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Palm Springs Unified hears energy-management update as district cites rising costs and underperforming solar contracts
Summary
Assistant director Kent Hems and SiteLogic consultant Shai Erman told the board the district is using a new utility dashboard and battery storage to manage soaring energy costs, reported a projected $6.8 million energy spend this fiscal year, and said some third-party solar contracts have underperformed, prompting legal outreach.
At its April 28 meeting, the Palm Springs Unified School District received a facilities briefing on energy management and solar production from Assistant Director of Facilities and Planning Kent Hems and Shai Erman of SiteLogic.
"Our goal in managing all this is affordability and trying to reduce our energy costs," Kent Hems said, outlining district efforts that include solar generation, battery energy storage, upgraded HVAC and lighting controls, and new electric-vehicle charging stations. Hems and Shai presented a publicly available utility dashboard the district will use to monitor electricity, natural gas, water and solar production.
Hems and Shai said the district's overall energy costs have risen substantially since the partnership began; Hems cited a 215% increase in energy costs and a 133% rise in gas costs since fiscal baseline years. The presentation included a projected district energy expenditure of about $6,800,000 for the current fiscal year. "Even though we produce a lot of our own energy, we still get hit with demand cost," Hems said, noting peak rates after 4 p.m. drive much of the added expense.
The presenters said solar production now supplies roughly 52% of the district's electricity and noted that battery storage enables "peak shaving" to reduce demand charges. Hems attributed some declines in on-site generation to underperformance by third-party power-purchase agreement (PPA) vendors and to higher after-school usage during peak-rate hours. "We've sent letters to those companies that have not met their performance guarantees," Hems said, adding the district has involved legal counsel and is seeking remedies.
Board members asked whether the dashboard figures were current and whether EV chargers are open to the public. Shai Erman said the dashboard view shown was updated about two weeks earlier and can be navigated to individual sites. Hems said public chargers at Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs high schools require a ChargePoint account and payment; chargers at the district service center are intended for fleet or staff use behind a gate.
The presentation closed with district examples of measured savings at modernized sites and a note that the district's solar production had been equated in presentation slides to an offset valued at about $2 million. Board members thanked the presenters and asked that facilities continue to report dashboard results and contract remedies in future updates.
