On December 13th in Mankato, the Renewable Energy Task Force, Region 9 Development Commission (R9DC) hosted a workshop about the Guaranteed Energy Savings Program (GESP) and the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.
Guaranteed Energy Savings Program (GESP)
Lindsay Wimmer, GESP Outreach Coordinator, and Peter Berger, GESP Program Manager, gave an overview of the Guaranteed Energy Savings Program and spoke about an energy savings performance contract case study from Brown County at the workshop.
GESP is a program that provides state technical assistance to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades in public buildings through energy savings performance contracting (ESPC). ESPCs are a service provided by an energy service company (ESCO) to pay for upgrades in energy systems that are paid off through the resulting savings in energy and maintenance budgets.
Want to learn more about GESP? Find the workshop presentation here.
Brown County completed an ESPC with the ESCO Trane, outside of the Guaranteed Energy Savings Program. The county courthouse upgraded its cooling, air distribution, and building management system, as well as installed new lights, for a total project cost of around $1.6 million. Annually the upgrades saved $77,200 in the first year. The energy performance contract for Brown County was financed through cash reserves from the city, though ESPCs can also be financed with private lease agreements or grant funding as well.
Want to learn more about Brown County? Find the workshop presentation here.
Brown County financed upgrades in its courthouse, though other facilities GESP could help finance upgrades for include Ice Arenas, Community Centers, Waste Water Treatment Plants, or any other public building owned by the city, county, or school.
If a city, county, or school were to use GESP the state helps the local unit of government through the ESPC process. The assistance includes ready to use legal, contractual, and solicitation documents, assistance with opportunity assessment, ESCO selection, project development, construction, and project results, as well as transparent pricing.
Ready to talk about GESP? Contact:
Lindsay Wimmer
GESP Outreach Coordinator
Clean Energy Resource Teams, CERTs
wimm0020@umn.edu
612-625-9634
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
PACE is Property Assessed Clean Energy. It allows property owners to borrow money from newly established municipal financing districts to finance energy retrofits (efficiency and renewable energy measures) and repay the loan through an annual special tax on their property bill.
The St. Paul Port Authority offer’s financing for PACE projects. Currently the City of Eagan, City of Cottage Grove, City of Eden Prairie and the City of Minneapolis are working through a PACE program for their communities. Find the workshop presentation here.
Is your local unit of government in the South West Development Commission? There is a PACE program specifically for this 18 county region. Find the workshop presentation here.
Ready to talk about PACE? Contact:
Peter Klein
St. Paul Port Authority
Vice President of Finance
651-204-6211
pmk@sppa.com
Jayme I. (Jay) Trusty
Executive Director
South West Development Commission
507-836-1636
execdir@swrdc.org
