As school districts grapple with increasingly common extreme weather events and power grid failures, improving energy resilience has become a necessity. Fortunately, energy resilience upgrades come with an often overlooked double benefit. These improvements can create long-term energy and operational savings that solve another pressing concern: budget stability.

In other words, by incorporating resilience technologies, districts can both safeguard their operations and build better, more sustainable operational budgets.

The Hidden Financial Benefits of Energy Resilience

Simply put, energy resilience refers to how well a school's energy systems can endure (or swiftly bounce back from!) severe weather or major grid disruptions. Today's energy resilience tools include onsite power sources like solar panels and battery energy storage systems, and sophisticated digital solutions like microgrid controls, building automation systems and energy management software.

These energy resilience technologies can support budget sustainability in several ways:

• Decreasing day-to-day energy costs: Building automation systems can monitor and manage energy consumption in real-time. This means they can identify inefficiencies and automatically optimize resource usage across facilities, creating lower life-cycle energy, operational and maintenance costs. Onsite solar energy also reduces the need to buy power from the local grid, further lowering utility bills and creating long-term budget stability by avoiding increasingly common energy cost volatility, and even generating new revenue through net metering agreements.
• Enabling more flexible, intelligent power management: Microgrids can provide users with more dynamic control over how and when they use power. With the flexibility to shift energy-intensive tasks to off-peak hours, strategically use renewable energy during times of peak availability, and avoid unnecessary energy surges, districts can substantially lower their energy bills. They can even receive financial incentives from utility companies that offer demand response or battery storage incentive programs.

Designing Energy Resilience Investments for Long-Term Savings

Creating a resilient energy future isn’t just about technology—it also requires strategic planning and careful investment. For school district leaders, a few considerations should remain top of mind when considering resilience measures.

• Upfront Costs: Resilience improvements can require significant initial investment. However, many public sector organizations choose financing models, such as energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs), that mitigate upfront costs and allow systems to pay for themselves overtime.
• System Design and Integration: The success of energy resilience initiatives depends on effective planning and integration. Tailored solutions that align with the unique needs of each facility or campus are essential for optimizing performance and minimizing costs.

Finding the right partner can make all the difference. Stockton Unified School District in California worked with Schneider Electric to expand upon its already impressive energy efficiency program by implementing energy storage. Bundling their existing solar arrays at two district high schools with lithium-ion batteries is helping the district to offset up to 60% of energy costs, including high peak demand energy costs, and saving the district more than $1.6 million over the next decade. Stockton is pioneering the use of battery storage technologies in schools – only 3% of schools in the state of California had implemented battery storage at the time – and was able to leverage existing grants and rebates to cover the full cost of the batteries.

Creating a More Resilient Future

For school district leaders, the path forward is clear. Energy resilience isn't just a safeguard against emergencies—it's a foundation for sustainable cost management. By proactively adopting resilience technologies, organizations can buffer themselves from energy cost volatility while fortifying operations.

Every facility has unique energy requirements and vulnerabilities. Partnering with an expert like Schneider Electric ensures your approach to energy resilience will be tailored to meet your district’s specific challenges while achieving maximum cost efficiency.

Contact Schneider Electric today to learn more about how we can help your district on its journey to energy resilience