Change in tariff cuts into WACO?s solar energy savings

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

WAYLAND ? Although WACO saved nearly $30,000 in energy costs during the first seven months of the school year due to the use of solar energy, WACO Superintendent Fred Whipple admitted some disappointment.

?I was hoping we would have closer to $50,000 in savings,? the superintendent said. ?It was not as good as I had expected.?

Whipple said the school district paid $75,971 in electricity costs from the start of the 2014-15 school year through March 31, 2015. This school year, the district?s electric bill was $48,200 through March 31, 2016.

WACO is in its first year of capturing solar energy for electricity usage. The solar system went online at the Crawfordsville Elementary School in March of 2015, and at the secondary building in Wayland in September of 2015.

The school district uses fuel oil to heat the Crawfordsville building, and natural gas for the geothermal system in Wayland.

Slicing significantly into the savings is a change in tariff by the school?s power provider, Interstate Power and Light Company. The change was effective in March of 2015 and the obvious reason for the change was because of lost profits because some big energy users were either going solar or contemplating it.

?They are only paying us a fraction of a penny for our banked energy,? Whipple said. ?On March 24, we received a $108.35 check on (for one month of) banked energy from Interstate Power. The power companies are just paying us a pittance for what we have banked. We?re banking it, but it?s not worth it.

?Because of the change in the tariff, we are not saving that much money. I thought we hit a home run with this when we started it, but now I don?t know,? Whipple acknowledged.

He said Dr. Darrell Smith, former WACO superintendent, and other solar energy proponents, have lobbied legislators to have energy companies either remove or lower the tariff, but thus far have not been successful.

Jason Egli, of Crawfordsville, is the president of EPO Energy, the company which installed the largest of the four solar systems at the secondary building in Wayland. He also oversees all the solar systems in the school district.

Egli said the tariff change does not allow entities that produce over 20,000 kilowatts of energy in 12 consecutive billing months to ?bank? any of its solar energy. Instead, the energy goes onto the grid, and in essence, WACO must purchase back some of its energy for usage when the system is not producing at maximum strength. Formerly, that tariff regulation allowed entities that produced less than 20,000 kilowatts in just one month of 12 consecutive billing months to bank the excess energy.

?We can?t design a system to meet our needs to go under 20,000 kilowatt hours unless the system is bigger than it needs to be,? Egli said. ?The only months that WACO gets close to the magic 20,000 number is during the winter.?

For the energy that is banked and passed onto the grid, WACO is paid two cents per kilowatt-hour under the current tariff. Regulations from the previous tariff had Alliant paying WACO 12 cents per kilowatt-hour for banked energy. Even an increase in the amount Alliant pays WACO for its banked energy would be helpful, Egli noted.

Egli said the solar systems are operational from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., during the school months and from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the summer. However, the system does not run at optimum strength until the early afternoon, he said, meaning that WACO likely purchases energy in the morning and also at night during extra-curricular events, such as sporting events and music concerts.

Of the four solar systems, three at the high school do produce less than 20,000 per month and thus, can bank energy. However, Egli said the savings from those three systems (one powers the lights at the football field, the second one is for lights at the baseball/softball complex and the third is for the concession stand at the athletic complex) is only about $2,000-$3,000 per year. ?The savings are there, they just aren?t as much as we had hoped,? he said.

With a change in the tariff rules and regulations by the power companies, Egli is confidant WACO could save $110,000 in energy costs annually. ?Ideally, we don?t want to sell any (energy) on the grid and be able to pull it out of the bank when we need it,? he explained.

Despite the change in tariff, WACO is still relieving some pressure on the school?s general fund from which energy costs are paid. ?We?re still freeing up some general funds and that was the whole idea of implementing a solar system.?

WACO?s monthly payment of $4,667 for the solar system is paid through the school option sales tax fund.