NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez began Tuesday its effort to potentially save a few million dollars by contracting with energy company Schneider Electric USA.

Natchez aldermen agreed Tuesday to have Schneider perform an audit — the first step in determining the company’s scope of work, guaranteed savings and project price in order to help the city revamp its energy system.

Primarily, this project would involve replacing city-owned light fixtures with more contemporary LED lights, which could go a long way toward saving the city money, Schneider Electric representative Allie Harris said at Tuesday’s aldermen meeting.

“What we will go ahead and spec is that every light fixture owned by the city is replaced with LED technology,” Harris said.

Prior to the audit, however, city leaders will have the option to include or exclude whichever buildings they own and cover utility expenses.

These changes could provide a vehicle for providing extra funds that could help the city improve its infrastructure, Ward 6 Alderman and the city’s public properties chair Dan Dillard said.

“The savings that will be generated by the efficiency that Schneider is bringing to the table will be put back into our infrastructure so we will be able to upgrade it,” Dillard said.

At an October 2017 meeting, Harris said the city spends approximately $438,000 per year on energy.

Of that total, Harris said the Schneider team believes it could save the city approximately $90,000 to $117,000 a year, which would be between $2.4 and $3.1 million over the course of two decades.

Schneider’s payment would come via the savings.

The term of the agreement between the two sides, Harris said, would not have to go as long as 20 years, as the city would have complete authority to determine how long the contract should last.

After Harris finished answering the aldermen’s questions, Natchez Public Works Supervisor Justin Dollar requested that the city enter into the audit with Schneider, which the board approved unanimously.