Relates to establishing the School Energy Efficiency Collaborative Act of 2016

Section 2 - The Public Authorities' Law is amended by adding a new section 1882 to read as follows: "To ensure an efficient collaborative school energy program, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority shall work in partnership with the New York Power Authority, the Long Island Power Authority, the State Education Department, the New York Association of School Business Officials, the New York State School Boards Association, energy service companies, utility programs and other school administrators."

Subsection 3: The authority will serve as a lead agency in creating collaborative programs by November 1st, 2017 and shall serve as the lead contact for all public schools interested in pursuing energy efficiency projects.

Subsection 4: The collaborative program may provide support on: (a) developing technical aspects of energy projects; (b) sharing case studies and other information on completed projects; (c) developing demonstrations; (d) providing training opportunities for building operators; (e) providing a comprehensive catalog of Informational and financial resources available to schools pursuing energy projects; and (f) anything else the collaborative deems appropriate in furthering their purpose.

Subsection 5: The authority shall provide updated information regarding the program for further distribution to all collaborative members. The State Education Department may, through regular communications with school districts, promote the existence of the collaboration.

Justification

Each year, over $1 billion dollars are spent on energy costs by school districts all across New York State. Costs vary by school district, with smaller school districts incurring costs of several million dollars per year and larger school districts like New York City have costs totaling over $300 million per year to heat and light their school buildings.

As energy costs continue to rise and as school budgets are facing increasing constraints leading to cuts in enrichment programs, increased class sizes, reduction of support staff and cuts in teaching staff, it is important that practical and tangible opportunities to institute cost savings are given our highest priority. While the discussion of best practice program designs from other states and economic sectors presents solutions to the majority of market barriers facing NYS schools, it does not address all barriers. This legislation is intended to address these NYS-specific barriers and spur additional program development activities to better meet the unique energy conservation and energy cost reduction needs of schools in New York State.

As most schools are consumed by the day-to-day requirements of providing a quality education, there are little remaining resources for identifying and pursuing energy projects, even though many such projects may present very desirable cost savings. New York State already has significant resources for pursing energy efficiency in schools; however, these resources are not well integrated statewide in order to integrate available resources and provide school districts with one-stop shopping to address their energy management and energy efficiency goals that will help free up hundreds of millions of dollars in annual energy costs and allow redirection of these funds to improve student academic achievement.

This legislation begins that process by developing a multidisciplinary approach to identify and develop energy efficiency projects in schools in collaboration with N Y State Education Dept., NYS Association of School Business Officials, NYS School Boards Assn, NY Power Authority, LI Power Authority, NYSERDA, energy service companies (ESCOs), and utility programs. The collaborative will serve to provide support on developing the technical aspects of projects, share case studies and other information on completed projects, develop demonstrations, provide training opportunities for building operators, and provide a comprehensive catalog of informational and financial resources available to schools pursing energy projects. Such a collaborative would reduce redundancies, raise awareness, and promote the efficient implementation of energy projects across the state. The Collaborative will identify opportunities for energy savings by gathering data on current use.

A complete understanding of energy usage and improvement options can help schools to prioritize and plan for capital improvements in addition to simpler no- and low-cost measures.

In 2012, the Legislature authorized, and the Governor approved, a review of how new energy efficiency and green technologies could help schools reduce and eventually eliminate their huge and rising energy costs. The review required a set of recommendations. This legislation is a direct by-product of that review and is one of the recommendations that were provided to help schools free up funding that could be put to use to directly help student academic achievement.

Legislative history

2014 - A.9984 -- Assembly Corporations 2015 - S.4386/A.5991 - ENERGY/Corporations

Fiscal implications

None. In fact this legislation will help school districts save hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs by facilitating access to technical support and financing to make energy improvement projects realistic and achievable through the one-stop shopping established as a mechanism in this bill.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.