SOCORRO, NEW MEX. — July 30 — Yearout Energy, an Energy Services Company (ESCO) headquartered in Albuquerque, is pleased to announce that they have completed a Guaranteed Energy Savings Performance Contract (GESPC) for Socorro Consolidated School District (SCSD).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district had closed its buildings providing an opportunity for the Yearout Energy team to complete construction that would otherwise have to wait for classrooms to be vacant.
“We were originally planning to get work done around class schedules, with big pockets of time around in-services and spring break,” said Robert Detweiler, construction manager for Yearout Energy. “Because COVID-19 closed schools and sent students home, our team was able to get into some of the buildings and speed up the delivery schedule. Of course, our team was still following social distancing policies and procedures, but we were able to do construction without having to disturb any classes or disrupt student or staff activity.”
Another aspect of the project that helped the team finish the project was the high level of communication between Yearout Energy and SCSD.
“Socorro had a dedicated maintenance team that made it easy for us to communicate,” said Carla Dozal, project assurance manager for Yearout Energy. “They were always able to find someone to assist us even while they were undergoing their own crises, such as having to develop a school curriculum for students who were working from home. SCSD really went above and beyond to ensure the project was a success.”
“SCSD has been a great partner in this,” agreed Detweiler. “In everything from the scheduling of the work to literally opening doors to financial planning, permits, and payments — they’ve just been great all across the board.”
According to Josh Martinez, director of operations for SCSD, Yearout Energy was very accommodating from the start. “The schools were open when Yearout Energy started construction,” Martinez says, “and they made sure to be quiet when necessary or work around schedules. Anytime there was a problem, I could get on the phone with my contact at Yearout, and he would handle it. He took charge when necessary, too, and was willing to talk directly to principals at the different schools if I wasn’t available.”
Beyond finishing on schedule and budget, Yearout Energy was able to provide benefits above and beyond what was originally promised. The secured utility rebate is almost twice what was originally anticipated thanks to the support of the Socorro Electric Cooperative, and utility savings were also higher than expected as Yearout Energy was able to replace more lighting fixtures than was originally in scope.
“Even just in the past two months since they replaced some of our mechanical fixtures, I’ve seen impressive savings,” said Martinez. “In fact, the electricity bill for the administrative offices was less than what I paid for electricity for my three-bedroom house this past month.”
On top of energy savings, Martinez says he’s excited to be able to work with the new HVAC system, which will allow his maintenance team to access heating and cooling systems remotely and see real-time reports of indoor temperatures throughout the buildings, especially at Parkview Elementary School and Socorro High School.
“We were very impressed with Yearout’s ability to work around our needs,” said Ron Hendrix, superintendent of SCSD. “We’re thrilled that the project, but are most excited about the improvement to the indoor learning environment for our students and staff when they return to school. The team’s ability to complete the work was a silver lining in the dark cloud that was the pandemic.”
In all, Yearout Energy was able to provide the following to SCSD:
- Year 1 Guaranteed Utility Savings: $127,669
- Year 1 Operation and Maintenance Savings: $25,876
- Anticipated Utility Rebates: $50,900
- Reduction in Annual Utility Costs: 30.4%
- Reduction in Annual Emissions: 1,094,901 lbs. CO2 equivalent.
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ABOUT YEAROUT ENERGY
Yearout Energy was established to serve as a client-centric firm delivering turnkey guaranteed integrated solutions that optimize operational performance, design, efficiency, productivity and maintenance of a wide range of facilities and infrastructure. Yearout Energy has assembled a team of highly experienced professionals from the energy services industry and has grown to become one of the premiere Energy Services Companies (ESCO) delivering high performance projects in the Southwest. For more information, please visit www.yearoutenergy.com.
Media Contact:
Tammy Valentine // tammy@luckytamm.com // 505.847.5027
