Palatka (FL) Housing Authority Energy Performance Contract

The Palatka Housing Authority is a small- to medium-sized public housing authority (PHA) that owns and manages 420 units across seven properties in north-central Florida. Similar to the experience of many smaller public housing authorities, Palatka Housing Authority lacks not only significant capital and operating funds, but also the ability to access traditional bank loans for making improvements to its properties. However, seeing a need to make quality-of-life improvements for residents while also making them financially self-sustaining, leaders at Palatka Housing Authority decided to employ the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) option available to PHAs. “This is a great opportunity for us to provide some new energy-efficient appliances to our units,” said President/CEO John Nelson, “I know our residents are excited because they are getting something new. That doesn’t happen too often, especially with federal budget cuts.”

During each year of the PSA, the ESCO produces a report which provides numerous detailed charts of the energy and water consumption and cost savings achieved, and compares them to the contractual frozen baseline as well as the guaranteed savings. Using a comparison of actual utility data to calculate the savings, the second annual report from the ESCO for the period July 2015 – June 2016 shows the following total annual savings over that 12-month period alone:

• $204,750
• 88,963 kWh of electricity
• 48,189 ccf of natural gas
• 15,024 kilo-gallons of water

View the full case study, including details on financing and outcomes, on the Better Buildings Challenge website.