August 31, 2023 • 26 mins
What happens when a mechanical engineer turns his attention to empowering schools and communities? You get Clay Hoover, a senior Program Manager with TVA Energy Right, who has redefined strategic energy management with his innovative School Uplift program. Clay's relentless dedication and unique approach have transformed schools into energy-efficient powerhouses, all while engaging students, teachers, and the community in conserving energy.
School Uplift is not merely a program for reducing utility costs; it embodies a vision that extends far beyond. Clay and his team achieved immense success in energy savings, while strengthening community engagement with TVA. He discusses how they adapted to the challenges of the pandemic and scaled up their operations to an impressive 123 schools per year. Clay’s insights on the recruitment of energy-conscious teachers and the potential of inspiring a new generation of energy professionals are simply inspiring.
But what's the secret to the program's success? Clay reveals their secret sauce - strategic partnerships and design thinking. He sheds light on how they extended the program to hospitals, offering a beacon of hope in the midst of challenging times. Clay’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance, innovation, and community engagement. Join us, and learn how the School Uplift program is making a tangible difference in people’s lives.
Learn more about TVA's School Uplift program here: https://energyright.com/business-industry/school-uplift/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jen Szaro (00:07):
Welcome back to the Energy Beat podcast.
I'm Jen Zaro, your host, andtoday I'm psyched to talk about
one of my favorite topics kidsbut more specifically, working
with kids to reduce energy usagewithin their own schools.
Tva has done just that with itsaward-winning school uplift
program.
Strategic energy managementprograms like these might take a
(00:31):
little bit of effort tocoordinate, but they create so
much value for everyone involved, including school districts,
faculty facilities, managers,but especially the students.
I'm really blown away by thesuccess of this particular
program and I can't wait for youto hear all of the details.
So let's get started.
(00:51):
Today, I'm joined by Clay Hoover, senior Program Manager with
TVA Energy Right.
Clay is spearheading anexciting strategic energy
management program called SchoolUplift that seeks to benefit
schools in their serviceterritory, with over 80% of that
program funding going tounderserved communities to date.
Clay, thank you so much forjoining us and thank you for
(01:14):
being such an active member ofAESP in our community.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour role at TVA and a little
bit more about this program aswell.
Clay Hoover, TVA (01:23):
Yeah, hey, jen , and thanks for having me today
, excited to be here to talkwith you about our programs here
at TVA.
My name is Clay Hoover.
As you know, I'm an energyefficiency engineer, so I've
been at this for going on 14years now.
So I went to college, got amechanical engineering degree
and then out of college Iimmediately fell into the energy
(01:45):
efficiency space and I've beencounting light bulbs and
calculating kilowatt hours eversince.
It's been a great journey.
I've been at TVA the entirety ofmy professional career.
I started working in our powerplants, working on energy
efficiency there, trying to helpthem be more efficient.
I had a couple years where Iwas able to do energy
(02:06):
engineering services for ourcustomers, so going out and
meeting all the businessesaround the valley and helping
them out, which was a lot of fun.
And ever since then, for thepast six years or so, I've been
in our energy efficiency programcalled TVA, energy Right.
So we're the traditionalutility incentive type program,
but with that TVA we do it alittle differently.
So a little bit about TVA, orTennessee Valley Authority.
(02:27):
For folks of you that don'tknow, we're the nation's largest
nonprofit public power provider, so we serve 10 million people
in the Southeast United States.
We serve all of Tennessee andthen West Kentucky and
Mississippi, north Alabama and asliver of all the other
surrounding states.
And we were created over 90years ago as a product of the
(02:51):
New Deal by FDR to try to helpimprove lives of the people of
the valley.
So that kind of inspiration,that mission that got us started
, it still plays in how we rollout energy efficiency programs
at TVA.
Jen Szaro (03:03):
Wow, that's quite a story.
Yeah, I forgot that TVA waspart of the New Deal.
Well, you achieved your goals.
You created new jobs and aredoing an amazing thing with
public power there so countinglight bulbs and counting
kilowatt hours, I like that.
So you really started at theplants then and helped them
improve their operationalefficiency.
(03:24):
And what made you decide thatyou wanted to switch over to
helping customers directly?
Clay Hoover, TVA (03:29):
Yeah, I think the opportunity came up and to
be able to scale.
I kind of felt like in mycareer you could do excellent
work when I was doing that inenergy engineering, but you can
only do so much at scale.
So if you're just one person,you can only accomplish so much.
I always had the feeling ofthere's just a never ending
supply of work to do in energyefficiency.
(03:50):
I've never been into a plantthat was perfect efficiency.
As far as I know, they don'texist.
Jen Szaro (03:56):
Right yeah, I've seen some clean ones, but I don't
know about the most efficient.
That's definitely a prettylofty goal.
Clay Hoover, TVA (04:04):
Yeah, the job's like never done.
So I just wanted to take theopportunity to try to leverage
scale and provide energyefficiency help at a larger
scale through more of aprogrammatic approach with TVA
Energy right.
Jen Szaro (04:18):
We're glad you made the switch.
So tell us a little bit moreabout this specific program, the
school uplift program, and howit's having a positive impact on
the community.
Clay Hoover, TVA (04:28):
Yeah.
So school uplift got started.
We started about four years agohere in TVA as a strategic
energy management program andkind of like telling a story
going back, this is pre COVID wethought we were going to create
this strategic energymanagement cohort approach all
in person, and really just tryto help help schools out, get
(04:49):
our feet into that space withSEM.
And a month after we kicked offthe program we got hit by COVID
, as the rest of the world did,and it really forced us to
rethink what we're doing, whywe're doing it and how we do it.
So the main thing, how that wasthe most immediate.
We couldn't do in-personcohorts so we immediately had to
go virtual.
(05:10):
And then the what really kind ofchanged for us too.
So once COVID hit, power supplyneeds kind of decreased.
So the need for energyefficiency at the time had
decreased, especially withschools more shutting down.
So, kind of leaning back ontoour mission to help improve
lives, we'd recognize what achallenge that our schools and
(05:31):
the service territory that wewere facing and energy
efficiency, just it wasimportant but it wasn't enough.
We started understanding theneed and how much, how far it
goes beyond just light bulbs andstuff and we really just tried
to provide kind of rethink andre-inspire the way we provide
the services in a way that helpsthe schools more than just
(05:53):
reducing your utility costs,which is obviously important as
well.
Jen Szaro (05:56):
Tell me more about that.
So how are you creatingadditional benefit beyond just
maybe saving energy andimproving thermal comfort?
What other aspects of theprogram does the community
benefit from that?
Clay Hoover, TVA (06:10):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Sem how we started it, we weregoing to engage the facilities,
folks, teachers, and we reallyrealized the greatest
opportunity was like engagingthe school communities a whole.
So we kind of designed our owntype of SEM program that we call
school uplift and it's a 12month energy efficiency
engagement program where we geteveryone involved, from the
(06:32):
principals or the teachers orthe kids to the facilities folks
, all along a mission to saveenergy at the school.
And how we do that, we kind oftake a completely different
approach to the reward, thevalue proposition for the school
.
We realized they have so muchon their plate.
Reducing utility bill is notenough to get them to be able to
commit the time they need.
So they have really importantneeds and every school has their
(06:55):
own unique need.
There are no one size fits allfor what the need in the school
is.
So what we figured out, we dida customer centric design
thinking and what we learned isthat to get them to engage
around energy efficiency we hadto offer something else.
So throughout the program, ifevery school then enrolls, they
get at a minimum $10,000 what wecall a learning environment
(07:16):
grant.
And what that is.
It's a grant that they tell uswhat they want to spend the
funding on.
It can be things like you wouldexpect, like a STEM or STEAM,
stem plus art, as well as otherareas of need like accessibility
and equity, sustainability,health and wellness really
anything that provides apositive impact on the learning
(07:37):
experience for the student.
It's pretty much fair game forthe use of the funds and the
flexibility has been key becausea lot of times we'll talk with
teachers and they all know whattheir need is, but they've got a
lot of need that doesn't fittheir traditional funding
mechanisms.
So we kind of reframe the valueproposition for the school and
now that we gamify it, if theysave more and they engage in the
(07:58):
program better, that grant cango up to $25,000.
So we have 10.
The top performers get a$25,000 grant.
So it's really it excites them.
They get to compete Withinschools.
There's a natural competitivestructure that's already built
into them through sports, sothey all want to beat their peer
schools and we kind of tappedinto that.
(08:18):
It's one of the first things welearned to this program is
that's easy win right there.
Jen Szaro (08:22):
I love that concept.
I think that's such a great wayto get the schools excited
about it, and I can just seethese team mascots kind of
showing up these events andcheering on the crowds.
And how do the students like it?
Do they also get involved intrying to find ways to save
energy for the schools?
Clay Hoover, TVA (08:40):
Yeah, absolutely so.
That's part of the requirementsto earn a grant, as you have to
get your whole student bodyengaged at some point.
So we help with that.
We provide posters and clingsthat will be put up throughout
this school to raise awareness,especially around October Energy
Awareness Month, but throughoutthe year they're doing
engagement activities everymonth.
(09:01):
We see some of the coolest ideas.
It really a lot of it comes outof the.
They create student energyteams and it gives this kids
kind of authority and autonomyand their ability.
It gives them the ability tokind of have their own little
mission and it's amazing to seehow easy kids buy into the need
(09:22):
they are actually teaching us.
We had one student at a schoolin North Alabama that basically
we recorded on a video and shewas talking about how there's no
planet V and they get it.
You know they understand howimportant energy conservation is
and it's really great to seethem with their.
They create energy teams andthey go on energy savings hunts
(09:42):
and some schools They'll reportenergy waste so they'll tell on
their teachers.
So we see a lot, of, a lot offun ideas with the program or
engaging kids around energyefficiency.
Jen Szaro (09:55):
Oh, I've got to think the kids love that part Telling
on their teachers for sure.
Absolutely.
Do you have a favorite ofanything you've seen out there
so far amongst the student teams?
That just really wowed you.
Clay Hoover, TVA (10:08):
You know, kids are creative.
They don't have like boundariesas much as you know we do as an
adult.
So, like we, we saw one thatcracks me up is there's a girl.
She was a probably like middleschool age and she was into, I
guess, like arts and acting andstuff.
She created a video it's a hardknock, life saving energy to to
an old like R&B song from the90s.
(10:29):
So I was surprised she evenknew about that.
Jen Szaro (10:31):
But it was hilarious.
Clay Hoover, TVA (10:33):
Yeah, wow, and it did what it needed to do.
It engaged, you know, people ina fun way around energy
efficiency.
Jen Szaro (10:40):
I love that.
It's a hard knock life.
That was a great, great tune.
That's really cool stuff.
I love how you've really pulledtogether the entire community
to really help achieve andchampion this effort.
And what have been your successto date with this.
Like, how, how are you seeing achange in energy savings for
these schools and behaviors,maybe?
Clay Hoover, TVA (11:00):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think the expectation, orthe industry you know standard
for SCM programs in school,typically we shoot for three to
5% and that's what we would havebeen happy with with this
program.
Right, and to keep that in mind, like we've targeted schools
and underserved communities,because when we designed the
program that was one of the keythings is we didn't want to
provide another offering that ifyou're in an underserved
(11:22):
community where you have moreconstraints on staffing and
resources, that you'reautomatically not going to have
time to participate.
So we had to kind of design theprogram in a way that everyone
can be included, and so that'san extra challenge if the
teachers and such have just somuch on their plate.
But yeah, so 5% would have beengreat.
But program to date we've workedwith 118 schools and we're in
(11:43):
our fourth year now.
We've almost doubled or tripledour size every year and a
program to date we're savingright at 10% energy savings and
that's over a 12 month period.
And that's you know we use.
We use energy startup portfoliomanager as kind of like our
regression modeling tool.
That way the schools will haveit when we're done.
So that's like normalizedenergy savings and it's just
(12:04):
amazing to see that like twicewhat we expected in terms of
savings.
And we think it's because wefigured out, like what motivates
them with these grants and withthe competition and stuff and
the engagement, and they're justoutperforming our expectations.
So what that means.
So 10% energy saving, that'sover $8,000, annual energy
(12:25):
reduction per school and weexpect them to save that for at
least five years.
So you know that investmentsaving 40,000 in energy that can
be reinvested into what theschools are there to do, which
is educating the future, thekids.
It's really exciting.
Jen Szaro (12:40):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
That is really remarkable tohear that.
So is it a mixture ofbehavior-based and low-cost
opportunities for upgrades orthings like that?
Like what's the program?
Clay Hoover, TVA (12:54):
Yeah, absolutely so we would
automatically take out anythingthat we would incentivize for
energy efficiency.
So these are all low andno-cost behavior modifications
and changes the way they operatetheir buildings.
So, yeah, this is just turningstuff off For the most part.
You know, we engage facilitiesfolks, the facilities
(13:15):
maintenance professionals aroundbest practices, but we think a
lot of the savings is comingfrom just awareness and
engagement, just turning thingsoff that are unneeded.
It's just amazing theopportunity there.
Jen Szaro (13:27):
Wow, that's all I can say.
Wow, those are great numbers.
I don't think I've heardnumbers like that, especially
for a schools program that isprimarily behavioral-based
changes.
That's phenomenal.
You mentioned the facilitiesfolks.
How do they feel about this?
Are they a key stakeholder foryou in this process?
Clay Hoover, TVA (13:46):
Yeah, so we originally designed the program
as having facilities, folksbeing the prime audience, and
what we quickly learned is youcan take a program to scale
throughout the school.
It takes a lot of the burdenoff of them.
So, instead of them, you knowmonitoring behavior and making
sure people are shutting doorsand turning things off.
We've kind of empowered thewhole school to do that, and it
(14:06):
enables them to spend their timedoing what they do best, you
know maintaining systems,working on equipment, things
like that.
So it's been more of a naturaladoption instead of just adding
work to people that are alreadyat their hands full.
Jen Szaro (14:21):
That's kind of feel great, too, to be supported by
the entire school in yourinitiatives.
Clay Hoover, TVA (14:25):
Absolutely.
We love the opportunity to youknow, highlight the work that
they do and give them anopportunity to, kind of like, be
supported by their school.
That's a lot of fun.
Jen Szaro (14:35):
So for others.
How did you pull together yourpartnerships and your key
stakeholders to create thisprogram from the design
standpoint and then from theimplementation standpoint?
Clay Hoover, TVA (14:46):
Yes, that's a great question because
partnerships were superimportant.
So TV is kind of talked aboutour inception a little bit.
We're really unique powercompany and we were able to do
programs like this is because ofour local power company
partners.
So we've got 153 companies thatwe partner with as the end-use
distributors for power, forschools, and it's because of
(15:07):
that unique partnership that wehave, where we're all in
alignment of a mission ofservice.
So it gives us opportunities totry out programs like this.
So most important or firstpartnership it starts with is
our local power companies.
And taking that even farther,first group we partnered with is
our utility programimplementation firm.
(15:29):
So we use our implementer hereis TRC and we actually built the
skills to deliver SEM in-house.
For other programs we mightbring in a third party expert
from across the country who'sreally good at this.
We knew we wanted to do thisprogram unique and different.
So we kind of all took a freshapproach.
(15:49):
So we all learned how toimplement this ourselves.
So it kind of gave us a freshperspective of not knowing years
of best practices and justlearning on your own.
So they've been a great partner.
We've learned how we hirecoaches, we go through teachers
and that's kind of a bestpractice.
And another great partner thatwe started with from day one was
(16:10):
within Tennessee there's energyefficient schools initiative
within the Department ofEducation at the state level and
they have a mission of savingenergy in the schools through a
revolving loan fund and they hadinterest in this behavioral
energy savings as well.
So they've been a great partnerunlocking, you know, opening
doors with school directors,really helping us get our start.
(16:33):
It was a little tougher to getstarted because this is a
completely new space for us, butthey've been an amazing partner
and I'm sure there's a numbermore than I'm probably
forgetting.
Jen Szaro (16:43):
I feel terrible, but no Well, who would you say was
the hardest stakeholder to getbuy-in from Anyone?
Stand out that you would saylike you had to do things
differently or try differentapproaches.
Clay Hoover, TVA (16:55):
I think the hardest to get buy-in was early
on with the directors and thesuperintendents in school.
I mean here we call themdirectors of school,
superintendents, whatever, butbecause they're you know,
they're laser focused oneducating students and this is
kind of a little bit to the sideof that and really just trying
to understand the valueproposition to them was new to
me.
And eventually we got our firstcohort filled.
(17:18):
But it took me and therepresentative from the state of
Tennessee, the energy program,to like travel to their offices,
sit down in front of them andthen sell the program to them.
We even did a littlecompetition with them.
We would sit down and say, hey,the school next to you, the
director next door in the othercounty, they agreed to join the
program.
So you know, kind of a littlepeer pressure and a healthy way
(17:40):
to get them to join, butwhatever it took, so yeah, that
was tough, because they've got a, they've got laser focus on
their mission as well.
Jen Szaro (17:49):
I think that's so important that you took the
steps to do some customercentric design thinking and
thought about the valueproposition for each of the
stakeholders.
For me, that's a key takeawayfor sure for the how you design
the program.
Clay Hoover, TVA (18:03):
Oh, absolutely yeah, and that was after our
first cohort.
So we had to completely changethe program after year one to
understand how to grow it.
Jen Szaro (18:13):
Did you have any pushback internally that were
people pretty receptive toallowing you the flexibility to
change based on your experiencesand learnings?
Clay Hoover, TVA (18:22):
Yeah, the timing of it was really good
because the grants that go alongwith the program are really
unique, especially to theutility efficiency space.
But TVA for a while has had avery serious focus on trying to
alleviate the energy burden thata lot of our members are a lot
of our customers face.
If you think about it, we'rehere in the Southeast US.
We've got really hot summersright now it's like 90 something
(18:45):
outside cold winters andrelatively low income.
So what that creates is a highenergy burden, not directly
because of our rates, because wehave some of the lowest rates
in the country, but we stillwanted to see what we could do
to help.
We've designed programs likeschool uplift.
So leadership at TVA has afocus from our board down to
(19:05):
helping address some of theseissues.
This program was like an answerto how do we do that in the
school space.
Similar, we have a home upliftprogram that helps residential
customers through like grants toupgrade their homes.
So we've got thankfully,leadership was fully supportive
of that new direction that youtalked about kind of that change
(19:25):
, those grants that we added on.
Jen Szaro (19:28):
I love it.
I love that it touches prettymuch every part of your
community ecosystem withbenefits.
So that's so lovely to hearthat it was so well thought out
and you've got participationthroughout the entire chain of
stakeholders.
But you've got that buy-in aswell, which is so nice.
(19:48):
And you're right, it's sochallenging when you have
communities that bear a biggerenergy burden.
With the crazy hot summerswe're having right now, it's
more and more important that wehelp with that energy burden, so
that's just incredible.
Well, last question for you,then Lots of great ideas here.
So I'm curious what are yourlet's say, your top two things
(20:11):
for someone consideringreplicating your success with
this program which theyabsolutely do and maybe two
things that you think youlearned?
Probably don't do these twothings when you're trying to
launch your program.
Clay Hoover, TVA (20:26):
Yeah, no, I think you already hit on one of
them, like the ones that you dois customer-centric design
thinking, whatever you want tocall it.
So talk to your customers.
Talk to them about energyefficiency and try to understand
what would motivate them andwhat their needs are beyond that
.
So it's amazing, like we had noidea we would be providing
grants to improve learningenvironments as a way to achieve
(20:47):
energy efficiency, but it turnsout it works really well.
So now we try to do that as wedesign programs.
I'm working on one forhospitals right now and we did
the same approach.
We brought in the customers andtalked with them.
It's amazing how much thathelps success, I would say.
Another one is just how yourecruit.
Like we've recruited teachersto be our energy coaches and
(21:09):
we've been very specific aboutwho we sell the program to.
So originally it was likedirectors and such, and they
would volunteer someone to bethe energy champion, like a
teacher.
But what we've found is that wetry to go find the teachers to
be our champions, the ones thatalready care about energy
efficiency.
So it's something they'llnaturally want to do.
So when we recruit, we partnerwith, like, the state of
(21:32):
Tennessee Office of EnergyPrograms.
They have an energy camp forteachers, so that's a perfect
place.
So that's where we try torecruit for customers that
naturally care about energyefficiency, and then they can
help carry the torch within theschool per se and then-.
Jen Szaro (21:50):
I totally get that.
I mean, I was gonna say so.
There's nothing worse thanbeing voluntary to do something.
It's really hard to get buy-in.
So I love the idea that you'remaking it geared towards
teachers that already want to dothis and care about this, and
is that like an applicationprocess for them?
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:07):
Not as much of an application process.
It's just like how we find them.
We still, in order to enroll inthe program, you have to
identify your energy champion atthe front end and you also have
to get top management support,which is like the hallmarks of
SEM as leadership commitment.
So we've done that.
But we also have to identifywho's gonna do the work on the
front end.
(22:28):
So that was all an effort toreduce the dropout rate.
So right now we're working with123 schools per year.
So that's like a lot ofrecruitment and we wanted to
make sure we were working withthe schools that are gonna
succeed, with the right people.
Jen Szaro (22:46):
So one pitfall I'm hearing is definitely don't
volunteer people.
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:49):
We'll wait for another one, do you?
Another one is don't start anengagement program right before
COVID.
That is one.
Jen Szaro (22:58):
Yeah.
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:59):
A pitfall is just scalability.
I think Along that line is ifyou do all in person, it
prohibits you from scaling.
That's what we thought we weregoing to do, but because of the
constraints that COVID put onengagement, it forced this to go
all virtual and now we canscale up to what we never
(23:20):
dreamed Working with120-something schools every year
For a program team of like five.
That's a lot, and it's becausewe've become efficient and
scaled in a way that's morevirtual, but we still go in
every school.
We still send engineers out toall of them.
Another one is just don't limityourself by the way you design
in person versus virtual.
Jen Szaro (23:42):
Okay, I love that.
Tell me more.
Clay Hoover, TVA (23:44):
Yeah, it's just like what we were saying
here with if it was all inperson.
You're constrained by geography.
You can only hit so manyschools, and we knew we want to
provide a program that was openfor the whole valley.
We know we serve seven states.
I think that the virtual optionhas been a huge help.
Jen Szaro (24:04):
Wow, this has really been a great conversation.
So many successes to take awayfrom this.
What comes next now?
What are you going to plan todo next with all of this?
I feel like you're going tocreate all of these little
energy engineers and energyprofessionals out there for us,
for the next generation.
So how do you top this?
Clay Hoover, TVA (24:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know how you top this.
I think that one of the thingsthat we do is to try to
streamline the program, try tomake it as cost-effective as
possible, bring in more partnersto help address the need,
because on the facility side theinfrastructure within schools
there's a lot of need butthankfully there's a lot of
grants coming out.
We just won one from DOE for aschool in Mississippi through
(24:44):
the program.
So yeah, that, and then takingwhat we've learned and trying to
reflect it in other programs.
So we already have a uniqueinspiration on our industrial
customer side where they canreinvest savings into the
community.
And then we took our designthinking approach to hospitals
and we're going to roll out.
I don't think nothing isinnovative.
I guess is this for hospitals,but yeah, really something that
(25:08):
they need.
So we're excited to justcontinue to listen to our
customers and try to help themwhere they're at.
Jen Szaro (25:14):
I love that approach.
Well, clay, I just want tothank you for joining us today
and sharing these incredibleinsights from what is a very
successful strategic energymanagement program, and thank
you for being an AESP member.
Tva has been such a greatmember with us and there's so
much to take away and learn fromall the work you're doing.
If listeners want to learn more, please check out the episode
(25:37):
description for a link to theTVA School Uplift program.
Thanks so much for listeningand, clay, thank you so much for
being with us today.
Clay Hoover, TVA (25:45):
Yeah, and Jen, thank you as well.
We appreciate the AESP and thework you all do to help provide
a platform to share like bestpractices.
So thanks so much.
Jen Szaro (26:16):
Thank you you.
Welcome back to the Energy Beat podcast.
I'm Jen Zaro, your host, andtoday I'm psyched to talk about
one of my favorite topics kidsbut more specifically, working
with kids to reduce energy usagewithin their own schools.
Tva has done just that with itsaward-winning school uplift
program.
Strategic energy managementprograms like these might take a
(00:31):
little bit of effort tocoordinate, but they create so
much value for everyone involved, including school districts,
faculty facilities, managers,but especially the students.
I'm really blown away by thesuccess of this particular
program and I can't wait for youto hear all of the details.
So let's get started.
(00:51):
Today, I'm joined by Clay Hoover, senior Program Manager with
TVA Energy Right.
Clay is spearheading anexciting strategic energy
management program called SchoolUplift that seeks to benefit
schools in their serviceterritory, with over 80% of that
program funding going tounderserved communities to date.
Clay, thank you so much forjoining us and thank you for
(01:14):
being such an active member ofAESP in our community.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour role at TVA and a little
bit more about this program aswell.
Clay Hoover, TVA (01:23):
Yeah, hey, jen , and thanks for having me today
, excited to be here to talkwith you about our programs here
at TVA.
My name is Clay Hoover.
As you know, I'm an energyefficiency engineer, so I've
been at this for going on 14years now.
So I went to college, got amechanical engineering degree
and then out of college Iimmediately fell into the energy
(01:45):
efficiency space and I've beencounting light bulbs and
calculating kilowatt hours eversince.
It's been a great journey.
I've been at TVA the entirety ofmy professional career.
I started working in our powerplants, working on energy
efficiency there, trying to helpthem be more efficient.
I had a couple years where Iwas able to do energy
(02:06):
engineering services for ourcustomers, so going out and
meeting all the businessesaround the valley and helping
them out, which was a lot of fun.
And ever since then, for thepast six years or so, I've been
in our energy efficiency programcalled TVA, energy Right.
So we're the traditionalutility incentive type program,
but with that TVA we do it alittle differently.
So a little bit about TVA, orTennessee Valley Authority.
(02:27):
For folks of you that don'tknow, we're the nation's largest
nonprofit public power provider, so we serve 10 million people
in the Southeast United States.
We serve all of Tennessee andthen West Kentucky and
Mississippi, north Alabama and asliver of all the other
surrounding states.
And we were created over 90years ago as a product of the
(02:51):
New Deal by FDR to try to helpimprove lives of the people of
the valley.
So that kind of inspiration,that mission that got us started
, it still plays in how we rollout energy efficiency programs
at TVA.
Jen Szaro (03:03):
Wow, that's quite a story.
Yeah, I forgot that TVA waspart of the New Deal.
Well, you achieved your goals.
You created new jobs and aredoing an amazing thing with
public power there so countinglight bulbs and counting
kilowatt hours, I like that.
So you really started at theplants then and helped them
improve their operationalefficiency.
(03:24):
And what made you decide thatyou wanted to switch over to
helping customers directly?
Clay Hoover, TVA (03:29):
Yeah, I think the opportunity came up and to
be able to scale.
I kind of felt like in mycareer you could do excellent
work when I was doing that inenergy engineering, but you can
only do so much at scale.
So if you're just one person,you can only accomplish so much.
I always had the feeling ofthere's just a never ending
supply of work to do in energyefficiency.
(03:50):
I've never been into a plantthat was perfect efficiency.
As far as I know, they don'texist.
Jen Szaro (03:56):
Right yeah, I've seen some clean ones, but I don't
know about the most efficient.
That's definitely a prettylofty goal.
Clay Hoover, TVA (04:04):
Yeah, the job's like never done.
So I just wanted to take theopportunity to try to leverage
scale and provide energyefficiency help at a larger
scale through more of aprogrammatic approach with TVA
Energy right.
Jen Szaro (04:18):
We're glad you made the switch.
So tell us a little bit moreabout this specific program, the
school uplift program, and howit's having a positive impact on
the community.
Clay Hoover, TVA (04:28):
Yeah.
So school uplift got started.
We started about four years agohere in TVA as a strategic
energy management program andkind of like telling a story
going back, this is pre COVID wethought we were going to create
this strategic energymanagement cohort approach all
in person, and really just tryto help help schools out, get
(04:49):
our feet into that space withSEM.
And a month after we kicked offthe program we got hit by COVID
, as the rest of the world did,and it really forced us to
rethink what we're doing, whywe're doing it and how we do it.
So the main thing, how that wasthe most immediate.
We couldn't do in-personcohorts so we immediately had to
go virtual.
(05:10):
And then the what really kind ofchanged for us too.
So once COVID hit, power supplyneeds kind of decreased.
So the need for energyefficiency at the time had
decreased, especially withschools more shutting down.
So, kind of leaning back ontoour mission to help improve
lives, we'd recognize what achallenge that our schools and
(05:31):
the service territory that wewere facing and energy
efficiency, just it wasimportant but it wasn't enough.
We started understanding theneed and how much, how far it
goes beyond just light bulbs andstuff and we really just tried
to provide kind of rethink andre-inspire the way we provide
the services in a way that helpsthe schools more than just
(05:53):
reducing your utility costs,which is obviously important as
well.
Jen Szaro (05:56):
Tell me more about that.
So how are you creatingadditional benefit beyond just
maybe saving energy andimproving thermal comfort?
What other aspects of theprogram does the community
benefit from that?
Clay Hoover, TVA (06:10):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Sem how we started it, we weregoing to engage the facilities,
folks, teachers, and we reallyrealized the greatest
opportunity was like engagingthe school communities a whole.
So we kind of designed our owntype of SEM program that we call
school uplift and it's a 12month energy efficiency
engagement program where we geteveryone involved, from the
(06:32):
principals or the teachers orthe kids to the facilities folks
, all along a mission to saveenergy at the school.
And how we do that, we kind oftake a completely different
approach to the reward, thevalue proposition for the school
.
We realized they have so muchon their plate.
Reducing utility bill is notenough to get them to be able to
commit the time they need.
So they have really importantneeds and every school has their
(06:55):
own unique need.
There are no one size fits allfor what the need in the school
is.
So what we figured out, we dida customer centric design
thinking and what we learned isthat to get them to engage
around energy efficiency we hadto offer something else.
So throughout the program, ifevery school then enrolls, they
get at a minimum $10,000 what wecall a learning environment
(07:16):
grant.
And what that is.
It's a grant that they tell uswhat they want to spend the
funding on.
It can be things like you wouldexpect, like a STEM or STEAM,
stem plus art, as well as otherareas of need like accessibility
and equity, sustainability,health and wellness really
anything that provides apositive impact on the learning
(07:37):
experience for the student.
It's pretty much fair game forthe use of the funds and the
flexibility has been key becausea lot of times we'll talk with
teachers and they all know whattheir need is, but they've got a
lot of need that doesn't fittheir traditional funding
mechanisms.
So we kind of reframe the valueproposition for the school and
now that we gamify it, if theysave more and they engage in the
(07:58):
program better, that grant cango up to $25,000.
So we have 10.
The top performers get a$25,000 grant.
So it's really it excites them.
They get to compete Withinschools.
There's a natural competitivestructure that's already built
into them through sports, sothey all want to beat their peer
schools and we kind of tappedinto that.
(08:18):
It's one of the first things welearned to this program is
that's easy win right there.
Jen Szaro (08:22):
I love that concept.
I think that's such a great wayto get the schools excited
about it, and I can just seethese team mascots kind of
showing up these events andcheering on the crowds.
And how do the students like it?
Do they also get involved intrying to find ways to save
energy for the schools?
Clay Hoover, TVA (08:40):
Yeah, absolutely so.
That's part of the requirementsto earn a grant, as you have to
get your whole student bodyengaged at some point.
So we help with that.
We provide posters and clingsthat will be put up throughout
this school to raise awareness,especially around October Energy
Awareness Month, but throughoutthe year they're doing
engagement activities everymonth.
(09:01):
We see some of the coolest ideas.
It really a lot of it comes outof the.
They create student energyteams and it gives this kids
kind of authority and autonomyand their ability.
It gives them the ability tokind of have their own little
mission and it's amazing to seehow easy kids buy into the need
(09:22):
they are actually teaching us.
We had one student at a schoolin North Alabama that basically
we recorded on a video and shewas talking about how there's no
planet V and they get it.
You know they understand howimportant energy conservation is
and it's really great to seethem with their.
They create energy teams andthey go on energy savings hunts
(09:42):
and some schools They'll reportenergy waste so they'll tell on
their teachers.
So we see a lot, of, a lot offun ideas with the program or
engaging kids around energyefficiency.
Jen Szaro (09:55):
Oh, I've got to think the kids love that part Telling
on their teachers for sure.
Absolutely.
Do you have a favorite ofanything you've seen out there
so far amongst the student teams?
That just really wowed you.
Clay Hoover, TVA (10:08):
You know, kids are creative.
They don't have like boundariesas much as you know we do as an
adult.
So, like we, we saw one thatcracks me up is there's a girl.
She was a probably like middleschool age and she was into, I
guess, like arts and acting andstuff.
She created a video it's a hardknock, life saving energy to to
an old like R&B song from the90s.
(10:29):
So I was surprised she evenknew about that.
Jen Szaro (10:31):
But it was hilarious.
Clay Hoover, TVA (10:33):
Yeah, wow, and it did what it needed to do.
It engaged, you know, people ina fun way around energy
efficiency.
Jen Szaro (10:40):
I love that.
It's a hard knock life.
That was a great, great tune.
That's really cool stuff.
I love how you've really pulledtogether the entire community
to really help achieve andchampion this effort.
And what have been your successto date with this.
Like, how, how are you seeing achange in energy savings for
these schools and behaviors,maybe?
Clay Hoover, TVA (11:00):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think the expectation, orthe industry you know standard
for SCM programs in school,typically we shoot for three to
5% and that's what we would havebeen happy with with this
program.
Right, and to keep that in mind, like we've targeted schools
and underserved communities,because when we designed the
program that was one of the keythings is we didn't want to
provide another offering that ifyou're in an underserved
(11:22):
community where you have moreconstraints on staffing and
resources, that you'reautomatically not going to have
time to participate.
So we had to kind of design theprogram in a way that everyone
can be included, and so that'san extra challenge if the
teachers and such have just somuch on their plate.
But yeah, so 5% would have beengreat.
But program to date we've workedwith 118 schools and we're in
(11:43):
our fourth year now.
We've almost doubled or tripledour size every year and a
program to date we're savingright at 10% energy savings and
that's over a 12 month period.
And that's you know we use.
We use energy startup portfoliomanager as kind of like our
regression modeling tool.
That way the schools will haveit when we're done.
So that's like normalizedenergy savings and it's just
(12:04):
amazing to see that like twicewhat we expected in terms of
savings.
And we think it's because wefigured out, like what motivates
them with these grants and withthe competition and stuff and
the engagement, and they're justoutperforming our expectations.
So what that means.
So 10% energy saving, that'sover $8,000, annual energy
(12:25):
reduction per school and weexpect them to save that for at
least five years.
So you know that investmentsaving 40,000 in energy that can
be reinvested into what theschools are there to do, which
is educating the future, thekids.
It's really exciting.
Jen Szaro (12:40):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
That is really remarkable tohear that.
So is it a mixture ofbehavior-based and low-cost
opportunities for upgrades orthings like that?
Like what's the program?
Clay Hoover, TVA (12:54):
Yeah, absolutely so we would
automatically take out anythingthat we would incentivize for
energy efficiency.
So these are all low andno-cost behavior modifications
and changes the way they operatetheir buildings.
So, yeah, this is just turningstuff off For the most part.
You know, we engage facilitiesfolks, the facilities
(13:15):
maintenance professionals aroundbest practices, but we think a
lot of the savings is comingfrom just awareness and
engagement, just turning thingsoff that are unneeded.
It's just amazing theopportunity there.
Jen Szaro (13:27):
Wow, that's all I can say.
Wow, those are great numbers.
I don't think I've heardnumbers like that, especially
for a schools program that isprimarily behavioral-based
changes.
That's phenomenal.
You mentioned the facilitiesfolks.
How do they feel about this?
Are they a key stakeholder foryou in this process?
Clay Hoover, TVA (13:46):
Yeah, so we originally designed the program
as having facilities, folksbeing the prime audience, and
what we quickly learned is youcan take a program to scale
throughout the school.
It takes a lot of the burdenoff of them.
So, instead of them, you knowmonitoring behavior and making
sure people are shutting doorsand turning things off.
We've kind of empowered thewhole school to do that, and it
(14:06):
enables them to spend their timedoing what they do best, you
know maintaining systems,working on equipment, things
like that.
So it's been more of a naturaladoption instead of just adding
work to people that are alreadyat their hands full.
Jen Szaro (14:21):
That's kind of feel great, too, to be supported by
the entire school in yourinitiatives.
Clay Hoover, TVA (14:25):
Absolutely.
We love the opportunity to youknow, highlight the work that
they do and give them anopportunity to, kind of like, be
supported by their school.
That's a lot of fun.
Jen Szaro (14:35):
So for others.
How did you pull together yourpartnerships and your key
stakeholders to create thisprogram from the design
standpoint and then from theimplementation standpoint?
Clay Hoover, TVA (14:46):
Yes, that's a great question because
partnerships were superimportant.
So TV is kind of talked aboutour inception a little bit.
We're really unique powercompany and we were able to do
programs like this is because ofour local power company
partners.
So we've got 153 companies thatwe partner with as the end-use
distributors for power, forschools, and it's because of
(15:07):
that unique partnership that wehave, where we're all in
alignment of a mission ofservice.
So it gives us opportunities totry out programs like this.
So most important or firstpartnership it starts with is
our local power companies.
And taking that even farther,first group we partnered with is
our utility programimplementation firm.
(15:29):
So we use our implementer hereis TRC and we actually built the
skills to deliver SEM in-house.
For other programs we mightbring in a third party expert
from across the country who'sreally good at this.
We knew we wanted to do thisprogram unique and different.
So we kind of all took a freshapproach.
(15:49):
So we all learned how toimplement this ourselves.
So it kind of gave us a freshperspective of not knowing years
of best practices and justlearning on your own.
So they've been a great partner.
We've learned how we hirecoaches, we go through teachers
and that's kind of a bestpractice.
And another great partner thatwe started with from day one was
(16:10):
within Tennessee there's energyefficient schools initiative
within the Department ofEducation at the state level and
they have a mission of savingenergy in the schools through a
revolving loan fund and they hadinterest in this behavioral
energy savings as well.
So they've been a great partnerunlocking, you know, opening
doors with school directors,really helping us get our start.
(16:33):
It was a little tougher to getstarted because this is a
completely new space for us, butthey've been an amazing partner
and I'm sure there's a numbermore than I'm probably
forgetting.
Jen Szaro (16:43):
I feel terrible, but no Well, who would you say was
the hardest stakeholder to getbuy-in from Anyone?
Stand out that you would saylike you had to do things
differently or try differentapproaches.
Clay Hoover, TVA (16:55):
I think the hardest to get buy-in was early
on with the directors and thesuperintendents in school.
I mean here we call themdirectors of school,
superintendents, whatever, butbecause they're you know,
they're laser focused oneducating students and this is
kind of a little bit to the sideof that and really just trying
to understand the valueproposition to them was new to
me.
And eventually we got our firstcohort filled.
(17:18):
But it took me and therepresentative from the state of
Tennessee, the energy program,to like travel to their offices,
sit down in front of them andthen sell the program to them.
We even did a littlecompetition with them.
We would sit down and say, hey,the school next to you, the
director next door in the othercounty, they agreed to join the
program.
So you know, kind of a littlepeer pressure and a healthy way
(17:40):
to get them to join, butwhatever it took, so yeah, that
was tough, because they've got a, they've got laser focus on
their mission as well.
Jen Szaro (17:49):
I think that's so important that you took the
steps to do some customercentric design thinking and
thought about the valueproposition for each of the
stakeholders.
For me, that's a key takeawayfor sure for the how you design
the program.
Clay Hoover, TVA (18:03):
Oh, absolutely yeah, and that was after our
first cohort.
So we had to completely changethe program after year one to
understand how to grow it.
Jen Szaro (18:13):
Did you have any pushback internally that were
people pretty receptive toallowing you the flexibility to
change based on your experiencesand learnings?
Clay Hoover, TVA (18:22):
Yeah, the timing of it was really good
because the grants that go alongwith the program are really
unique, especially to theutility efficiency space.
But TVA for a while has had avery serious focus on trying to
alleviate the energy burden thata lot of our members are a lot
of our customers face.
If you think about it, we'rehere in the Southeast US.
We've got really hot summersright now it's like 90 something
(18:45):
outside cold winters andrelatively low income.
So what that creates is a highenergy burden, not directly
because of our rates, because wehave some of the lowest rates
in the country, but we stillwanted to see what we could do
to help.
We've designed programs likeschool uplift.
So leadership at TVA has afocus from our board down to
(19:05):
helping address some of theseissues.
This program was like an answerto how do we do that in the
school space.
Similar, we have a home upliftprogram that helps residential
customers through like grants toupgrade their homes.
So we've got thankfully,leadership was fully supportive
of that new direction that youtalked about kind of that change
(19:25):
, those grants that we added on.
Jen Szaro (19:28):
I love it.
I love that it touches prettymuch every part of your
community ecosystem withbenefits.
So that's so lovely to hearthat it was so well thought out
and you've got participationthroughout the entire chain of
stakeholders.
But you've got that buy-in aswell, which is so nice.
(19:48):
And you're right, it's sochallenging when you have
communities that bear a biggerenergy burden.
With the crazy hot summerswe're having right now, it's
more and more important that wehelp with that energy burden, so
that's just incredible.
Well, last question for you,then Lots of great ideas here.
So I'm curious what are yourlet's say, your top two things
(20:11):
for someone consideringreplicating your success with
this program which theyabsolutely do and maybe two
things that you think youlearned?
Probably don't do these twothings when you're trying to
launch your program.
Clay Hoover, TVA (20:26):
Yeah, no, I think you already hit on one of
them, like the ones that you dois customer-centric design
thinking, whatever you want tocall it.
So talk to your customers.
Talk to them about energyefficiency and try to understand
what would motivate them andwhat their needs are beyond that
.
So it's amazing, like we had noidea we would be providing
grants to improve learningenvironments as a way to achieve
(20:47):
energy efficiency, but it turnsout it works really well.
So now we try to do that as wedesign programs.
I'm working on one forhospitals right now and we did
the same approach.
We brought in the customers andtalked with them.
It's amazing how much thathelps success, I would say.
Another one is just how yourecruit.
Like we've recruited teachersto be our energy coaches and
(21:09):
we've been very specific aboutwho we sell the program to.
So originally it was likedirectors and such, and they
would volunteer someone to bethe energy champion, like a
teacher.
But what we've found is that wetry to go find the teachers to
be our champions, the ones thatalready care about energy
efficiency.
So it's something they'llnaturally want to do.
So when we recruit, we partnerwith, like, the state of
(21:32):
Tennessee Office of EnergyPrograms.
They have an energy camp forteachers, so that's a perfect
place.
So that's where we try torecruit for customers that
naturally care about energyefficiency, and then they can
help carry the torch within theschool per se and then-.
Jen Szaro (21:50):
I totally get that.
I mean, I was gonna say so.
There's nothing worse thanbeing voluntary to do something.
It's really hard to get buy-in.
So I love the idea that you'remaking it geared towards
teachers that already want to dothis and care about this, and
is that like an applicationprocess for them?
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:07):
Not as much of an application process.
It's just like how we find them.
We still, in order to enroll inthe program, you have to
identify your energy champion atthe front end and you also have
to get top management support,which is like the hallmarks of
SEM as leadership commitment.
So we've done that.
But we also have to identifywho's gonna do the work on the
front end.
(22:28):
So that was all an effort toreduce the dropout rate.
So right now we're working with123 schools per year.
So that's like a lot ofrecruitment and we wanted to
make sure we were working withthe schools that are gonna
succeed, with the right people.
Jen Szaro (22:46):
So one pitfall I'm hearing is definitely don't
volunteer people.
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:49):
We'll wait for another one, do you?
Another one is don't start anengagement program right before
COVID.
That is one.
Jen Szaro (22:58):
Yeah.
Clay Hoover, TVA (22:59):
A pitfall is just scalability.
I think Along that line is ifyou do all in person, it
prohibits you from scaling.
That's what we thought we weregoing to do, but because of the
constraints that COVID put onengagement, it forced this to go
all virtual and now we canscale up to what we never
(23:20):
dreamed Working with120-something schools every year
For a program team of like five.
That's a lot, and it's becausewe've become efficient and
scaled in a way that's morevirtual, but we still go in
every school.
We still send engineers out toall of them.
Another one is just don't limityourself by the way you design
in person versus virtual.
Jen Szaro (23:42):
Okay, I love that.
Tell me more.
Clay Hoover, TVA (23:44):
Yeah, it's just like what we were saying
here with if it was all inperson.
You're constrained by geography.
You can only hit so manyschools, and we knew we want to
provide a program that was openfor the whole valley.
We know we serve seven states.
I think that the virtual optionhas been a huge help.
Jen Szaro (24:04):
Wow, this has really been a great conversation.
So many successes to take awayfrom this.
What comes next now?
What are you going to plan todo next with all of this?
I feel like you're going tocreate all of these little
energy engineers and energyprofessionals out there for us,
for the next generation.
So how do you top this?
Clay Hoover, TVA (24:22):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know how you top this.
I think that one of the thingsthat we do is to try to
streamline the program, try tomake it as cost-effective as
possible, bring in more partnersto help address the need,
because on the facility side theinfrastructure within schools
there's a lot of need butthankfully there's a lot of
grants coming out.
We just won one from DOE for aschool in Mississippi through
(24:44):
the program.
So yeah, that, and then takingwhat we've learned and trying to
reflect it in other programs.
So we already have a uniqueinspiration on our industrial
customer side where they canreinvest savings into the
community.
And then we took our designthinking approach to hospitals
and we're going to roll out.
I don't think nothing isinnovative.
I guess is this for hospitals,but yeah, really something that
(25:08):
they need.
So we're excited to justcontinue to listen to our
customers and try to help themwhere they're at.
Jen Szaro (25:14):
I love that approach.
Well, clay, I just want tothank you for joining us today
and sharing these incredibleinsights from what is a very
successful strategic energymanagement program, and thank
you for being an AESP member.
Tva has been such a greatmember with us and there's so
much to take away and learn fromall the work you're doing.
If listeners want to learn more, please check out the episode
(25:37):
description for a link to theTVA School Uplift program.
Thanks so much for listeningand, clay, thank you so much for
being with us today.
Clay Hoover, TVA (25:45):
Yeah, and Jen, thank you as well.
We appreciate the AESP and thework you all do to help provide
a platform to share like bestpractices.
So thanks so much.
Jen Szaro (26:16):
Thank you you.
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