A new law went into effect on January 1, 2011 allowing state agencies to enter into performance contracts.  While this type of contracting is new to Georgia, it is has been in use by the federal government and many other states for many years.  Georgia’s law has some unique features that are different from other states’ laws, and in the next few weeks I’ll be explaining the new law and posting updates about GEFA’s progress in finalizing the details for implementation of the new law.

This week, I participated in what I hope will be the first of several workshops for state agencies about performance contracting.  The workshop was really an introduction to performance contracting–I would liken it to a “Performance Contracting 101.”   Performance contracts are not like traditional construction contracts or service agreements, and the goal of the workshop was to teach public owners the nuances of performance contracts and to make them comfortable with the process.

Here is a rundown of the workshop:

Richard Stogner,  C.O.O. of DeKalb County: Richard gave opening remarks as the host of the workshop and shared his experience in having overseen the first major county-wide performance contracting project in Georgia.

David Godfrey, Director of Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA): David’s office is in charge of overseeing and administering the performance contracting program in Georgia.  He provided a review of important sections of the performance contracting statute and gave an update on status of implementation.

Wayne Robertson, Principal at EnergyAce: Wayne explained the fundamentals of the technical aspects of performance contracting, such as energy audits, baseline energy use calculations, and measurement and verification methods.

Peter Floyd, Partner at Alston & Bird: Peter addressed some of the statutory requirements for performance contracting, and explained some of the unique features of the financing aspects to performance contracts.

David Fisher, Director of Facilities Management of DeKalb County: David gave a detailed presentation about DeKalb County’s nearly $10 million performance contracting project, which was so successful that it has turned out to generate even more savings than had originally been projected.

My presentation focused on best practices and avoiding pitfalls of performance contracts.

It was clear from the questions and comments made by the attendants that public agencies are excited about the opportunity to use performance contracting and anxious to get started.  There will be no shortage of “potential customers” for performance contracting projects.  I suspect that the only limit will be whatever cap is established (as required by the statute) for purposes of including the financing obligations in the state budget.  (I’ll explain that in more detail in a later blog post).

If you are interested in learning more about the workshop or performance contracting, the presentations have all been posted on the website of the workshop’s sponsor, EnergyAce.

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