The School District of Menomonee Falls continued to experience “cost avoidance” in  reduced energy use, Buildings and Grounds Director Dwight Crouse said during a report to the School Board Feb. 22.
Crouse said the district saved $542,000 in 2009 and $3,365,000 since 2001 in what it would have spent in energy if it hadn’t initiated an energy saving program.
According to Crouse, electricity use since 2001 is down almost 500,000 kilowatts per hour (an 11.49 percent decrease), natural gas usage has decreased by 70,000 therms (a 15.5 percent decrease), and  water and sewer usage has decreased by “almost 100 percent since our base year.”
Crouse noted that the district added 80,000 square feet at the high school during that time.
While propane costs have increased, Crouse noted that propane is only used at the Sunnyside maintenance site, which the district is seeking to replace. The school district and the village of Menomonee Falls are continuing to negotiate an agreement where the school district would lease the village’s MacArthur Drive building for maintenance use.
“Hopefully, this could be the last year Sunnyside will appear on this slide,” Crouse said.
Crouse noted there is “wide fluctuations” on the unit cost of natural gas because it is a commodity that is traded on open market. Natural gas experienced a dip in the last part of 2009, setting record lows.
Crouse also noted the district is “all over the map” in sewer and water costs. He explained that the more the district irrigates its fields, the less sewer charges the district pays. He also noted that water is a relatively cheap commodity.
“It’s the sewer costs that have really added cost,” Crouse said.
During questioning by the board, Crouse noted that use of the Thomas Jefferson building — which closed at the end of the 2008-09 school year — is still reflected in the report.
In describing how the “cost avoidance” estimates were derived, Crouse referred to a now-reviled corporate giant from the past.
“It was an Enron program when Enron was a good company,” Crouse said.
Enron was an energy company that imploded under an accounting scandal in  2001. The people who developed the energy saving program while employed at Enron bought it back after the company went  under and it has been further developed at the University of Pennsylvania.
The computer system takes into account weather for heating or cooling days, when school is and when school is an isn’t in session.
Crouse noted that it was thought that costs would “skyrocket” when the district began to use air conditioning at all buildings.  However, air conditional usage has been programmed to limit use. Crouse said the average costs of heating the Riverside and Valley View elementary school buildings range between $1,500 to $1,700 more since the entire buildings are air conditioned.
—By Thomas J. McKillen, Managing Editor