Two area school districts have been awarded incentive checks from Public Service Company of Oklahoma for participating in the Model Cities Program.
 
Clinton School District received $308 for upgrading the air conditioning system at Southwest Elementary School, while Arapaho-Butler School District was awarded $529 for lighting system upgrades at its elementary and junior high school.
 
Model Cities is offered by PSO to help school districts and city governments reduce operating costs by identifying and implementing energy efficiency improvement projects.  The incentives the districts earned were determined by the total amount of energy savings resulting from the lighting and air conditioning upgrades.
 
Clinton Superintendent Jason Sternberger said, “The incentive from PSO certainly validates our investment in energy efficiency.  It’s important that our school district sets a positive example for our students and our community, and reducing our energy use is a critical step.”
 
The air conditioning system installed at Clinton’s Southwest Elementary will save more than 1,700 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, while the lighting systems installed in the Arapaho-Butler schools will save more than 5,530 kilowatt-hours per year.
 
“The Model Cities Program helped us identify ways we can conserve energy and save money,” said Arapaho-Butler Superintendent Bob Haggard.  “That money can be reinvested directly into our classrooms, and by reducing energy use we are setting a positive example for our students.”
 
“We identified a real need for an energy efficiency program that specifically targets cities and schools, especially as budgets are spread thin,” said Dwain Kamphaus, customer service representative for PSO.  “By partnering with these schools to reduce energy costs, their valuable resources can be used for other needed projects.”
 
Along with the savings in kilowatt-hours, Environmental Protection Agency estimates indicate the energy savings in Clinton will be equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of about 140 gallons of gasoline.  The EPA-estimated savings in Arapaho-Butler equal the carbon dioxide emissions of about 450 gallons of gasoline.
           
PSO, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is an electric utility company serving approximately 527,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma.  Based in Tulsa, PSO has 4,405 megawatts of generating capacity, and is the largest provider of wind energy in the state.  News releases and other information about PSO can be found on the World Wide Web at PSOklahoma.com.