Kickapoo Tribal Planning & Grants

Kickapoo Energy and Conservation Program 2010!

Addition online resources:

www.energy.gov/forconsumers.htm

www.energy.gov/generalinformation.htm

For more information please contact:

Michael Runau- KTIK Energy Coordinator

Email: michael.runau@ktik-nsn.gov

Phone: 785-486-9636 Ext. 2

The Kickapoo Energy Program will encourage homeowners to make energy efficient home improvements by leveraging American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) fund to establish no interest financing, rebate options, and sub-grants for residential energy efficiency improvements. The program will include six program elements and community wide standards. The policies and procedures for qualifying improvements and income guidelines will be developed by the Kickapoo Energy Program personnel with input from community members and the Tribal Council.

The Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas' strategy will achieve the following goals:

• Decreasing overall community consumption of non-renewable and non-recycled materials; and

• Promote, implement and integrate sustainable practices throughout the community in our homes, business, and our everyday lives.

The Kickapoo program consists of three major actions based on EECBG funding. These major actions are (1) developing and implementing this Kickapoo Energy Conservation Strategy, (2) conducting building energy audits, and (3) building retrofits.

The conservation strategy will utilize elements from the following six programmatic areas: (1) no interest financing and rebates for qualified energy efficiency improvements, (2) a consumer education campaign, (3) contractor and homeowner training sessions, (4) residential energy audits and direct installation of low cost measures, (5) home performance with energy Star, and (6) program measurement and verification.

The newly formed Kickapoo Energy Program has established partnerships with the Kickapoo EPA program and the Kickapoo Housing Authority to (Goal A) decrease overall energy consumption and (Goal B) promote, implement and integrate sustainable practices in the community.

The KEP will work closely with community leaders and local contractors to develop an implementation and incentive strategy (activity #1) to literally go "door-to-door" providing audit (activity #2) and "whole house" energy efficiency improvements/retrofits (activity #3).

Goal A: Reduce energy consumption in existing homes and housing sites:

The home energy conservation project is a cornerstone of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas' energy and environmental programs. The program demonstrates the Kickapoo Tribal Government's involvement and commitment to our members. The project will promote the residential "whole house" and Home Performance with Energy Star Program throughout the community. However the project will focus on providing residential services by housing sites where common situations and issues occur,

Historically residential low-income weatherization programs have been inadequate due to lack of Federal resources, the structure of the program, and the distances involved; which often leaves Tribal and Native American communities under-served. Additionally, the programs have been based on a first come-first served basis resulting in homes weatherized and improved but scattered throughout the region. This project will continue to provide services to all eligible residents but will concentrate efforts in reservation housing sites to achieve greater participation.

Goal B: Promote, implement and integrate sustainable practices in the community:

The KEP will provide education, training, and assistance to all local community members in energy conservation measures and activities that will result in a direct benefit to themselves, their families, and the community. This training will be provided on a regular basis until all community members have had an opportunity to participate. It will focus on the "whole-house" approach and demonstrate how different energy measures are inter-connected.

The audits will focus on identifying air leaks, insulation levels with R values, heating and cooling equipment, lighting, appliance age and efficiency ratings, and windows. The audit findings will be discussed with the homeowner. A list of Energy saving measures will be given to the homeowner for their consideration. This information will be developed specifically on the audit findings. The list of low cost measures will include but is not limited to items like installing CFLs', weather stripping, caulking, low-flow shower heads, installing storm windows, and programmable thermostats.

The KEP will prepare reports and share them with the homeowner that will show the potential savings in energy consumption. This figure will also be discussed in financial terms using current electric bills, propane bills, and water bills. The training and educational sessions will not only focus on energy conservation but in being a good steward, you will save money using these conservation measures.

Energy conservation measures continue throughout their lifetime to provide cost and energy savings and emissions reductions to homes and businesses. The project will track the number of homes retrofitted and all associated energy savings. Energy savings will be tracked on a project-by-project basis and then aggregated by sector. Individual project results will be verified via a third party. The results will be continually evaluated to track performance and program implementation and the program will be modified as necessary to meet project goals and reporting requirements.

A key component of this project is education and outreach to give residents and business leaders of our community a greater understanding of how important it is to reduce energy and water consumption. These energy efficient measures are not only beneficial to the Kickapoo Community housing sites and residents but are sound mitigation tools to lower utility costs for homes and businesses and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.

Savings resulting from measures funded through the EECBG-funded improvements are to be accounted by the Kickapoo Accounting Department

This project will be managed through the newly created Kickapoo Energy Program office. The project officer will provide monthly status reports to the Kickapoo Tribal Council and the Kickapoo Accounting Department. These reports will be inclusive of financial information, projects in progress, projects completed, energy savings, and quantified progress on the three (3) activities and the EECBG Goals (A) and (B).

The Kickapoo Accounting Department is GAAP approved and adheres to these standards in all grant funded program reporting requirements. The KEP will have one staff member in the accounting department assigned to handle all of the project's financial transactions and reporting requirements,

The KEP will have the IT Department post progress reports and data on the Tribal web site for access and up-dates of the project's current status

As detailed in Part 1 of this announcement, all applicants must submit an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (EECS), Units of local government and Indian tribes have the option of submitting the EECS no later than 120 days after the effective date of the award or at the time of application. Units of local government and Indian tribes who chose to submit the EECS at the time of application shall use the format contained in Attachment D. This form should be saved in a file named "UIC-Strategy.pdf" and click on "Add Optional Other Attachment" to attach.

 Project Summary:

The Kickapoo's project is designed to reduce the total energy use of local homeowners through improving energy efficiency and conservation in existing Kickapoo homes. The market sector for this project is the enrolled Kickapoo Tribal members who own their home or who reside in rental housing through the Kickapoo Housing Authority program. Some of the core guiding principles for this project are to prioritize energy efficiency and conservation first as the cheapest, cleanest, and fastest ways to meet energy demand; to leverage available resources to maximize their impact to reduce energy consumption, demonstrate cost savings and educate the homeowners.

The Kickapoo Housing Authority will establish a committee to develop the tribes energy strategy and submit it within 120 days of the award. The committee will pre-schedule biweekly meetings to achieve this goal. This strategy will include protocols and guidance for qualifying improvements and income guidelines contained in the strategy.

This strategy will include six (6) strategic program elements and community wide standards. These areas are: (1) low-interest financing and rebates for qualified energy efficiency improvement, (2) consumer education, (3) energy efficiency training, (4) residential energy audits and low cost energy measures for installation, (5) improving energy conservation using the energy star program, and (6) program measurement and verification. The Kickapoo Housing Authority will develop the operational manual consisting of the policies and procedures for implementing this project.

The committee will issue a formal announcement to all tribal members using direct mail and posters upon completion of these activities. A public educational 'kick-off' meeting for the program will be held for the community and include information on how to participate in this program.

The Housing Authority will use grant funds for this activity. These funds will be used for the printing of the posters, letters, and postage. This activity will be completed no later than 120 after the Notice of Award is received.

Project Summary:

The second activity in this project is to collect applications from tribal members who wish to participate in the program. The Kickapoo Housing Authority staff will assist the homeowner in determining eligibility and scheduling an energy audit of their home.

The audits will focus on identifying air leaks, insulation levels with R values, heating and cooling equipment, lighting, appliance age and efficiency ratings, and windows. The audit findings will be discussed with the homeowner. A list of Energy saving measures will be given to the homeowner for their consideration. This information will be developed specifically on the audit findings. The list of low cost measures will include but is not limited to items like installing CFLs', weather stripping, caulking, low-flow shower heads, installing storm windows, and programmable thermostats.

The Kickapoo Housing Authority staff will explain the different choices available to the homeowner through this program.

The Kickapoo program will offer and provide training to all interested homeowners in performing their own energy audits. This training will also be available for local area contractors who may work with homeowners through this program. Training sessions will be scheduled and conducted. The frequency of these sessions will be based on identified interest (demand) from homeowners and contractors.

A component of this training is the proper installation of planned energy efficiency improvements.

The Kickapoo IT Department will create a link with the Kickapoo Housing Authority's web page. This will allow online training and access to other resources. Two such resources will be the US Department of Energy's, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy {SERE} program and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE)

Project Summary:

This program activity will be initiated upon completion of the previous two activities. The homeowner will determine, with assistance from Kickapoo Housing Authority staff which plan(s) and/or approach (es) will result in maximizing energy conservation and cost savings.

The plan will be implemented by the homeowner, Kickapoo Housing Authority staff, and/or the selected contractor to complete all of the approved interventions. Once the approved plan has been completed, Kickapoo Housing Authority staff will inspect the site for the quality of installation of appliances and energy saving devices or applications of all the wbrk.      The Kickapoo Housing Authority staff will
approve, disapprove, or require additional activity to be completed before accepting the project as closed and authorized for payment.

The Kickapoo Housing Authority staff will perform a post-project audit on all of the homes that were approved and that participated in this program. This audit will be completed four {4) months after the date of the completion of the plan and installation of devices in the approved plan. The data and information compiled in these reports will be analyzed and compared with the original energy audit findings for each of the sites. The individual site reports will be prepared and the result of findings will be presented to the homeowner.

All of the data elements will be collected, evaluated, and reported to the US Department of Energy as required.

For more information please contact:

Michael Runau- KTIK Energy Coordinator

Email: michael.runau@ktik-nsn.gov

Phone: 785-486-9636 Ext. 2

.

Hours of operations: 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. Monday -Friday.

Sylvia Barnett- Tribal Planner.

Phone: 785-486-9636 ext. 1

email: sylvia.barnett@ktik-nsn.gov

Michael Runau- Grants Writer/ Coordinator.

Phone: 785-486-9636 ext. 2

email: michael.runau@ktik-nsn.gov