The Arizona Corporation Commission and Arizona Public Services (APS) agreed during a recent commission meeting to create the Schools Energy Efficiency Pilot Program, a two-year program beginning in 2016 to help schools with energy costs.

Within the next 90 days, APS will develop the program, which will have $2 million available over the two years. Schools participating in the program will be able to receive $500,000 in rebates for their energy usage.

“If you shoot for the stars, you don’t hit a bush,” Commissioner Tom Forese, one of the people who helped to draft the proposal, said. “The best case scenario is that we have a dramatic decrease in energy consumption. The worst case is that we save schools money and we put that money back in the classroom.”

Eligible schools are K-12 public or charter schools in the area that APS provides services and must prove that they are unable to raise money to independently fund the energy projects. Priority will be given to those schools who have not received rebates from existing programs in the past three years. 

ConservAmerica  played a role in forming the agreement. “This is a unique innovative program,” ConservAmerica Vice Chairman Paul Walker said. “It will allow Arizona to explore more aggressive approaches toward energy efficiency investments.”