CenTrio, in partnership with Tiger Energy Partners, reached financial close this week with the LSU Board of Supervisors to modernize utility systems at the university’s main campus in Baton Rouge this week. The 30-year partnership is expected to generate substantial energy and operational savings for LSU while promoting sustainability, reliability and efficiency of utility systems campus-wide.
CenTrio will lead and finance the utility system modernization and operate and maintain LSU’s utility system for the next 30 years. CenTrio will also perform and fund additional capital improvements to the utility system, as approved by LSU, equipping LSU for future campus growth and addressing capital renewal and deferred maintenance. CenTrio retained Mayer Brown and Bank of America (BofA Securities, Inc.) as advisors.
“The utilities modernization initiative has been ongoing for a number of years, and we are pleased to have closed on the agreement with construction expected to begin on campus in June,” said Kimberly J. Lewis, LSU Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration & Chief Administrative Officer. “In addition to the projected annual cost savings of around $1.5 million in electricity, natural gas and maintenance, other benefits to LSU include budgeting predictability, improved reliability of its infrastructure, and built-in redundancy from generating excess capacity.”
“We are thrilled to begin this modernization project at LSU,” said Doug Castleberry, CenTrio’s Chief Operating Officer. “CenTrio looks forward to making the Baton Rouge campus more resilient, efficient, and sustainable. By investing in university campuses, we are not only helping with their immediate energy infrastructure needs but also allowing them to focus capital and other resources on their core mission of education and research.”
Tiger Energy Partners, a joint venture between Bernhard Energy and Johnson Controls, will design and construct the initial modernization solution for LSU’s steam and chilled water plants. Additionally, Tiger Energy Partners may design, build and finance future building mechanical system upgrades on the Baton Rouge campus.
“As a company with headquarters in Louisiana, we take special pride in knowing that this partnership will conserve public dollars and make higher education more affordable for Louisiana residents,” said Ed Tinsley, Bernhard’s Chief Executive Officer. “Bernhard was founded in Baton Rouge more than 100 years ago, and this partnership highlights our unwavering dedication to Louisiana now and for future generations to come.”
CenTrio is a leading utility public-private partnership (P3) developer, investor and operator developing, managing, and operating critical energy infrastructures serving more than 400 buildings in urban centers, and university and health campuses across the U.S. with a focus on reliability, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. In October 2020, CenTrio established a similar partnership with Syracuse University to modernize its utility system infrastructure under a 40-year public-private partnership.
Bernhard is a leading energy-as-a-service provider, with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of active EaaS partnerships across the U.S. In addition to decades of experience on the LSU campus, Bernhard also operates and maintains 125,000 tons of chilled water infrastructure across the U.S., including the ongoing operation and maintenance of central energy plants at Tulane University, LCMC Health, and other mission-critical campuses in Louisiana.
Johnson Controls is the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings and front-runner in the P3 marketplace with 41 Buildings as a Service (BaaS) projects valued at over $5B in virtually every sector, including higher education campuses, K-12 schools, civic buildings, hospitals and data centers. In each P3 project, Johnson Controls applies its world class building system equipment and expertise through skilled on-site technicians to reduce the risk of O&M, life cycle and energy performance. The company works with public and private organizations across North America and around the world to implement net zero energy efficient and renewable energy solutions through its OpenBlue digital platform to deliver more comfortable, safe, and sustainable environments.
