The Energy Management Department provides a safe and comfortable learning environment that supports the high-quality educational needs of the CFISD students and staff, while conserving our natural resources, and at the same time, being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money.

The Energy Management Department:

• Manages over $19.5 million in utility costs. We do this efficiently by: issuing RFPs to purchase the best supply rates, retro-commissioning, installing energy conservation measures such as LED lights and control upgrades, and by troubleshooting high bills and taking corrective actions whenever necessary.

• Processes an average of 10,000 after-hours scheduling requests through SchoolDude every month, and well into the hundreds of requests from Energy Management email. This intensive after-hour scheduling saves the District between $4.5-5.0 million a year.

• Participating in utility incentive programs and demand response programs, obtaining approximately $200,000 a year in rebates.

• Obtaining the Energy Star label for District buildings that qualify; collecting all the necessary bills and database information and then working alongside State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) with site visits and then PE stamps.

The primary goal of the Energy Management Department is to ensure all buildings are operated in a similar manner, and only used to the degree necessary. This is done by managing the lighting and HVAC building automation systems through creating and entering detailed scheduling, that is downloaded into the energy management system.

• This ensures a comfortable learning environment and reduces as much waste as possible, by not running air conditioning for empty or near empty building areas. 
• This helps save money as it reduces electricity consumption and peak demand charges.
• Another benefit is reducing excessive wear on the air conditioning equipment.

 

Energy Management Team

• Jay Bonham, Energy Manager
• Leah Spurlock, Assistant Energy Manager
• Andrea Herrera, Energy Systems Coordinator
• Yvonne Sacky, Energy Systems Coordinator
• Sonia DeSouza, Energy Management Secretary