Thomasville School District Partners with Schneider Electric for Energy Efficiency Upgrade

By Rachel Leber

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — The Thomasville City School System in Thomasville announced on March 30 its plans for a comprehensive energy efficiency project in collaboration with Schneider Electric in Andover, Mass. for its five facilities. Construction is currently underway, and is expected to be complete in fall 2017.

The school district’s self-funded project has a budget of $2.9 million, and will include energy efficiency upgrades throughout the district’s five schools and their board of education facility. Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, will create a savings performance contract (ESPC) with the Thomasville school district that will save the district close to $150,000 in annual energy expenses, and $4 million over the life of the project. The goal of the project is to use the money that would have been spent on utilities and reinvest it back into schools through the energy savings of this project.

The projected energy savings will result from a number of energy conservation measures being implemented by Schneider Electric, the first of which will be a district-wide building automation system that will be installed to increase visibility into energy management. All interior lighting in classrooms as well as athletic facilities will be upgraded to LED, as well as all exterior lighting as an added safety measure in addition to energy savings. A PC power management system will be installed to reduce computer power usage. The electric company will do a thorough sealing of all windows, doors, gaps and cracks throughout all of the buildings to improve their efficiency, and Schneider will make water system upgrades in an effort to reduce water consumption.

Once the project is complete, the Thomasville school district will have reduced its power consumption by 1.4 million kilowatt hours. In addition to the district’s annual energy savings, the project will have a substantial environmental impact, removing 1,049 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, according to a statement.

This project with the Thomasville City School System is just one of Schneider Electric’s many energy efficient upgrades throughout the state of Georgia. The company is currently developing close to $100 million in energy efficiency solutions for clients throughout the state, and have successfully implemented more than 625 energy sustainability projects across the nation over the past 23 years.