buildings in a town, the less energy efficient they are.

Aging schools

A 2006 study conducted by Leahy's organization shows 68 percent of the 1,026 schools in the state were built between 1950 and 1978; 90 percent were built before 1978.

The study also revealed energy costs for the 2005-06 school year increased more than 35 percent for Connecticut schools.

Renovating these old school buildings can reverse the problem and lower use and bills, he said.

Constructing new sustainable buildings also can help lower costs, Leahy said, even if the up-front cost is steep.

"One of the problems we have, we don't connect the budget for the new school," Leahy said. "They don't think so much how much it's going to cost to run that new school year-to-year."

Towns can also benefit from energy rebates from constructing new buildings.

Greg Plunkett, director of facilities and operations for Colchester and its school system, said monetary savings are difficult to determine for the 2006 construction of Colchester Elementary School, which was built as an additional school building, not a replacement for an older facility. There are no numbers to compare energy use to because it did not replace an old building. Meanwhile, Colchester taxpayers rejected the third 2007-08 budget proposal this week.

An energy conservation task force the selectmen created this year is looking into ways to save the town money on energy costs. The group has put out a request for qualifications to find a company that can put together a proposal to upgrade the heating and energy system.

Steve Wells, a Colchester-based electrical engineer and certified energy manager who volunteers as the task force's chairman, projected the savings generated by the task force's efforts would total more than the amount that has been cut from the 2007-08 budget proposals.

Resident Ellen Sharon said she was excited to hear about the task force's creation, in light of the 16 percent projected increase in energy costs for the town in 2007-08.

"I think it's going to take some out-of-the-box thinking and re-thinking," Sharon said. "We're all wrestling with it from two standpoints: We also all are dealing with the same energy increases in our homes."

Griswold project

In Griswold, voters approved a $70 million project to build a new elementary school and renovate and expand the middle school.

Longtime resident Ina Macko said one of the reasons she voted for the project was because the buildings would be more energy efficient.

"I'm an old Yankee who always shuts off her lights," said Macko, who does the same thing even when she's hanging out at the senior center.

Sometimes, energy savings simply boil down to how schools operate.

"I go into a lot of schools where they don't turn things off, they don't use motion sensors, they don't turn down the heat at night," Leahy said.

He said training school maintenance personnel to manage heating equipment can save money because routine checkups catch small problems that cause inefficiencies.

Many schools, he said, outsource equipment maintenance, which happens about once a year.

Putnam Superintendent Margo Marvin said motion sensors were installed in each classroom in the district's three schools. Computer software constantly monitors energy use in the buildings. This summer, light fixtures were retrofitted as well.

She said Putnam participates in a consortium of school districts that freezes electric rates for a three-year period.

"Costs keep going up anyway," Marvin said, "but they go up in smaller increments when you do some things to economize."