PSE awards Issaquah School District $54,000-plus for energy savings

Puget Sound Energy presented the Issaquah School Board with an incentive check for $54,404 on March 23.

The check was awarded for the school district’s participation in the Resource Conservation Managers program.

The program forgoes an equipment-focused take on energy management in favor of methods that emphasize operations, maintenance and behavior — such as making sure a building isn’t heating itself too early or too late, Beth Robinweiler of PSE said.

The district has been involved with PSE energy efficiency programs since 1997 and began its most recent participation in the Resource Conservation Managers program in 2011.

Twenty-eight buildings participated. Energy use was reduced by a million kilowatt hours — a 4.6 percent reduction — and 24,600 therms.

“That is enough electricity and gas to power one of your middle schools for a year,” Robinweiler told the School Board.

The district’s resource conservation manager, Chris Bruno, was hired permanently as the energy use manager.

Bruno said his goal was to expand the use of LED lighting beyond the 60,000 bulbs currently being used — first on his list being the School Board chambers.

“That technology is exploding right now,” he said. “The prices are dropping, the technology is improving … And so my ultimate goal in the district is to have it be completely, 100 percent, LED lit.”