DOE's Energy Savings Performance Contracts Stretch Budgets in the Bureau of Indian Affairs

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has found a good way to reduce energy costs, replace inefficient lighting and aging building equipment, and install renewable energy systems-all without huge increases in the BIA budget. The agency is doing this by making use of the U.S. Department of Energy's Super Energy Savings Performance Contracts (Super ESPCs) at BIA schools andother facilities throughout the country. This two-page case study describes how one BIA facility-the Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California-is cutting its energy costs with badly needed new lighting and heating and cooling equipment, and installing a new photovoltaic energy system, under a DOE Super ESPC, in which the energy services provider pays up-front costs and is repaid out of thefacility's resulting energy cost savings.