In the News: Harford County Public Schools wins AEE Region II Energy Award from BKM Nomination
“Harford schools honored for energy conservation efforts”
By: Allan Vought, The Aegis
Harford County Public Schools’ aggressive efforts to cut energy costs have been recognized by a national engineering organization.
The school system is the recipient of the 2014 Corporate Energy Management Award for the Association of Energy Engineers Region II. The association recognizes individuals and organizations for making contributions to the energy industry in designated regions.
HCPS officials said the honor recognizes their energy cost reduction program that has the added benefit of improving the learning environment for the school community. The award states that HCPS has established “an outstanding energy management system.”
According to figures cited at Monday’s Harford County Board of Education meeting, the school system has completed more than 130 energy improvement projects in 42 of 54 schools, cutting energy usage by more than 9.8 million kilowatt hours annually and capturing $1,807,407.00 in incentives from Baltimore Gas & Electric Company through the utility’s Smart Energy Savers Program.
HCPS has been very “diligent” in pursuing energy saving initiatives and in redirecting funds from them “back to the classroom,” explained Cornell Brown, assistant superintendent for operations. Brown said the HCPS program has become a model for other school systems.
He and Andrew Cassilly, HCPS assistant supervisor of energy management, were recognized by Superintendent Barbara Canavan, as was their boss, HCPS Chief of Administration Joseph Licata who was not present.
“Congratulations not just for this award, but for all you’ve done for our schools,” Board President Nancy Reynolds told Brown and Cassilly.
HCPS received the award at the recent 37th World Energy Engineering Congress in Washington, D.C. AEE sponsors the conference to bring together members of the energy management industry for workshops on current trends and technology.