Hyde Park hears $12.95 million energy-performance contract proposal including rooftop and ground solar; board to consider contract May 8

Honeywell and Energia presented a $12,950,000 energy performance contract (EPC) proposal to the Hyde Park Central School District Board of Education on April 22, outlining lighting, controls, HVAC upgrades and both roof-mounted and ground‑mounted solar that the firms say would be paid from guaranteed energy savings, utility rebates, state building aid and federal incentives.

The proposal, presented by Justin Benoit, director of project delivery for Energia, and a Honeywell lead identified as Terry, would generate roughly $586,000 a year in utility savings, tap nearly $3 million in utility and other incentives, and — Honeywell said — produce more than $5 million in cumulative positive cash flow over a 15‑year financing term once building aid is applied. Honeywell also said New York State would pay about 58% of most eligible project costs as building aid for an EPC of this type.

The project scope described by Honeywell includes a districtwide LED conversion, completion and expansion of the district’s building automation system, replacement of older unit ventilators in several classrooms, and two solar installations: a roof system sized to serve the high school and a roughly 1.3-megawatt ground‑mount array proposed at the Netherwood site. Honeywell also said it had won a separate $6,000,000 NYSERDA grant to electrify Ralph R. Smith Elementary School — replacing oil and propane systems with electric heat‑pump equipment — and that work would be incorporated as a funded addition to the EPC package.

“Central Hudson gave us early guidance on where rooftop and ground systems would work on your feeders,” Terry said. That utility review led Honeywell to propose the high‑school rooftop system and the Netherwood ground mount instead of a larger ground mount adjacent to the high school, which the utility flagged as unlikely to gain interconnection approval.

Honeywell said the proposed financing would use tax‑exempt lease financing with a 15‑year term that matches the payout schedule for State Education Department (SED) building aid; the district would borrow the project cost, start principal payments approximately 12 months after borrowing, and receive building aid over the same 15‑year term. Honeywell told the board it expects to seek the board’s approval to execute a contract at the May 8 meeting and to submit design drawings and specifications to SED in June. If that schedule holds, Honeywell said it expects SED approval in July and to award financing and begin construction this fall, with construction taking about 15 months.

Board members and district staff pressed Honeywell on several operational points. Questions and answers included: - Voter approval: Honeywell and Energia explained that EPCs in New York are governed by Article 9 of the State Energy Law and do not require a public vote; some districts still present EPCs to voters to secure an additional aid bump, but that is not required. Justin Benoit said the district could choose to hold a vote but would not need one to proceed. - Federal incentives: Honeywell said the solar portion relies in part on Inflation Reduction Act mechanisms that create a one‑time federal payment after the system is placed into service. Honeywell said the vendor community is seeing that incentive intact at present but advised speed on contracting to preserve that payment. - Grid capacity and site selection: Honeywell said Central Hudson flagged that a large ground‑mount near the high school would likely fail the utility’s comprehensive review, so the team shifted the larger ground array to a Netherwood feeder with sufficient capacity. Central Hudson, Honeywell said, indicated the smaller rooftop export would be manageable on the high‑school feeder. - Warranty and lifespan: Honeywell said the solar modules proposed carry bankable warranties and a 25‑year production guarantee; inverters commonly carry 10–15 year warranties and are specified in the contract. - Overlap with bond projects: Honeywell said the EPC scope was scrubbed against the district’s bond projects to avoid duplicate work, and the company said there is “0 overlap” with recently completed or planned bond work.

Honeywell outlined several mechanisms that would lower the district’s upfront cost: Central Hudson rebates, a NYSERDA clean‑schools program for design and audit costs, and the federal solar payment under the Inflation Reduction Act. The presentation said these incentives, combined with the district’s approximately 58% building aid for EPCs, produce annual savings that exceed the annual debt service in each year of the 15‑year financing term.

Board members sought additional materials and time to review the financing plan. One member asked for a workshop on how the project would be financed and how the borrowing would interact with other district capital schedules; another member asked for an estimate of insurance premium impacts from adding solar and large equipment. Honeywell and Energia said the district’s financial adviser, BPD (Jason Schwartz), had reviewed initial cash flows and would prepare the formal financing RFP and that any financing fees would be included in the project budget.

Honeywell described the district’s immediate next steps as: board approval and contract signing (requested May 8), submission of the signed contract and design documents to SED, solicitation of financing bids, and a construction program that would prioritize measures with the shorted install time (lighting, controls) while scheduling heavier mechanical or solar work to avoid winter heating disruptions.

The board did not vote on the contract on April 22; Honeywell and Energia asked for the board’s support on May 8 to sign the contract and begin SED submission. If approved on May 8 and if the timeline holds, Honeywell said the district could begin construction this fall and pursue the NYSERDA electrification scope for Ralph R. Smith under a funded change order.

What’s next: the board is expected to consider a motion to execute the EPC contract at its May 8 meeting; if approved, the firms plan to submit to SED in June and seek financing in September.