Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Optimizing Energy Use through Central Monitoring and Control

Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) developed a Comprehensive Maintenance Plan that empowers its Energy Conservation Division to remotely monitor and control school building operations in order to improve energy performance across its portfolio of 117 buildings and 13 million square feet. Leveraging the district’s intranet system, the Division programs the schedule and operating parameters for heating and cooling equipment based on building occupancy and school activities. Additional strategies for central monitoring and control include: monitoring electricity consumption across the district’s schools enrolled in a utility electric load curtailment program; auditing utility bills for electricity, gas, water, and other utility charges; and curtailing the use of summer air conditioning to conserve energy and avoid peak demand charges. The district is also saving energy by installing new high performance technologies for lighting, solar, and water-reduction applications in its existing and new schools. Due in part to the Comprehensive Maintenance Plan, AACPS has improved portfolio-wide energy performance by 12% from 2013 to 2017, saving more than 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and securing close to $800,000 in HVAC rebates and lighting upgrade incentives from its electric service provider, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company.