Cheshire County, New Hampshire

Energy Efficient Investments (EEI) partnered with Cheshire County, New Hampshire, to deliver a nationally recognized energy transformation across five critical county facilities. The project earned the 2025 NAESCO Keystone Award for Outstanding Performance Contracting, honoring EEI’s innovative, phased approach to decarbonization, cost control, and operational resilience.

Selected after two prior contractor efforts failed to meet budget and performance goals, EEI developed a custom, site-specific solution to modernize aging infrastructure while keeping essential public services fully operational. The project transitioned county buildings away from fossil fuels and aging systems to high-efficiency, renewable heating and cooling technologies—without increasing the tax burden on residents.

Engineering a Phased, Resilient Solution

The Cheshire County Energy Project encompassed five facilities with vastly different ages and uses, including the historic 1800s-era Courthouse, County Corrections, Maplewood Nursing Home, the County Administrative Building, and County Hall. EEI designed and implemented a phased Energy Savings Performance Contract that balanced energy efficiency, reliability, and affordability across the portfolio.

Solutions included the installation of locally sourced waste-wood biomass boilers, high-efficiency VRV heat pump systems, and a state-of-the-art six-pipe geothermal heating and cooling system. EEI also upgraded lighting to smart LED systems, replaced obsolete pneumatic controls with modern, web-accessible direct digital controls, and integrated all sites into a single county-wide energy management system.

Critical facilities—including the nursing home and corrections center—remained operational 24/7 throughout construction, demonstrating EEI’s ability to execute complex retrofits without disrupting essential services. The project leveraged significant outside funding, including ARPA dollars and a $395,000 New Hampshire PUC grant, delivering more than $118,000 in verified annual energy savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50 tons per year.