teach1st
08-07-2005, 05:59 AM
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lklenergy07080705aug07,0,5767316.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-lake
TAVARES -- The School Board on Monday will consider paying $1.7 million to a company that promises to cut the district's utility expenses.
But the proposed contract allows the firm to determine how much was saved by using calculations of software the district is required to buy from the company.
Energy Education Inc. of Wichita Falls, Texas, would receive a base fee of $852,000 and a performance bonus in the same amount if the district meets the savings goals the company sets.
The four-year contract also would require the district to hire two managers, pay their travel expenses for company seminars and buy computer software used to track energy consumption. Those combined expenses would be $475,000 during the term of the agreement.
The district's total cost could be as much as $2.2 million.
The cumulative savings goal during the four years is $5.2 million, or roughly what the district paid for electricity, water and sewer service last school year. Whether these goals are met, however, is based on the company's projections of what the district would have spent without Energy Education.
School Board lawyer Steve Johnson said he had concerns about the contract's lack of detail as to how the software calculates the projections.
"My issue is that you can't reduce it to writing," Johnson said. "You have to have the program, and I don't have the program."
The company uses what it calls a people-oriented approach by training employees to be more energy conscious and touts in its press materials that no capital expenditures are required.
Read more (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lklenergy07080705aug07,0,5767316.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-lake)
TAVARES -- The School Board on Monday will consider paying $1.7 million to a company that promises to cut the district's utility expenses.
But the proposed contract allows the firm to determine how much was saved by using calculations of software the district is required to buy from the company.
Energy Education Inc. of Wichita Falls, Texas, would receive a base fee of $852,000 and a performance bonus in the same amount if the district meets the savings goals the company sets.
The four-year contract also would require the district to hire two managers, pay their travel expenses for company seminars and buy computer software used to track energy consumption. Those combined expenses would be $475,000 during the term of the agreement.
The district's total cost could be as much as $2.2 million.
The cumulative savings goal during the four years is $5.2 million, or roughly what the district paid for electricity, water and sewer service last school year. Whether these goals are met, however, is based on the company's projections of what the district would have spent without Energy Education.
School Board lawyer Steve Johnson said he had concerns about the contract's lack of detail as to how the software calculates the projections.
"My issue is that you can't reduce it to writing," Johnson said. "You have to have the program, and I don't have the program."
The company uses what it calls a people-oriented approach by training employees to be more energy conscious and touts in its press materials that no capital expenditures are required.
Read more (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lklenergy07080705aug07,0,5767316.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-lake)