Sixteen of the Washington state schools that will receive more than $6 million of the $16.7 million in new energy grants recently announced and administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and funded by the state Legislature also have signed a Resource Conservation Management (RCM) agreement with Puget Sound Energy.

The agreements will allow the schools to create new local RCM jobs and maximize their use of the new funding by combining it with incentives from the RCM and other PSE energy efficiency programs.

“Local schools can take advantage of PSE’s expertise and existing partnerships and programs to help their initiatives succeed and get us all closer to the goal of lowering energy use and costs while also supporting jobs, stimulating the economy and protecting the environment,” said Cal Shirley, PSE vice president of Energy Efficiency Services.

PSE’s RCM program for schools supplements the salary of a district employee whose assigned responsibilities include increasing efficiency and reducing costs of electricity, natural gas, water, and sewer and solid waste and recycling programs. Many of the measures involved will also qualify for PSE rebates for reducing energy use.

“Small and large school districts all across the state will receive school energy grants, many of them supported with incentives from their utilities,” said Gordon Beck, School Facilities Director for OSPI.

By combining state funding and PSE rebates with their district budgets, schools in PSE’s service area that qualified for the funds in King, Kitsap, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston and Whatcom counties will be able to make upgrades to their facilities’ older heating equipment and inefficient lighting that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs each year.

“PSE has also been working with many local government agencies and organizations on how to make effective use of federal stimulus funds and then finding creative ways to complement those funds with our own rebates and incentives for energy efficiency upgrades to other types of community facilities, as well as private residences,” added Shirley.

PSE has been reaching out to the cities, counties and community organizations in Western Washington that are recipients of a combined $60 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Already, the utility has been working with many of them to apply for and leverage stimulus funding with potentially millions of dollars in incentives from PSE for energy efficiency programs. Many that have received their funds or have been notified that they soon will receive them are actively partnering with the utility on implementation strategies and working to uncover other sources of complementary funding. They include Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Whatcom counties; the cities of Auburn, Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Bellingham, Federal Way, Issaquah, Kirkland, Lacey, Marysville, Mercer Island, Montlake Terrace, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, and Tacoma; and community organizations Opportunity Council, Sustainable Works, Snohomish PUD, Thurston County Economic Development Council and Pioneer Human Services.

In many cases, the utility’s energy efficiency incentives for homeowners can be paired with stimulus funds from their city or county and $1,500 per residential customer in federal energy efficiency tax credits to greatly reduce the cost of implementing the conservation programs.

In addition to improvements to individual homes, stimulus funds combined with PSE grants and programs can be used in the same way schools can now combine new state energy grants and utility rebates to upgrade community facilities. The combined funds can offset equipment and installation costs for energy efficient retrofits that will lower energy bills, providing a positive impact for city and county budgets, creating jobs and lowering the community’s overall carbon footprint.

In 2008, PSE’s energy efficiency programs set new records, reducing the utility’s customers’ demand for electricity by 275 million kilowatt hours (or the equivalent of 23,000 homes) and demand for natural gas by 3.7 million therms (or the equivalent of 4,400 homes). Figures for 2009 will be available in early 2010.