Webinar Details
Explore how Tribal communities are integrating energy efficiency measures (EEMs) into new and existing buildings to achieve cost and energy savings. Hear directly from two Tribes that have successfully implemented EEMs across multiple facilities, gaining insights from their experiences and lessons learned. This webinar will cover various types of EEMs, aiding in the evaluation of their potential suitability for your Tribe's facilities.
AMY LUKENS: Hi, welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us today. This webinar is for the Tribal Energy Program Mini-Series, covering energy efficiency measures. Next slide, please.
Before we dive into today's webinar, a few housekeeping items. To turn on live captions, click on the Show Captions button in the control panel at the bottom of your screen. To submit questions for the presenters, click on the Q&A button in the control panel at the bottom of your screen. This is also where you can message our webinar team if you're having any technical issues, and we'll try our best to assist. Today's webinar is being recorded. The recording, transcript, and slides will be available on the Office of Indian Energy's webinar website in the next one to two weeks. Finally, all registrants today will receive a copy of the slides via email in advance of them being posted on the webinar webpage. Next slide, please.
Today's webinar covers energy efficiency measures. Sometimes they're referred to as EEMs. EEMs are technologies and techniques used to minimize energy expenditures. Some common EEMs you might be familiar with are LED light bulbs, or motion sensors that turn on and off lights when you enter a room. However, there are many types of EEMs available on the market. For more information about some common types of EEMs, you can visit the National Lab of the Rockies: National Residential Efficiency Measures Database, which we've linked in the chat for your convenience. Today, two Tribes have joined us to explain how they've implemented EEMs in their communities. Next slide, please.
To kick things off, I'll start with a few brief introductions and a snapshot of the Office of Indian Energy. My name is Amy Lukens, I'm a Technical Project Officer for the Office of Indian Energy, and I'll be your host today. Next slide, please.
The Office of Indian Energy is under the leadership of our Director and Deputy Director. Mr. Eric Mahroum was appointed Director of the Office of Indian Energy on January 12, 2026. This appointment follows his appointment as the Director of DOE's Office of State and Community Energy Programs. Eric proudly served the DOE during the 2017 Trump Administration. Eric has a track record of forging partnerships, promoting innovation, and connecting entrepreneurs with America's Dynamic Energy Sector. Mr. David Conrad serves as our Deputy Director. He has previously served at the Department of Interior, and in other roles, supporting Indian Country. Next slide, please.
The Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determine Act of 2005, under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, authorized the creation of the Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy. Our mission is to promote Tribal energy development, reduce energy costs, enhance Tribal energy and economic infrastructure, and electrify Indian lands and homes. We celebrated 20 years last year. We're excited to continue our support for Tribal Nations as they pursue their energy visions. We're continuing to find new ways to be more efficient and effective as we rise to meet our congressional mandate and achieve the mission of our Office. Next slide, please.
The Office of Indian Energy offers three main areas of support to Tribes. First, we offer financial assistance on a competitive basis to plan, develop, and deploy energy infrastructure and technology. Second, no-cost technical assistance to advance Tribal energy projects and energy commerce. And third, capacity-building activities through webinars, workshops, and workforce development opportunities, with the goal of supporting Tribes to fully participate in unleashing American energy. Next slide, please.
The Office of Indian Energy supports Indian Country, and this includes Federally recognized Indian Tribes, Alaska Native corporations, intertribal organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations. Pictured here are two projects our Office has funded, featuring energy projects that diversify energy sources to strengthen energy reliability and affordability. Next slide, please.
Now I'd like to hand over the presentation to Ms. Sara Drescher, the Senior Attorney and Energy Manager for Forest County Potawatomi. Next slide, please. Take it away, Sara.
SARAH DRESCHER: First, I have to figure out how to get off of mute. I apologize. So, hello, I am Sara Drescher. I work for the Forest County Potawatomi Community. I have been with the Community for a number of years and have been in and out of the energy space, during all of those years, either as a lawyer or as the energy manager, developing and running their projects. Next slide, please.
So, as background, the Forest County Potawatomi Community is a Tribe in Wisconsin with their reservation in the northeast portion of the state, and then additional trust territories in the Milwaukee area, which is in the southeast corner of the state. The Tribe is part of a Confederacy with the Odawa and Ojibwa, and the Potawatomi have been known as the Keepers of the Fire within that Confederacy for some time. Next slide.
This is a map that shows a little bit of the reservation area. The reservation is—like a lot of Midwest Tribes—it is very spread out. It is not locked into one land mass. So sometimes challenges appear with energy development when you are trying to create better systems for kind of that patchwork nature of Midwest reservations. Next slide.
The Forest County Potawatomi began their energy journey quite some time ago, and one of the first steps in that journey was to create a mission statement recognizing exactly what the Tribe's core values are and how those core values could be built off of during their energy journey. I won't read the mission statement in its entirety, but I'll leave it up there for you. This mission statement, in turn, helped the Tribe to develop priorities in terms of their energy journey, and those priorities included not only creation of green, renewable power, but also in the reduction of energy use. I think, what a lot of Tribes find is that as they grow and as new buildings are developed, they're increasing their energy footprint, but they still have older buildings that need some management. So, energy efficiency measures and grants such as the one that we're performing these measures under, help us a lot to kind of direct attention to some of the older facilities. Or, as we'll talk about later, facilities like our Milwaukee Casino, that it was added onto several times. So when HVAC systems, when lighting systems, and when other key components of those buildings were put into place, they were pieced together based on the needs of the new building footprint, so they weren't necessarily holistically planned for the original and then the additional structures. Next slide.
With respect to the Tribe's energy background, the Tribe has developed a number of solar projects. The Tribe currently has over 3 megawatts of behind-the-meter generation that are sourced to individual buildings. Wisconsin does not have net metering, which allows us to build a massive megawatt—2-, 3-, 5-megawatt—generation site, and then feed it into numerous buildings. So thus far, we've been working with individual sites, and collectively have 3 megawatts, but with those 3 megawatts, we're able to offset the needs for those buildings between 17 and nearly 100%. So, in some instances, we're using very little traditional grid-sourced power. And this aligns with the Tribe's mission. The Tribe is focused on self-producing its own energy—green energy—for all of its energy needs. Obviously, with casinos and with other large energy users, this will take some time, and it will also take a certain amount of regulatory change if we can get there; but, thus far, we've done a great job of recognizing the needs for on-reservation buildings. Next slide.
But when thinking through why it is we've focused on energy efficiency measures, part of it is that it fits with the Tribe's environmental mission; their values; the constraints with aging systems; and recognizing that aged buildings still provide needs for the reservation, still provide needs for the community, and it's not always convenient or easy to rebuild or regroup entirely. So energy efficiency measures and retrofitting—updating some of those old buildings—helps us to reduce our energy footprint significantly. So by reducing energy demand in those older buildings and structures, and even building new construction to LEED or other green construction programs, we've found that we can significantly reduce energy required for projects. When we look at energy efficiency measures, we want to make sure that the measures will pay for themselves over their lifespan. So, if something has an expected life cycle of 25 years, but the measure won't pay for itself, in terms of the cost savings for 35 years, it's probably not the best solution for us. However, if it's got an expected life cycle of 25 years, and it pays for itself in 5, it's a very good measure for us to consider implementing. We also want those measures to provide, immediately, cost savings and lowered energy demand. So we want to be able to verify that what those measures accomplish are both a reduction in the cost that we're paying for the electricity and a reduction in the use of electricity, especially if that is the traditionally sourced fossil fuel. And then we also need the measure to be technologically deployable. So is it something that we can implement with existing systems? Are there other systems that would need to be upgraded or retrofitted in light of the measures? So there are a number of questions that go into that equation, but thus far we've had significant luck finding solutions that are deployable within our existing systems and timelines. And then, of course, we always want things to be grant-eligible. Certainly with this grant, it's helpful that we had—and I believe that this grant did require—the energy audits as a backbone for the projects, but that was really a helpful exercise because it helped us determine right off the bat what would and would not be grant eligible. So it helped us frame the development of our grant proposal. Next slide.
So, this is the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, which is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And as I mentioned, this facility has been built in a number of iterations. This specific picture is one of the hotel towers and then there is a second hotel tower, and then the casino floor itself has been built and redeveloped over four or five, I believe, iterations. So, as you can imagine, getting all of these systems to talk to each other, getting them all intertwined with each other, can be a bit challenging and sometimes it leads to certain inefficiencies, which we've now been able to recognize and help to reduce. Next slide.
And I realize that this is a very small slide and not necessarily easy to read. With respect to the EEMs, there is a secondary slide coming up that will show those in more detail. But this is the kind of one page that was part of our project application to DOE, and I think that one of the most important points of this is that over the course of this project, we're looking at approximately a $4 million cost savings. And the payback is approximately six and a half years, six and a third years. So it helps us to keep those numbers in the forefront when we're developing these projects. It helps us to determine whether the projects are going to be, not just beneficial for the Tribe in terms of cost savings, but also something that, like I said earlier, something that will, in fact, pay back. Next slide.
So these are the specific EEMs that we selected as part of this project. Some of them have very little actual investment. One of the things that we noted as part of the audit was that we had some systems in place that either, number one weren't being operated effectively or efficiently, or number two, maybe hadn't been looked at in some time and could be reset or reconsidered. And the best example of this is the snowmelt. The new hotel towers have a snowmelt system, which is intended to be used during specific weather forecasts. But what we found is that we were operating it throughout the course of the winter months. And so one of the things that we've been able to identify is, first of all, that that's likely not an efficient use of the system. But second of all, that we—with some training and with some standard operating procedures that we develop—we can reduce the Tribe's costs and provide significant savings without really any cost to the Tribe. It's a relatively minor cost to implement new plans for how we operate that system. The other items on the list—some of them, again, are relatively easy. For example, event center occupancy sensors—that building specifically was a remnant and was part of the existing casino that had been changed a couple of times, and, for one reason or another, it is one of the only areas of the casino that did not have occupancy sensors. So, relatively easy fix to install those occupancy sensors and reduce the load significantly in that area. Now, several of the measures were measures that were identified, again, by simply reviewing—auditing—our use of systems, and some of them are relatively easy. For example, a reset of the chilled water supply. Again, not a terribly difficult fix, but something that, in the long run, will create significant savings for the Tribe. So, I think one of the things that we recognized immediately was how valuable and beneficial that audit itself was. Not every element that we found within that audit requires significant funding, and some of those audit measures are actually relatively easy and low-hanging fruit, if you will, for us to fix relatively immediately. Next slide.
One of the products specifically that I wanted to talk about is the EndoTherm product, which is an additive within the HVAC. It gets added to the water itself within the HVAC loop, and it reduces the tension and proceeds through the loop more efficiently. The chemical is being used quite a bit, not only internationally, but also its recently started to be used in Federal buildings, so there have been some really good case studies with this product and a recognition that the product itself does provide significant cost savings. And you will see at the bottom there the component, if you will, of what it will look like in terms of the concentration of the product. And once it's added to the loop, it's expected to provide between 15–50% energy savings. Now, those energy savings are a little bit dynamic for a number of reasons. The situation can be complicated by a number of factors. So, for example, if you do work on a component within your HVAC system that has this additive within it, you need to release that into a drum or other storage, and then replace that directly within the system, rather than if you're doing an HVAC loop that has simply a water product, or water alone, you don't necessarily think about maintaining that. So oftentimes, what some of the case studies have shown is that the amount of the additive can be diluted if it's not properly handled and managed, which can then reduce your energy savings. So you do need to have some training, and there does need to be some additional concern and consideration paid once you've started using that additive. But we're hopeful that it's going to provide us with a significant efficiency at a relatively low cost. Next slide.
Now, the real interesting piece of this project for us is our current situation at the casino. We had a significant fire within the HVAC systems last spring, and so, at that time, we were in the middle of finalizing all of the contracts for the EEMs. The contractors had signed them, we had engineered everything, and we were ready to go. And then, once this fire occurred, we realized that there may actually need to be some project changes. So, for example, the stack economizer was part of a project for the old HVAC system, which is no longer in place. And, until we know what the new system is, we can't design around how to implement some of the desired controls. So, I'm sure as many of you know, once you start changing pieces of your HVAC components, it does require a new plan of attack. You know, you have to implement and integrate those components into the system as a whole. So, without knowing what those individual pieces are, we cannot engineer for the desired EEMs. So, we're working through the new and the replacement designs right now. Working with the insurance company has delayed that process, so unfortunately, we will be seeking an extension, and likely some project revisions, once we know exactly the scope of that design. So, while I had hoped to be able to talk through a lot of the specific EEMs and what we have already implemented, it turns out that we're going to have to wait for that discussion for a short amount of time. Next slide, I believe that might be it. Yes, so that is it for me. I look forward to further discussion and questions.
AMY LUKENS: Awesome. Thank you, Sara. Next slide.
Alright, now we'd like to take some time to have Sara answer some questions for us. So, if you have any questions, go ahead and click on the Q&A button and type in your question. While you type, we'll cover some questions that were submitted during the registration process, and we'll do our best to get to as many questions as we can, but please note that we do have time limitations, so we may not get to all of them. So, with that, Sara, I'm going to read you a couple questions that we got from registration, and then let you know if we get any more.
So, one question was, “How are energy savings typically verified after your projects?”
SARAH DRESCHER: This is a great question. Our project was set up to include a great deal of measurement and verification, and as part of that process, we included individual sensors and individual components within every piece of equipment that makes up our HVAC system. So we're able to go down to a very discrete mechanical level to see exactly what an individual piece of equipment is using in terms of energy. And then, also, at the end, because these sensors will still be in place, we'll be able to see if our measures decreased that use. We've also started using those same sensors in other facilities because it gives us such an incredible view of what the building is doing. It helps us to troubleshoot if we can see spikes in use, we know that maybe it's time for some sort of maintenance, or if we see that there's another problem. So for example, if one fan is cutting out periodically, we can see all of those things on a very discrete level. So, we're relying on measurement and verification that is down to, you know, that individual level. I know that in the past, we've had projects where we've relied on comparison of utility bills. There are a lot of different formats to do that, but I think that since we've done the installation of these very granular sensors, I'm not sure that we would go back to another way.
AMY LUKENS: Yeah. And the next question actually kind of ties into this, “Please share your experience with EEM data logging, storage, and analysis.”
SARAH DRESCHER: And it does tie in very easily that, the data logging—so each one of those sensors that is part of our controls, or part of the individual equipment, also feeds into the control system so that it is logging the energy used at any given moment. It is logging a number of other things as well, but those reports are really very intuitive. They're easy to compare side by side, so if you're looking at it on a monthly basis, or if you're looking at it on a weekly basis, you can compare your use/your performance relatively easily. I'm really very pleased with that portion of the logging system. It does provide a little bit—the only problem that we have, which I imagine other casinos especially may have, given the regulated nature of casinos, is providing a workaround for the IT itself. So because our systems are set within the casino structure, we have to have some way for consultants and those outside of casino structure to be able to access and use that information. And so we've been able to find workarounds for that, but that was the most challenging piece of this. But the measurement and verification software is really plug-and-play. At least what we've used and what we've found.
AMY LUKENS: Nice. The next question is kind of an overarching one, “In your opinion, what energy efficiency measures have provided the greatest energy and cost savings for your facilities?”
SARAH DRESCHER: That's a tough question. I think had I been asked that question 15 years ago, I would have immediately said changes in lighting, because it's such a low-cost item, and it provides such an immediate reduction. Now I would say—because we've done so much related to HVAC in the last several years, and because all of our systems were pieced together based on different timing needs and based on construction—I would say HVAC EEMs have probably outpaced the lighting. HVAC EEMs can take a lot of different approaches. Some can be as simple as box fans, which move air in a more discrete area, as opposed to holistic reworking of venting systems. And I'm not talking about the box fans that we put on the floor, but there are box fan systems that can be integrated into your HVAC piping—your conduits, your air—and those alone can move air in a way that if you're relying solely on the conduits themselves, you're using a lot more energy to push that air through you know, what could be thousands of feet of conduit. So, I think HVAC has become my new favorite.
AMY LUKENS: That's awesome. Alright, one question here is, “Can you walk through the process Forest County Potawatomi took in order to generate and identify each of the nine EEMs you had listed on your slide?”
SARAH DRESCHER: Yes! We first had a number of audits performed, so the audit that we used to identify these projects was a Level 3 audit. And those Level 3 audits get a little bit more specific about the equipment and about some of the particular settings on that equipment. So, for example, you know, one thing that we found, which we weren't aware of, is that our chilled water was set at a constant year-round, as opposed to changing with the ambient temperature. So, that can be a relatively inexpensive fix, but because we had never looked at it at such an individualized level, we didn't realize that not everybody was on the same page with some of those things. So, the audit itself really provided some good insight into the items that could be fixed. But from there, we tried to develop costs associated with each of the items that was identified in the audit. So, what would it cost for the equipment, for the labor, and any other piece that might be part of that EEM? And if we can develop a cost, we can then use that cost and compare it against a projected savings, which most of the equipment has projected savings—we tend to be a little bit conservative with those projected savings. I don't like to assume that something is going to be paid off in 10 years based on what a company suggests is the highest level of savings. I'd rather err on the side of caution and use more of a middle ground or lower. But once you compare against the projected savings, you can determine whether that cost can pay itself off during the life of that equipment. So that's the process that we've used. We also take into account the needs for certain things. For example, if there is an area of the building that is more drafty than another area of the building and that's been reported through a number of, you know, personal initiatives, or whatever that might look like, is there a way we can fix that and create comfort in an area that's currently problematic? So we try to look at this not just from the audit perspective, but also from a needs perspective. And then we consider all of those things collectively to determine whether or not it's a project that can both pencil out and whether or not it's feasible. So, as a lot of Tribal casino owners know, you can't always perform projects that may make a lot of sense, because you're not necessarily going to close down a large money-maker at, you know, for two, three weeks out of a month in order to implement a big change. So, we try to listen to business needs, listen to needs that people are reporting on the ground, and then compare that with cost savings and the cost of the item.
AMY LUKENS: Thanks, and we have a question here that says, “Who performed the audit, and was this project executed as a funded project, or as an energy savings performance contract?”
SARAH DRESCHER: The audit itself was performed by Michaels Energy. They have done a couple of audits for us, and it was not a funded project. We had paid for a couple of those; however, we also received some state funding through Focus on Energy for a number of audits. So we were able to leverage a couple of different pieces of funding for the audits themselves. And then, with the audit, we were able to develop the larger project for the EEMs and submit for this DOE grant.
AMY LUKENS: And did you have to convince casino and hotel staff to support the EEM initiatives? Was there any relationship building that needed to be done?
SARAH DRESCHER: We have a very active Executive Council, and I can't say enough about our Executive Council and how much support they have given to the Energy Department. So, with their backing and with their blessing, we tend to have a great deal of… I think we have a really a good camaraderie with casino management and staff. There were some things that the casino did not want to do. And I will never forget one conversation, because there was a conversation about electrifying certain kitchen equipment, and the casino manager looked me straight in the eye and said, “I'm not taking that to my kitchen staff. Move on.” So there were some no-gos, but all in all, I think the casino and Executive Council saw the value in this and saw the need for retrofitting certain equipment. So we were able to all come together very quickly.
AMY LUKENS: That's great. And one question is, “Is your Executive Council your Tribal Council?”
SARAH DRESCHER: It is.
AMY LUKENS: Alright. And we have a couple more still here. “Are there any funding sources that you guys currently consider pursuing other than Office of Indian Energy? Such as SCEP Home Energy Rebate Program? I'm not sure if those are applicable to facilities, but what are your experiences with that kind of thing?”
SARAH DRESCHER: Right. No, we leverage a lot of different funding opportunities. The key for us is to, first, make sure that we have a technologically feasible project. What we do not want to do is build projects just to build projects. We don't want to implement EEMs for the sake of implementing EEMs. We want to make sure that we're performing work that will pencil out, and work that will provide savings. So, we tend to develop the project, make sure that it makes sense, and then look for funding opportunities. We've used a number of different sources over the years. We've used BIA funding, we've used DOE funding, we've used EPA funding, we've used state funding. I can't even tell you how many different sources we've used. There are a lot of, and for this project specifically, we've got just the DOE funding, and then we'll be getting some focus on energy money back for certain EEMs. But for other projects, we do look at the residential, and I know that HEEHR just came out recently—we're looking at creating a project under that. So we leverage a lot of different funding opportunities.
AMY LUKENS: Thanks. “Are you or other staff looking into thermal energy storage or battery storage for any of your projects?”
SARAH DRESCHER: We have. It's certainly something that we've considered. We've got a potential project that we're looking at on the reservation. That project would incorporate a microgrid into currently existing solar. With that project, we are looking at battery storage. Because we have a mission of self-providing green energy, we have not considered battery storage for peak shaving or, for other implementable reasons. We've got very specific goals in terms of our energy footprint, our energy use, and our future plans. So, while battery storage is something that we consider within the right project component, it's not something we've considered in terms of EEMs for the casino.
AMY LUKENS: Alright, and I have my own question I'm going to bring up, “For your EndoTherm hydronic additive for your HVAC system, how did you guys learn about that? Was it recommended to you by your auditor, or was it something you saw implemented elsewhere?”
SARAH DRESCHER: A little bit of both. We used to operate a 2-megawatt biodigester, and as part of that project, I had a lot of experience with a particular company who is the local supplier for the EndoTherm product. They had been talking to me about this product for a number of years and initially, I didn't feel as though it was something that, initially we didn't have the right combination of EEMs and use for the product. I think that we were still, at that point, in a building phase at the casino and hotel, and so it would have been really hard to implement a use. It was a newer product, and used primarily in Europe, so there wasn't a lot of local information about it. And then when we did the audit, it was a product that was recommended by the audit company, and that kind of began a new discussion about it. It's been interesting to be able to read a lot of the newer information about it. It is a product that's been out there for quite some time, just less used stateside. So it's great to see that the Federal government is starting to use it. That gives me some, you know, a little bit more easier reliance on the use and on the product. So we're looking forward to that, and we're looking forward to figuring out exactly how beneficial it can be.
AMY LUKENS: Thank you. And, “Would you be willing to share what particular software and monitoring equipment you use for monitoring your EEMs?”
SARAH DRESCHER: I would if I knew off the top of my head. I'd have to log in.
AMY LUKENS: No problem.
SARAH DRESCHER: You know, I log in so often, and I never actually pay attention to what it is. But I can always get back to you with that.
AMY LUKENS: Okay, sounds good. And actually, we are just about at time, so if we didn't get to your questions, folks, we're still tracking them, and we will try to get to them maybe at the end. But we're going to go ahead and jump ahead, so thank you so much again, Sara. That was a great presentation, really appreciate it. And thanks for taking all the questions.
SARAH DRESCHER: Absolutely, thank you!
AMY LUKENS: Alright, next slide. Alright, now I'd like to hand the presentation over to Mr. Bryan Mignone, Deputy General Counsel, and Mr. Matthew Johnston, Grants Administrator with the Oneida Indian Nation. Next slide, please.
Sweet. Alright, take it away!
BRYAN MIGNONE: Thanks, Amy. My name is Bryan Mignone, I am Deputy General Counsel for the Oneida Indian Nation, and I also oversee the Oneida Indian Nation’s Competitive Grant Program. My colleague, Matthew Johnston, is our Grant Administrator [and] has responsibilities for reporting and administration and oversight of the progress of the projects that are grant-funded. I've been with the Oneidas for about 20 years now, and for the past, I would say, the past 10 years, I’ve been involved with ongoing Department of Energy grants for the Tribe and its various facilities. We have, for example, one of the projects that we started with the Department of Energy is at our largest facility—which is our Turning Stone Resort Casino campus, which is on a 10-acre campus, and has various buildings and operations that are conducted there. We have a combined heat and power plant, we call it the Cogen facility, and it supplies electricity, steam, and chilled water to the entire campus. I believe the first grant that I worked on, at least for the Oneida Indian Nation, was to upgrade that facility back in 2015—it was a few years it took to complete the project—but to upgrade it to add a steam turbine to the existing combustion turbine, so that any gas that was emitted from the facility could be recaptured and then generated for the facility. This has been an extremely important facility for the Tribe because, well, for part of the year at least, we're able to operate the casino almost completely off of the Cogen facility. In the summer months, that becomes a little more difficult. And, in fact, it's going to become even more difficult because we just completed a significant expansion to the property. Really significant. The most significant since the property opened that will require/will increase energy needs, and it's our next energy project that we're going to be looking at to figure out how to keep pace with development and expansion of this particular property. Next slide, please.
In any event, we wanted to talk this afternoon about three of our Department of Energy grant awards that are more current. There's one that we began in 2019, that we completed last year and then there's two current ones, which are a similar program. It's the same program, it was just different years of funding for clean energy deployment and for energy efficiency. We call them Phase 1 and Phase 2. All of these projects are implementation projects, and would not have happened but for a significant planning component. For our 2019 project, that I mentioned was complete, we actually received Department of Energy grant funding to fund the ASHRAE Level 2 Energy Audit for various Nation facilities. And based on that, the results of that planning project, we're able to select a significant amount of projects that would result in both energy savings and cost savings across Oneida Indian Nation facilities. I should also just probably take a step back, too, and give a little bit of background about where the Oneida Indian Nation is located. We are located in central New York. We're about maybe 30 miles east of Syracuse. It's a relatively small Tribe with about 1,000 enrolled members, and many of those members live on or near the Oneida's ancestral homelands in central New York State. Similar to the prior presenter, the Oneida Indian Nation lands are not contiguous, so they're spread out over a 300,000-acre reservation area within central New York, and most of that land is currently in trust. But, that's also to make the point that a lot of our operations and facilities are dispersed through a large area and involve a lot of different departments, different individuals, and different needs. One of the positive developments is, earlier this year, the Oneida Indian Nation has consolidated all of the facilities and energy departments within one department under the supervision of a vice president for engineering and physical plant, and that has made Matt and my life much easier to be able to collect information, obtain information, come up with strategies or solutions to challenges that we're facing through these projects. Let me go to the next slide, please.
So the 2019 project—this was through an energy infrastructure deployment on Tribal lands grant. All of the energy measures were installed and operational by December 31, 2024. We did require some no-cost extension time because, I know it seems like a lot of time because we started this project in 2019, but then there was Covid-19, which resulted in the temporary closure of most of our facilities and furlough of most of our team members. And then, even though we were able to reopen later in 2020, we were running into challenges of labor shortages, supply shortages, supply chain issues, high cost for some of these products, and so we needed to take a little bit more time to let the dust settle and to continue our project. But, we did complete all of the implementation and upgrades by the end of December of 2024. And we had a full year of verification, so that we could verify cost and energy savings across all of the facilities and projects that were involved. And on this slide is a list of those projects that we did undertake in this 2019 grant. And they included kitchen exhaust hood controls, so they don't run constantly and waste energy. We did do some upgrades to our chilled water operations at the central utility plant—the Cogen facility—and some upgrades to the pump. One of our big projects was the replacement of a lot of our traditional outdoor parking lot lighting poles with LED fixtures at our main facility in Turning Stone. And, some other low-hanging fruit, were 87 remote thermostats and LED light fixture replacement within 28 buildings throughout Oneida lands. An additional project that we undertook, similar to the prior presentation, the installation of higher-energy-efficiency HVAC units throughout many of our facilities, including some of our retail C-stores and, as mentioned, we were able to complete a full 12-month savings verification period with our no-cost extension for this project and closed out the project after December 31st of last year. Next slide, please.
Matt, not sure if you can just chime in and talk a little bit about what this chart represents for that project.
MATTHEW JOHNSTON: Yeah, good afternoon. I'm Matt Johnston, the Grants Administrator for Oneida Indian Nation, and this is just sort of a breakdown. This comes from our final report, actually, that based on the measurements that we had shows the savings—the cost savings, the electricity, and natural gas energy savings that we had. And, at the time, we were tracking greenhouse gases as well, so this is sort of the progression of what we've been able to measure for the savings that we've gotten from these projects. And that was over the course of, as Bryan mentioned, got an extension so that we could measure all of them, over the course of a 12-month period, to capture the full savings.
BRYAN MIGNONE: Thanks, Matt. Go to the next slide. So the next two awards—our 2022 award and our 2023—they're under the Clean Energy Technology Deployment on Tribal Lands programs. We did a separate energy audit in 2022 that actually was fully complete in the beginning of 2023. We did that independent of any grant funding for the planning piece, but we did it because we recognized that we were realizing significant energy and cost savings from the 2019 project. And given the expansion to the various, various properties— for example, by 2022, we had three new casinos that had been opened, and other properties that were coming online—we've recognized the value of doing another energy audit. And so for both the 2022 and the 2023 awards, which are implementation awards, they were based on that same energy audit. Why we didn't do it all in one year is because, in terms of the timing, certain parts of the audit were complete and it was just the timing of when the grant opportunities had been released. We were able to take advantage of the 2022 opportunity with certain of the audit facilities being complete, and then, in the meantime, complete the other facilities, and then be able to utilize the 2023 opportunity to implement those projects. So the 2022 was a smaller subset of the overall projects, and it focused on our Cogen plant, again, and focuses on some significant lighting upgrades to our entertainment facilities within our Turning Stone Resort Casino. The air compressor variable frequency drive upgrade was to replace an air compressor with a variable frequency drive unit to cut energy use and better match the plant demand. And then we also are upgrading two Cleaver Brooks boilers with variable frequency drive units and upgrading compassion controls to cut down on electrical and gas use. The lighting upgrades are probably the most exciting because these are entertainment venues, and I think it was a little bit shocking to see how much energy they were utilizing when we did the audit. And so, we are really looking forward to completing these two projects and measuring what the savings are, both from a cost and energy perspective, in both of these venues. Next slide, please.
In terms of the status of these various projects, when we do our application, we submit the energy efficiency measures that we're proposing to undertake with the understanding that if the grant is awarded we're going to have to follow the Federal procurement process and our policies in order to select the contractor or vendor that we're going to use to implement that particular measure. So, the way that the process works is once the award is granted, we start those procurement processes—when we're ready, because some of them, as I'll talk about in a little bit, do require some extra coordination. When we do the procurement process we'll follow the competitive process that's required. We obtain all of the information and the bids, or the results, or the quotes. We do our analysis. We come up with our selection for who we want to award the contract to, and then we generally need to submit that to the Department of Energy for approval to lift the condition on the grant. So all of that takes time, so we have to really plan for that and make sure that we're being realistic with the folks who are implementing these projects. And with the vendors themselves, too, so they understand that it's not as quick as it would normally be if the project wasn't grant-funded. We really haven't had problems with that, but it's just an understanding that it takes a little bit of time. And so we've gotten certain level of the approvals for [some] of these projects already in the last few months. For example, for the boiler, variable frequency drives, and the two lighting projects. We've been working on the air compressor replacement project, as well. And are in the process of finalizing or negotiating contracts with these awarded selected vendors. So, we've turned a corner, I would say, in the last few months with this grant, and we're actually able to really start working on the implementation piece. Next slide, please.
So, for the 2023 award, we're calling that Energy Efficiency Phase 2. These are energy efficiency measures that we selected when the audit was fully complete, which was early in 2023. And then we were able to apply for the 2023 Clean Energy Technology Deployment of Tribal Lands Opportunity. And the projects that we're undertaking for this award is, again, more variable frequency drives on air handler fans throughout our Turning Stone facility and replacement of control valves for some of the hot water valves. I would classify a lot of this as kind of low-hanging fruit. It was probably very easy for the auditors to identify that a lot of our fans and pumps throughout the facilities were just running constant without regard to the actual demand or need. And so these are probably relatively easier projects to undertake. One of our new hotels that we completed in Turning Stone in the last couple of years, we identified the need for some heating upgrades, so we're installing some condensing boilers to help with the summer load. It's the summer months when our Cogen facility runs at peak, and we still need to pull money off the grid, primarily because of the need for air conditioning. Also, other low-hanging fruit are occupancy controls for different conference rooms to cut lighting and shut off HVAC when those rooms are not being used overnight, for example, and replacing failing double-paned windows in units like our Car Care facility. Other measures include weatherization, which is largely has to do with windows and window replacement; occupancy sensors across facilities; and lighting upgrades. So this is just to give you a flavor of the types of energy efficiency measures that we've been undertaking and that we expect to generate savings and cost, and energy usage. And I think it's important to show that it doesn't have to be a significant capital project, necessarily, to recognize these savings. There is a lot of small things that you can do, and the cumulative effect of them, are significant to the organization. Next slide.
So, the status of some of the projects under this award is, again, we've done replacing outdoor lighting with LED lighting in several different areas of our facilities. [We're] almost complete with the pump and valve controls. Our lighting in the Cogen plant is underway. And we've already completed a replacement of the windows at Car Care and some of our convenience stores, as well as installation of lighting controls in those facilities. We continue to work at the lighting at our Lodge Hotel. The whole building control panel for that facility is obsolete and, we learned, this is one of our challenges—that certain parts we wanted/we needed to replace are unavailable, so we are looking at the options for that project. And backup house lighting for various facilities—and these are where team member hallways or break rooms might be—we are currently in the procurement process for that. I mentioned that we've got some work—this is for the ‘22 award as well—for the Event and Banquet Center. We were set to go with the main entertainment facility lighting earlier this summer, and luckily reached out to the director of entertainment to make sure that they were aware that this project was going to be implemented, because it would mean that we'd have to shut down that venue for a couple of weeks—several weeks—and they were not. So we had to take a step back and coordinate and make sure that we had all of the parties in the room, and now we've got the schedule, and those projects should be complete early next winter, or I should say late next winter—January/February of 2027. Next slide, please.
I talked a little bit about this—about how the vendor approval process works—and I think it's helpful because when we first had to do it, we weren't entirely sure how it works, and so to have sort of a roadmap to get that process, I think is helpful. And the way that we do it is we develop a detailed scope of work and equipment list for the measure. We utilize all stakeholders for the particular energy efficiency measure. We utilize our supply chain department to assist with soliciting competitive bids pursuant to our procurement policy. We make sure that our solicitations are comprehensive, and that all components, materials, and services that might be needed are taken into account. We'll hold vendor walkthroughs to answer questions and firm up the bids. And then we'll do our bid analysis and document the selection in a decision memo. We compile all of this information together, we'll submit it to Amy at the Department of Energy. And when we get that approval, then we'll move forward with the contract execution. Next slide, please.
Some challenges with these projects, I think, that we've encountered are the event approval time can take some time. And while that's pending quotes sometimes expire. Some vendors will decline to honor them. That doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen, and so sometimes we'll have to re-bid and get re-quotes, which can add cost and push schedules a little bit. I think we've been able to manage that, and I think we're in a good cadence right now with our projects. Other challenges are operating a 24/7 facility. Again, we have to coordinate implementation around active casino and property operations, and also other major renovations. And make sure that all stakeholders are involved, because that could be a real disaster if they're not. We've had some staffing transitions within the last few years, since 2024. It has resulted in some bottleneck, because our directors of facilities have had to absorb some of this work amid competing priorities. Again, the appointment of our new VP for Engineering and Physical Plant should really help alleviate some of that. And I think I talked about the COVID-19, which was for the 2019 award, that presented several challenges, which the Department of Energy was very helpful in helping us to navigate through. Next slide.
And then our next steps are to continue to move forward with executing of some of our contracts. And then getting those vendors and contractors underway. And our ‘22 award runs through September 2027. Our ‘23 award runs through December 31, 2027. We probably will need a no-cost extension for one or both of them, because I don't know that all of the EEMs will be installed by the end of 2026. Certainly not by September 30, 2026, for the 2022 award, but we'll be monitoring that over the next few months. Next slide, please.
And I think, I guess, that does it for us.
AMY LUKENS: Awesome, thank you so much, Bryan and Matthew. If you guys have any questions for Oneida, please go ahead and click the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen and type your questions. Again, we're going to cover some questions submitted during registration while you type your questions. Also, I think it's kind of funny, while Bryan was talking, you might have noticed, like, the lights got dimmer here. There was an EEM here in the office building, and it just turned off the lights on me, and I was like, oh, okay. I haven't moved fast enough, you know? Alright, we're going to go with the first question, “How are the EEMs initially selected, and how do you audit or evaluate for the next EEM project?” So, it sounds like you discussed that a little bit when you were talking about your 2022 award. Do you want to just expand on [it]?
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I can expand on that, because it's actually, it's a pretty involved process. So we do go through the audit, and it's usually our facilities departments, and maybe our strategic initiatives department folks, who will be the point people on the audit to work with the vendor. Once the vendor finalizes their audit and produces their deliverables, they are substantial. So there are binders and CDs, and pages and pages of reports. And that's just not helpful. So, what we require when we contract with the auditor is we say, okay, but part of what we need, basically a high-level summary. It could be a spreadsheet or report that goes through each of the energy efficiency measures that have been identified, talks about the cost, the potential cost, the payback period and the potential savings. So that we can have that discussion with our leadership, who are extremely busy with competing priorities, and we need them to really be able to focus on making the decisions that are required. So then we sit in a room, we sit in a conference room where we have a conference call, and we involve all of the stakeholders that need to be in this room for the decisions. It includes the auditor, it includes leadership, it includes the facilities departments who are the subject matter experts on the various operations, and we go through that high-level report, we have questions and answers, and based on that meeting, we get direction from leadership about which EEMs they want to pursue for the implementation grants. And that's our process, that's basically how we do it. In terms of identifying additional EEMs, again, that's done through the audit, but with the participation of our subject matter experts who are internal, like our facilities departments, and those who are responsible for energy usage. So, we are a participant in that audit process with the vendor we select to do the audit.
AMY LUKENS: Thank you. And this next question kind of ties into that, “Any tips for Tribal energy employees trying to encourage their facilities, housing, and other departments to get on board with the EEM installation?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I think that's a really good question, because we need their engagement. It's hard. You know, putting together these grant applications, and conducting the audit, and getting prepared for grant applications—it's a good amount of work. Matt and I cannot do it alone. We don't have the subject matter expertise. We need the involvement of our folks from our facilities departments, or, you know, other departments, like our entertainment departments for purposes of our entertainment venue EEMs. And it's really important to get them involved early on, but also to sit down and talk to them and have them recognize independently the value of these projects, so that they're invested in it. It’s not enough to just say Nation leadership has directed that we do this, because that's not going to be a huge motivating factor. They'll do what they need to do, but to have really a good foundation for these projects, we really need their engagement. And I found that, where you can help them realize the value of these projects is the impact it might have on their budgets. And that goes for grants, just in general. The idea that they may have a budget for an expense, and that's approved, and if you can get a grant to help offset some of that, it helps them with their budget for the next year. Also, we found, too—and one example is with our outdoor lighting projects—that the facilities group quickly realized that they were spending an extraordinary amount of time replacing the traditional lights, on almost a daily basis. And there's a hidden cost to that. And when they realize that they're going to be indirect savings and benefits to these projects, that really helps, too. So I think it's just communication, transparency, kind of resetting, you know, how the benefits will trickle down, not just to the organization as a whole, but to their groups and departments.
AMY LUKENS: Thank you. Alright, we asked this question of Sara as well, “In your opinion, what energy efficiency measure has provided the greatest cost savings for your Tribal facilities?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I heard her answer it was interesting, because we still think the lighting, the lighting retrofits and the upgrades have been our biggest savings from an energy and cost perspective. We do have some HVAC projects, but they're on a much smaller scale, I think, right now, so it'll be interesting to see in the future if those become more relevant, based on Sara's response.
AMY LUKENS: Sounds good. Alright. Here's one of our newer questions, “Were there any unexpected policy, zoning, or utility interconnection hurdles that you had to navigate them? And if so, how did you resolve them?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, not for these projects, largely because they're contained within the facilities—these EEM projects. The one, and early on in my presentation, I mentioned the upgrade to our Cogen facility, and that we ran into an issue because we have an interconnection agreement with a utility. And there are some obligations that we've undertaken in that agreement to be able to do upgrades. And we didn't realize that until after the grant had been awarded. So, we got it done—we had to work with the utility, and utility doesn't move as quickly as we would like, but we just went through the process, we had the honest discussions with them. And they worked with us, and we did get it done, but that was a lesson learned. And so for future projects that involve that Cogen facility, we are always looking to make sure that whatever we're doing, we are taking into account those obligations under that interconnection agreement.
AMY LUKENS: Alright, “How did you balance preserving the cultural integrity or historic architecture of older Tribal facilities while installing these modern energy efficiency upgrades?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I would say that most of our upgrades are not in what I would deem our more culturally sensitive facilities. They're usually the more commercial facilities, largely because there are more opportunities there. But if we are doing projects—and this is not necessarily related to Department of Energy grants—but if we are doing projects that touch on those facilities, we are always getting the folks who operate them involved. And we also involve our historic resource specialists to weigh in and provide feedback.
AMY LUKENS: Great, thank you. “When evaluating multiple existing facilities, what criteria did you use for prioritizing which buildings received the energy efficiency measures first?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I think that’s a good question. I think probably the most obvious answer is those facilities where the cost was the highest. And so that's some of our larger facilities, like the Turning Stone Resort Casino, that's really where we focused. But again, there were some things that the auditor identified for some of our lesser used or not 24-7 facilities that we weren't thinking about, and so we implemented those as well. For example, the window replacements at various facilities, for weatherization—those were things that were not really necessarily on our radar. But it was largely, you know, where was the energy usage the highest, and where was the cost the highest.
AMY LUKENS: Yeah, that makes sense. The next question we have here is, “How did you handle change of management or train new facility staff or community members to ensure that these efficiency measures continue to perform as best as possible over the long term?”
Yeah, I mean, that's a good question, because the harder part, the harder challenge with the management changes was more about the implementation than it was the monitoring. The staff that we have responsible for monitoring the impact of the energy efficiency measures has largely remained stable. We also use a benchmarking software tool for the majority of our facilities. It's called the B3 Benchmarking Software, and we utilize that for every facility, I think, except for the Turning Stone Resort Casino, for measuring. And the staff that's been utilizing that has been consistent over time, so that's been pretty easy. When we've had the management changes—I mean, Matt and I can sort of fill in some gaps to ensure that the project is being monitored and that we're addressing any delays—but sometimes we need to go to Nation leadership to let them know what's going on, and help us to refocus the people who are left holding the bag. So that is how we've addressed those challenges when they've come up, is we've asked for assistance from Nation leadership to ensure that, and that may entail meeting with Nation leadership and then the operational departments responsible. And that usually helps us to redirect or reset for these projects.
AMY LUKENS: Great, thank you. Another question here is, “What have you learned about efficiency measures that are most scalable across your facilities? Do you have any recommendations of techniques or technologies you can scale across all your facilities?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: I think probably the lesson that I've learned, too, is that the facilities are constantly changing, and they're constantly growing. And there's always a new project that's underway. And the challenge of hitting optimal energy efficiency is ongoing, and it's continuing, and for us, I think, that the smaller and easier projects have been the most consequential, ultimately, because we're able to do them in larger areas and cover larger facilities. And some of the larger projects are more isolated to the facility itself, and so while they do promote savings, it's not the same scale that you can get when you're replacing all of the lights in the front of the house of a huge casino property.
AMY LUKENS: Yeah. There was a follow-up thing here that says, “It would be useful for DOE to develop a database of measurable cost savings and paybacks and implementation lessons.” We don't have that right now, but one thing I can point you to is that after each recipient finishes out their project, they are required to write a final technical report, and they summarize all that they've done and all their cost energy savings, you know, energy savings as far as, like, kilowatts, but also energy savings as far as money. And those are all uploaded into a website called OSTI, and we can drop that in the chat, a link to OSTI. It might not happen right now, but at least by the end of this presentation, I'll get one dropped in there, you guys, if you want to take a look at it. And I think we have time for one more question. Let's see, there's quite a few here, “Given the distinct weather patterns and extreme conditions that you have in upstate New York, how did you select the specific EEMs that maximize cost savings for the weather?”
BRYAN MIGNONE: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good point, because I think you may have noticed that I didn't talk a lot about solar. I don't think it's out of the question, it's just not something that we've been able to really prioritize or justify, because we really don't get a whole lot of sun. And I know you don't need it, but we don't get very much sun at all between the months of November and April. And so it's whether it's sort of a bias that folks have within the organization about that, it's just we really are focusing on those things that are not dependent on the climate or the weather that we can implement regardless.
AMY LUKENS: Makes sense. Great. Well, thank you so much, Bryan and Matthew. If attendees think of any additional questions in the future, you can always reach out to the Office of Indian Energy, and we'll, of course, do our best to answer. So we have our slides here on Stay Connected. So, we'd love to stay connected with everyone who's attending today. You connect with our Office of Indian Energy via our website, found at the top of the slide, or through our newsletter, or via our social media pages. And we have, or we will drop some links into the chat of how to reach us on social media. Next slide, please.
And that is all we have today. Special thanks to our presenters, Sara, Bryan, Matthew, thank you so much for taking time to share your projects with us. We're really proud to be working with you guys on all these projects and reducing the energy costs in your communities. Have a great rest of your day, and take care. Thanks.