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Finance committee questions 15-year Centrica energy contract, seeks missing appendices and performance data
Summary
Committee members reviewed the county's long-term energy-efficiency contract with Centrica (formerly SmartBot), requested missing contract appendices and updated performance reports, and noted a September 2025 payment of $57,002.85 due under the loan tied to the project.
Iroquois County Finance Committee members on the record discussed the county’s contracted energy-efficiency project with Centrica (formerly SmartBot), raising questions about missing contract appendices, the length of the agreement and the absence of recent performance reporting.
Committee members said the contract—signed after multi-year discussions that began around 2017—covers a roughly 15-year term and funds a large technology-and-infrastructure project. One speaker described the project cost as about $1.8 million and said the county received roughly $160,000 in grant revenue tied to the work. The committee agreed to request the contract appendices that were referenced in the agreement but are not on file in county offices.
The committee noted the contract requires Centrica to provide reports for the first three years only; members asked staff to request updated performance and savings reports because the county is now in year six. One member said the reports “should have probably never been limited to three years” given the size of the investment and the county’s right to know current performance.
Staff reported loan-payment timing tied to the project. A county staff member said the next scheduled payment is due in September 2025 and will be $57,002.85; the committee discussed the option of making an additional payment after that date to reduce interest but did not take formal action. Members also said the loan originally was with BB&T and that the financing has been sold since; county representatives described the current lender as Truist Bank.
Members discussed technology obsolescence over a long contract term and whether software or hardware upgrades were accounted for in the original agreement. Committee members asked staff to: (1) request the missing appendices and all available performance reports from Centrica, (2) confirm the loan servicer and payment schedule in writing, and (3) return with options, including the potential to prepay or renegotiate terms when permissible under the contract.
The committee did not take formal action on the contract during the meeting; members described the next step as gathering the missing documents and updated performance data for follow-up.
