Ameren Missouri is paying the Warren County R-III School District for going green and saving money. The electrical utility this month supplied the district with a check for $50,482 as part of …
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Ameren Missouri is paying the Warren County R-III School District for going green and saving money. The electrical utility this month supplied the district with a check for $50,482 as part of Ameren’s BizSavers incentive program.
Over the last year, the school district has completed a number of energy-efficient upgrades at its schools, reducing long-term electricity costs for both the district and for Ameren. Upgrades included replacing old lights with LED systems that use significantly less electricity, along with improvements to make the schools’ HVAC systems more efficient.
Ameren’s BizSavers program is structured to make such upgrades easier by reimbursing part of their expense, said Richard Wright, Ameren’s manager for energy efficiency and demand response programs. “Not only does this program help make the upfront cost of energy efficient improvements more manageable for our customers, the customer will also see drastically reduced electric bills for many years to come.”
Ameren calculates that the upgrades have reduced electrical use in R-III’s facilities by about 408,000 kilowatt hours — equivalent to the amount of electricity that 38 homes might use in a year. Because of that, the school district will save about $34,000 per year in electrical bills, Ameren estimates.
John Chandler, the R-III district’s director of maintenance, said applying for the reimbursement from Ameren was a no-brainer to help pay for projects that were already going to save the school district money in the long run.
“There’s a huge cost saving in kilowatt hours, but also man hours in replacing (older) ballasts and bulbs. These are 10-year LED lights,” Chandler commented. He added that part of the payment from Ameren was actually an extra incentive for getting a set amount of light replacements done before the end of this year.
The HVAC projects that earned reimbursement were system upgrades at the high school and Daniel Boone Elementary, Chandler said, while the lighting projects were to install LEDs at all the district’s ‘outbuilding’ facilities as well as hallway lights at Black Hawk Middle School and Daniel Boone Elementary.
Chandler said he intends to push for the school district to continue taking advantage of Ameren’s incentives every year they’re available. That will include by making additional HVAC upgrades at the middle school and Daniel Boone, as well as an exhaustive effort to replace every light in every school building with LEDs.
“We’re going to continue doing this. ... I want to take advantage of all the free money we can get,” Chandler commented. “And Ameren doesn’t want to have to spend money to build a new nuclear facility, so to reduce their costs, they’re offering incentives (for upgrades) to customers. ... It’s a win-win all the way around.”
All Ameren Missouri electric customers are eligible for cash incentives for energy efficiency. For more information, go online to AmerenMissouri.com/BizSavers.
