Honeywell Presents Energy Efficiency Plan for Tolland

Tolland schools and municipal buildings could be seeing a lot of changes in the coming years, if energy service company Honeywell is chosen to move forward with its energy management proposal.

Honeywell employees presented a preliminary plan to both Tolland town council and school board members Thursday night.

Using energy and expense data from several Tolland buildings from 2009 to the present, Honeywell was able to propose how energy savings could help fund cost-neutral infrastructure improvements in town.

For example, company employees explained that a number of improvements made at the all-electric Tolland Intermediate School, including the installation of lighting controls, weatherization of the building, etc., would result in cost savings that would pay off the improvements in approximately 11.2 years.

Therefore, if the town chose to enter into a 15 year contract with the company for similar work in all municipal buildings, cost savings from TIS after that mark, would go towards funding infrastructure and other energy efficiency projects.

Essentially, the Honeywell proposal was presented as cost-netural, using energy expense savings for funding. The company guarantees this, unless the town were to change a pre-established and agreed upon energy baseline by significantly altering energy expenditures in a building.

"The whole goal here is to improve our infrastructure and to improve working conditions," said council member Mark Gill, expressing support for a"budget neutral" proposal.

The Next Step

With the presentation complete, both the council and school board have to decide if they want to move forward with an investment grade audit. Honeywell would gather data on energy usage on all municipal buildings, at a cost of $60,000, and create a plan with the town on how to improve efficiencies.

After the audit was complete, the council and school board would have to meet again to decide whether or not to enter into a contract with Honeywell to complete the work. The $60,000 cost of the audit would be factored into the cost-neutral plan, if the town approved the contract. 

The maximum length of the contract is 20 years.

Honeywell has completed similar contracts with the Town of Middletown and the Danbury school system. According to the presentation, $9.9 million in capital improvements were completed in Middletown using revenue from previous energy saving improvements that Honeywell facilitated.

Agenda items concerning the investment grade audit will appear on council and school board agendas this month. 

For more information on Honeywell, visit the company's website.