The Energy Conservation Program for Schools and Hospitals Can Be More Effective

Schools and hospitals are major consumers of energy, and a substantial potential exists for them to reduce their energy consumption and costs through a variety of energy conservation actions. The Schools and Hospitals Program was established by the National Energy Conservation Policy Act as a matching grant program to assist schools and hospitals in reducing their energy consumption. Funding of almost $1 billion was authorized for the program, which is operated by the Department of Energy (DOE).

As currently structured, the Schools and Hospitals Program is not an effective use of Federal funds when compared to other DOE conservation programs. It is among the highest in cost but among the lowest in yielding energy savings. The focus of the Program should be directed toward providing more energy audits. However, the funding for phase I energy audits has been used, and the remaining funds are going into the less cost-effective phase II measures of the Program. The Program could be more effective if its assistance were more closely matched to the needs of the institutions it serves. The ability of DOE to evaluate the results of the Program is severely limited by the lack of program performance data. DOE management of the program has also been hampered by the lack of a firm staff and organization.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: James Duffus Iii Team: General Accounting Office: Energy and Minerals Division Phone: (202) 512-7756