State explores ways to cut utility costs

Michael Keathley, office of administration commissioner, and David Mosby, director of facilities management, design and construction, submitted the letter to Blunt last week in response to his call for energy conservation across the state.

In fiscal year 2005, the state spent $66 million on utility costs, a 37 percent increase from fiscal year 2000.

“These goals … would have an immediate impact on controlling the inflationary spiral of the state’s utility bill,” Keathley and Mosby state in the letter. “We believe that within 12 months of the implementation of this plan, there would be a noticeable reduction in the amount of energy used in the state.”

Their objectives include:

• Establish an energy analysis program for all state facilities to help find ways to conserve energy;

• Establish a maintenance program for all lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems;

• Create an ongoing program to conduct energy audits and install energy-efficient equipment;

• Earmark up to 10 percent of each year’s Facility Maintenance Reserve Fund to finance energy projects;

• Partner with local utilities to look into ways of bundling the purchase of utilities at reduced rates; and

• Partner with utilities to develop opportunities for co-generation and combined heat and power systems.