A once-promising idea to utilize a state company to thoroughly assess areas where town facilities may be wasting energy and then repair or renovate to enhance efficiency is being deactivated.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley told the Public Building and Site Commission at its last meeting October 28, that the town should accept the assessments performed to date by the vendor Ameresco. At the same time, he is advising that the town pay Ameresco’s “walk-away” fee and continue with implementing many of the suggested energy improvements in-house.

“At this point, staying with the Ameresco program provides no further advantage to the town,” said PBSC Chairman Robert Mitchell. “By doing this work ourselves, or with individual contractors, we have much better control over expenses, especially soft costs.”

Mr Mitchell and Mr Hurley project that in the long run, the town can save as much as 30 percent on the original estimated $10 million project that was initiated nearly a year ago, while phasing projects to best accommodate town workers and others who use or occupy the buildings needing energy enhancements.

In a letter obtained by The Newtown Bee to Ameresco account executive James Daylor, Mr Hurley indicated that while the town was not necessarily dissatisfied with the energy company’s performance to date, “Situations have changed over the past three years that no one could have predicted.”

First, Mr Hurley explained that the removal of energy-related projects from the town’s Capital Improvement Plan was one of the primary selling points of Ameresco performing the turnkey work.

“That is no longer on the table,” Mr Hurley stated. “The premium we would have paid was generally acceptable at the time because there was the benefit that we could accomplish some capital projects without breaching our bond cap. That is no longer a problem.”

Mr Hurley further explained that since Newtown receiving its AAA bond rating, capital project financing costs are markedly less than using a third party.

“No longer needing outside or less expensive finance is another lost benefit of the program,” Mr Hurley said.

 The public works chief also sited the rapid decline in costs for LED lighting and the town’s and Board of Education’s desire to go with more advanced LED installations has undercut some of the projected savings benefits of the Ameresco program, without giving school officials the type of fixtures and lighting technology they want in the classrooms.

Ameresco also proposed what Mr Hurley described as a “projected workaround” that was not acceptable to district officials.

“In the end the proposal is too expensive for the value that we would receive,” Mr Hurley wrote.

He said since the Ameresco proposal was first floated, Newtown has recognized other options both internally and through CL&P and other state programs that will provide the community with more for less.

“This was not the situation three years ago when we started this journey but it is now.”

 Of equal importance, Mr Hurley noted, was that Newtown and officials involved in the project up to now feel the community received a “real benefit” by participating the process.

“The Investment Grade Audit [IGA] has sharpened our understanding of both savings possibilities and the pitfalls that need to be avoided,” Mr Hurley concluded. “We are open to work with you and your company in other ways if those situations present themselves.”

Mr Hurley pointed to two major solar initiatives he hopes the town will adopt in the coming year that will result in 600KW and 1MW generation installations.

The public works official said the town will end up paying a total of $87,000 for the IGA as well as work done by another coordinating agency, Celtic Energy.