Sunday, September 14, 2008

Performance contracting isn't "mainstream"

Personally, I'm not too concerned if the Town engages in performance contracting. My goal is more basic - a comprehensive energy action plan. I just happen to think that performance contracting could help jumpstart and expedite a serious discussion on a comprehensive energy action plan.

And of course there's that problem with PC - "nobody" does performance contracting. For instance, you won't find a Fortune 100 company that engages in performance contracting, right?

This company named "Johnson Controls" that's listed at 72 on the Fortune 500 list must be a fake!

Their webpage on PC must be a fabrication! Their words must be rubbish:

Do More with Fewer Resources

Perform building improvements with predictable energy savings, without draining your capital reserves.

Today you are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Performance Contracting by Johnson Controls lets you improve your facility’s energy efficiency -- reduce emissions, reduce waste, decrease water use, lower energy use, lower operational costs -- without budgetary pressure. Performance Contracting can be applied to both public and private sector facilities. The facility improvements are funded out of the guaranteed savings to which we commit once we do a professional engineering audit on your building(s). The savings and results we project are guaranteed for the duration of our contract (we pay any difference) and once the project is complete, you keep the remaining savings! Through energy saving improvements your organization can reduce its energy consumption by 10% to as much as 50%.

Johnson Controls, as the global leader in energy efficiency, manages the largest performance contracting portfolio in the U.S. - a portfolio of over $3.8 billion.

From schools and hospitals, to public housing and government facilities, Johnson Controls can help you create a more sustainable community. We are experts in energy efficiency and the solutions required to maintain your facility's peak performance.


Obviously, I'm being sarcastic. Johnson Controls may not be well-known to everyone, but they have a good reputation among engineers and the people who are paid to understand "energy." Hopefully our town will soon be past their obfuscation of my call for a comprehensive energy action plan... and finally get their act together... else some may begin to question if they oppose energy conservation.

Tim White

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

we are all in for an energy headache next week, with so much refining off-line

http://thenextright.com/ironman/if-you-thought-energy-was-a-big-issue-this-summer

Anonymous said...

As I have said before a lack of vision, inability to want to understand and the fear of a loss of control by Town management on this issue is one reason for lack of movement on this subject.

Anonymous said...

You refer to Johnson Controls - but in this town, Bowman Controls.

Anonymous said...

Johnson Controls is currently part of a performance contract plan with East Hartford. The only down side from my memory is that out of the 10 million dollar or so savings that the town will realize after the annual "management" payments to Johnson controls the town only sees a little less than 200K over 10 or 15 years or 20 years, I forget the term.

If the town had used it's own Public Works team to implement the majority of the changes in the Johnson plan and contracted Johnson (or other individual contractors) only for the parts beyond their skill set we could have saved millions.

For example, one of the obvious and simple changes we are paying Johnson for is taking the overhead florescent lights from three bulbs down to two in town buildings.

I'd suggest contacting the East Hartford Mayor for a copy of the Johnson Controls proposal. You'll probably find a large portion of the proposed changes apply to Cheshire as well and can be done yourselves.