Donald Little is an APPA member emeritus and a consultant based in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at dtlittle@voicenet.com.

Over the past two and a half years, APPA and NACUBO have sponsored ten Resource Reallocation-Utility Strategic Assessment (RR-USA) executive briefings. These state-based meetings have directly benefited over 300 chief business and facilities officers in states from California to Maine. The theme of these briefings is as simple as it is compelling. In a highly competitive realm such as budgetary resource allocation, the plant asset portfolio must be strengthened and renewed through the discrete and beneficial action of reallocating and leveraging cost-avoided dollars.

Utility dollars, and operating budget item that is steady and of necessity adequate, can often be aggregated into a resource pool when attention is given to avoiding costs in the supply, demand, and operations phases of facilities operations.

The advent of electric utility deregulation in many states has created the possibility of purchasing the basic electric utility in an environment that can, in time, be expected to be more efficient. Expect market choices and pricing structures that give the advantage to the customer, namely, you. This phenomenon is what we mean by the supply side of the utilities operations.

Demand side activities that make wide ranging investments in the efficiency of the distribution and delivery modalities of campus utilities have become commonplace. Many colleges and universities can now match the very best efficiencies that are routinely found in the commercial real estate sectors of the economy. The potential for cost avoidance and the reallocation of these dollars has been a powerful driving force on many campuses, thus creating a utility infrastructure that is reliable, renewed, upgraded, and positioned for growth.

Given that the chief business and chief facilities officers may now have a common vision of the positive potential for RR-USA on their campus, the Getting to Go! program should be considered an increasingly urgent priority. At the recent University of Houston RR-USA executive briefing, I took the opportunity to note some basic components of organizational and procedural activity that were presented by our faculty and participants. While not exhaustive, some of these items follow in a list structured to focus on the viewpoint of the chief business officer.

Set Goals

• Utilize the RR-USA principles
• Keep the money and reallocate
• Seek higher energy efficiencies
• Plan on improved campus work and study environments
• Put emphasis on environmentally responsible outcomes
• Adopt a leadership posture while encouraging bottom up actions
• Expect measurable results

Pick Your Team

• Identify a high quality project team
• Provide with support and resources
• Encourage the champion(s)
• Express public support and appreciation
• Insist on high quality outcomes
• Tap into the resources of EPA, Energy Star Buildings and DOE/Rebuild America
• Consider forming strategic partnerships with government, local industry, school districts

Create a Business Plan

• Adopt a holistic approach to reinvestment in the utility infrastructure and the overall plant asset portfolio
• Leverage your resources to engage in a large-scale, high-impact endeavor
• Consider modes of funding without creating debt
• Know your customers so as to harness their interest and action
• Document well so as to make the case for the chief business official as well as the trustees

Gather Legal and Purchasing Assistance

• Encourage the full partnership of the legal and purchasing staff early in the process
• Hire consultants as necessary to assure success
• Understand the potential impacts of the deregulation statutes and tariff rules in your arena of activity
• Learn from the successes and mistakes of others

Choose Your Strategic Partner(s)

• Enter into a qualification and selection process that will assure the best combination of experience, skill, service, and price in the selection of an energy services company (ESCO) or other partner. Base the selection process on as much objective data as possible, and then select a firm with whom you can form meaningful business and trust relationships for the life of the contract
• Sign a letter of understanding or contract, and then undertake the measurements and engineering analysis

Measure

• Establish a baseline, then determine how all future measurements and analysis will be undertaken

Understand the Proposals/Risks/Deals

• Understand the proposals and deals
• Don't assume—ask lots of questions
• Analyze your risks, both in action mode and for inaction Go Public, Lead for the Long Haul
• Go for the long haul, be persistent, stay flexible, keep going, count the money.