OXFORD — The SAD 17 Board of Directors on Monday unanimously approved a bid for wood pellets for Guy E. Rowe Elementary and Oxford Elementary schools for the next five years.

Maine Wood Pellet Co., LLC of Athens was recommended by the Operations Committee. The company’s bid ranged from $180 per ton the first year to $198 per ton for the fifth year.

Five bids were received by the Dec. 5 deadline. Maine Wood Pellet was the lowest.

The two boilers are expected to go online next month.

In August, the board of directors voted to enter into a contract for two wood-pellet boilers for $752,685 to replace oil-fired boilers at the two schools. The change is expected to save about 25,000 gallons of oil per year, officials said.

The new boilers are part of an energy savings project in the Oxford Hills School District. Some 200 exterior lights were slated to be converted to LED fixtures, as well as 400 interior lights at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris and Harrison, Waterford, Otisfield and Oxford elementary schools.

A $1,024,807 Qualified School Construction Bond is paying for the project.

School officials began investigating alternative energy projects in 2007, when they hired Siemens Building Technologies to install lighting and other devices in the schools. Under terms of the contracts, the company must guarantee savings each year. If the guarantee is not met, Siemens must reimburse the difference between the guaranteed amount and the actual savings.

In 2007, officials said the projects demonstrated a 17 to 30 percent reduction in annual energy consumption and an annual cost savings of $247,942. In 2008, SAD 17 realized $327,000 in energy savings.

By 2012, the high school had a biomass boiler installed. Officials decided the savings was enough to investigate using pellet boilers at other schools.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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