By Ryan Strandquest, Kory Bush and Michael Metz����

Across the country, K-12 school districts are navigating a tough, familiar equation: aging buildings, rising utility costs and intense pressure to stretch every tax dollar. HVAC systems, particularly central energy plants, often sit at the center of that challenge. They’re essential, expensive to maintain and easy to postpone until problems become emergencies. At the national level, the ��each year on energy, making it the second-largest expense after salaries.����

In Flagler County, Fla., an opportunity arose to treat HVAC modernization not as a one-off capital project, but as a replicable, district-wide strategy that can serve as a blueprint for other districts. By modernizing central energy plants at two high schools (Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School), the county is reducing long-term operating costs while securing substantial financial support through utility rebates and available federal incentives.��

The most important takeaway for other districts is that — with the right planning, documentation and collaboration — central-plant modernization can deliver meaningful returns without “breaking the budget.” In many cases, districts could see financial benefits ranging from $500,000 to $1.2 million, depending on project scope, timing, and eligibility for rebates and energy tax credits. Those benefits can scale, but they can also move in the opposite direction if incentive rules change or programs sunset before a project is placed in service.����

Start with a Systemwide Lens ��

Too often, districts are forced into reactive decisions: replace a failing chiller here, patch controls there, and hope the system holds together��for a few more��years. Instead, Flagler Schools and Matern Professional Engineering took a system-wide approach,��starting with feasibility assessments and campus evaluations to��identify��solutions that were both economical and maintenance-friendly.��

At Flagler Palm Coast High School, the modernized central energy plant came online in December 2025 and is projected to save the district more than 213,000 kilowatt-hours annually. Importantly, the project also earned a $293,000��Power Company (FPL)��energy rebate that helps offset costs and accelerate ROI,��bringing the return on investment to under five years when paired with rebates.��

At Matanzas High School, the modernization effort is currently underway and is more complex due to coinciding construction projects on campus. Completion is set for August 2026. Even with that complexity, the district applied the same disciplined planning approach, looking hard at what could be reused, what could be elevated and where targeted expansion would outperform full replacement.��

That��decision of��diligence��mattered.��By��reusing and elevating existing infrastructure at Flagler Palm Coast High School and expanding the plant at Matanzas, the district saved more than $1 million in construction costs.��

Value Engineering Doesn’t Mean Value Cutting��

Budget pressure is real,��especially with the lingering effects of tariffs and COVID-era cost escalations. The lesson��for��any district is that��value engineering works best when��guided by performance goals��and����long��term lifecycle��rational.��

On the Flagler Palm Coast project, the teams made several practical value-engineering decisions to protect the project’s intent while controlling costs. For example, the team cut nonessential elements while pursuing direct equipment purchases and early procurement strategies to reduce exposure to market volatility. The team also carefully worked through “keep vs. replace” decisions to avoid spending money on upgrades that wouldn’t materially improve performance or maintenance outcomes.��

These are the kinds of choices that add up, especially at scale across a district, state and national portfolio.��

Incentives Can Be Transformative

Utility rebates and federal incentives can improve project economics, but they��come��with��documentation��requirements. District leaders should go into modernization projects assuming that documentation is a core workstream.��

For Florida Power & Light (FPL) rebates, documentation��may include��a��8760-load study, a model that accounts for performance every hour��across a span of 12 months, and��commissioning documentation, including a commissioning letter��signed and sealed by a professional engineer.��

For energy tax credits available under programs tied to the��, specifically,��the��Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit��(26 U.S. Code §48E), documentation and compliance expectations can extend to contractor practices,��such as requirements connected to Davis-Bacon wages and U.S.-made materials thresholds. Those factors influence decisions as early as design and procurement.��In addition, many��IRA-related credits��include��prevailing wage��and apprenticeship requirements;��meeting those labor standards can significantly increase the value of the credit.����

There’s��also a time dimension. Current policy includes a program sunset��in 2035, but districts should be realistic about the uncertainty of future extensions, as��many have seen with the 179D tax credit landscape. The practical message: if incentives are part of the ROI story, districts should move with urgency, not assumption.��The IRA created��new opportunities for tax-exempt entities, including school��districts, through elective pay (also called “direct pay”), which allows eligible entities to receive a payment equal to the value of certain clean energy tax credits if requirements are met.����

A Simple Three-Phase Playbook Other Districts Can Follow��

A three-phase approach can help districts replicate results while minimizing risk.��

First,��conduct a feasibility assessment��with an engineer.��Before committing to major upgrades, districts should verify that the project makes sense financially and operationally,��identify��rebate and incentive pathways, and��establish��an ROI model that stakeholders can stand behind.

Second,��execute with��the contractor and document along the way. Construction success isn’t just installing equipment correctly; it’s also ensuring the right protocols, records, and verification steps are in place to support rebate submissions, commissioning and long-term performance tracking.

Third, bring in��a��qualified tax consultant. If federal incentives are part of the financial plan, districts should engage a licensed CPA or experienced tax professional early enough to ensure that procurement, contracting and documentation align with eligibility requirements. This is especially important because elective pay claims require IRS pre-filing registration and are tied to tax filing timelines.

The Bigger Outcome: Better Learning Environments and Better Stewardship��

Central energy-plant modernization isn’t just an energy story; it’s a stewardship story. The savings and rebates not only reduce utility bills, but they also create flexibility for districts to support staffing, reinvest in capital improvements, and deliver better environments for students and educators. Public school districts everywhere are grappling with the same pressures. The experience of Flagler County shows that with collaboration, disciplined planning, and a strategy that treats incentives as part of the project, HVAC modernization can become a repeatable blueprint for districts across the country.��

Ryan Strandquest, LEED AP, is the President of Matern Professional Engineering. Kory Bush is the Director of Plant Services at Flagler County Public Schools. Michael Metz is a Plant Services Supervisor at Flagler County Public Schools.��

The post A Scalable Blueprint for Modernizing School Energy Plants: How One Florida District Reduced Energy Costs and Unlocked Six-Figure Incentives appeared first on 91ԭƬ.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — UNC Greensboro recently announced that it is moving forward with the construction of a new and sustainable Nursing and Instructional building.

LS3P Associates Ltd. is the Architect-of-Record and SmithGroupJJR is the Design Architect on the project.

Set to make its debut in spring of 2020, UNCG’s Nursing and Instructional Building project includes the demolition of the McIver Building and construction of a new four-story facility that will house the School of Nursing which is currently located in four buildings.

The facility will also provide teaching and flexible laboratory research space for the School of Health and Human Sciences and the Departments of Biology and Chemistry, in addition to providing more space for the School of Nursing, .

In addition to housing 39 labs, 14 classrooms, nine research suites and a community engagement center, the 180,000-square-foot facility is said to be a shining example of sustainable building and design with UNCG currently pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification or higher for the project.

Charlotte-based Rodgers Builders, Inc. is providing construction management, preconstruction, and virtual construction services for the project. Construction includes three components that include demolition of the existing McIver Building, construction of the new Nursing and Instructional building, and construction of the South Chiller Plant, providing capacity for the new building and enhancing reliability of the campus chilled water system.

Builders and designers are now working to incorporate a number of cost-effective and innovative elements that will support the environment as well as health and wellness.

One element includes bioretention and water management. The new building will have a bioretention system, where contaminants and sedimentation will be removed from stormwater runoff. Designers also employed biophilic methods, designing with materials, colors and light in a way that connects people with nature.

Chris Roberts, principal and studio leader at LS3P Associates Ltd., calls it “bringing the outdoors in.”

The building was strategically laid out to avoid critical root zones in existing trees. It’s five-story atrium runs down the middle of the building, creating a lively, open space with natural light and a main staircase, and pedestrian pathways and vegetated pathways located outside of the energy-efficient building.

“A lab building is an energy hog,” said Roberts. “The fact that this building will have labs and classrooms and still be one of the better energy-performing buildings on campus is a big deal.”

Additional eco-friendly features of the new Nursing and Instructional building include:

• Peak energy output from the Photovoltaic panels on the roof that is expected to be only 1 to 2 percent over a year
• Energy-efficiency: LED lights that will be installed throughout the building
• Heat recovery: Exhaust air will preheat unconditioned air entering the building
• Material reuse: Catalpa trees from the McIver Building site were salvaged, milled and treated and will be built into the outdoor classroom
• Vegetated roof: Portions of a roof patio will include natural planted areas to reduce solar heat gain and pre-treat water runoff
• Low-slope high albedo roof design: to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than traditional dark-colored roofs
• Roof pavers: made of recycled materials

“We love to try to incorporate these things but are rarely able to,” said Roberts. “It’s exciting to see so many interventions within one project. I applaud UNCG for such a strong focus on sustainability, and they really embraced these ideas throughout the design.”

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