Technology Assessment Division

Energy Fund - Program Description

What were the eligibility requirements?

The Energy Fund was available to all publicly funded institutions implementing energy conservation measures under a performance-based energy efficiency contract. Further, funding was required to be used exclusively to provide interest rate reduction on third party energy conservation loans to publicly funded institutions domiciled in Louisiana.

What is performance contracting?

According to Louisiana state law, R. S. 39:1484, a performance-based energy efficiency contract means a contract for energy efficiency services and equipment in which the payment obligation for each year of the contract is either:

• Set as a percentage of the annual energy cost savings attributable to the services or equipment under the contract, or
• Guaranteed by the person under contract to be less than the annual energy cost savings attributable to the services or equipment under the contract.

What were the dates of enrollment?

Open enrollment period was from January through March each year.  During the enrollment period, taxpayer funded entities were able to submit assistance requests to the Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

What happened when a request was accepted?

Qualifying projects were pooled by the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority to achieve further economies of scale in transaction costs.  A “private bond issue” backed by the pooled projects generated funds.

The Department of Energy and Natural Resources provided credit enhancement to partially “buy down” the interest rate associated with the bond issue. This buy down made the cost of financing more affordable, especially for entities with a poor credit rating or no credit rating at all.

Energy Fund recipients were required to provide the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, on a quarterly basis, the first full year’s energy savings.