Recent Member News
(The following summaries have been condensed)
Aeroseal Introduces New Auditing Technologies and HVAC Service to Increase Efficiency and ROI
Intelligent Leak Detection
In the past, methods of detecting duct leakage were either labor intensive and carried a high cost, or they ran the risk of not providing an accurate estimate, thereby affecting paybacks. New breakthroughs in auditing technology now allow for a cost-effective and highly accurate way to assess duct leakage in commercial buildings.
Providing precise duct leakage measurements in commercial buildings, Intelligent Leak Detection provides highly accurate results with reliable payback estimates and is a minimally disruptive process to perform. It removes the need for a duct blaster and does not require the duct system to be shut off.
SHIELD Coil Protection & Casing
SHIELD acts as a restorative coating that is applied to heat exchangers. It is a polyurethane coating infused with aluminum flakes. This combination provides a layer of protection and enhances heat transfer, resulting in energy savings. The coating is flexible and will not crack during expansion and contraction. The casing is an extremely durable, grey semi-gloss, polyurethane coating, specifically developed to provide comprehensive corrosion protection for the inner and outer casing. The anti-microbial formula resists dirt and dust adhesion, reducing the growth of fungi, mildew, stain-causing bacteria, and algae.
HVAC Motor Upgrade
This motor upgrade solution integrates the efficiency of a permanent magnet motor with the output of a variable-speed rooftop package control system. The motor and drives offer the highest reliability to ensure trouble-free operation for the Roof Top Unit package (RTU). This service will provide the same airflow with less energy. Savings will be further maximized by reducing the motor speed during low-load conditions.
CEG Solutions Data Center Consolidation ESPC at NASA JPL Receives 2022 FEMP Award
On October 26th, 2022, Scott Trotier from CEG Solutions received a Federal Energy & Water Management (FEMP) Award for CEG’s data center consolidation ESPC project at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). The project is the third phase of a $75.5MM ESPC that CEG has completed for NASA and is the first major data center consolidation included in a federal ESPC project. It included construction of new data center white space in the historic Space Flight Operations Facility, which supports communications with tens of billions of dollars of NASA satellites (including planetary exploration missions like Mars 2020).
CEG constructed three new data centers (with an average Power Usage Effectiveness or PUE of 1.2) and relocated IT loads from an old data center (with a PUE of 1.65+) that was then decommissioned. These new data centers included microgrid integration for resiliency along with complete mechanical, electrical, fire protection, and controls systems. CEG implemented leading-edge data center ECMs such as on-rack, water-based cooling using medium-temp chilled water (from a cooling tower) through rear-door heat exchangers, advanced leak containment and detection, and comprehensive metering to directly measure and track PUE. The new data centers increase the resilience of the lab and save 12,600 MMBtu and $2.7MM each year.
The project demonstrates how ESPCs can help clients address strategic infrastructure priorities, even in fully operational, mission-critical environments with strict uptime and highly technical requirements. The project was also previously recognized by the Association of Energy Engineers as the Innovative Energy Project of the Year for the Western North America Region.
Centrica helps De La Salle High School save $125,000 a year on electricity
De La Salle High School is a Lasallian Catholic high school located in Concord, California, providing education to over 1,000 young men throughout the Bay Area each year since 1965.
Sustainability is essential to De La Salle, as caring for the planet is integral to Catholic social teaching. In 2015, Pope Francis issued Laudato Si, the most comprehensive Vatican document to date on environmentalism. Laudato Si is a call to action for all people of the world – not just Catholics – to care for our common home. “And that was our call to action, to do something and to be finally able to implement a solar solution here,” said Lynne Jones, Vice President for Finance for De La Salle.
Working with a consultant, De La Salle selected Centrica Business Solutions to design and install their solar PV system. Centrica Business Solutions provided the most attractive proposal, came highly recommended by De La Salle’s consultant and “was the best provider for what we needed,” Jones explains.
D.A. Davidson & Co. Names Zitnik Managing Director
D.A. Davidson & Co. recently announced Charlie Zitnik has been promoted to Managing Director of the Fixed Income Capital Markets. Zitnik, and his Energy Performance and Infrastructure Construction (EPIC) Finance Team, provide project funding in the non-Federal MUSH space for ESCOs and other prime contractors. D.A. Davidson is a long-time NAESCO member and Zitnik currently serves on its Executive Advisory Committee. Larry Martinez, President of D.A. Davidson & Co., said in a release “the appointment of our colleague and friend, Charlie Zitnik, to the position of Managing Director is a reflection of his commitment to the ESCO industry and the accomplishments his team has experienced over the past five years as well as his commitment to his clients and to D.A. Davidson & Co.
DesignLights Consortium (DLC) publishes 2 new resources for Cities and Towns (and the ESCOs who service these customers) for Responsible Light at Night
Seven Strategies to Minimize Negative Impacts of Outdoor Light at Night
This resource provides high-level application strategies that go beyond the LUNA product requirements for energy efficiency program staff, contractors, distributors, and lighting practitioners who are interested in using outdoor lighting that is both energy efficient and reduces light pollution. https://www.designlights.org/resources/reports/seven-strategies-to-minimize-negative-impacts-of-outdoor-light-at-night/
Outdoor Lighting Ordinances
The DLC has posted new resources to provide some high-level information on outdoor lighting ordinances. There is a handout providing general information on outdoor lighting ordinances and how the LUNA requirements can help address them. Additionally, there are maps to show which provinces/states and cities/towns/counties throughout Canada and the U.S. that have an outdoor lighting ordinance. https://www.designlights.org/resources/reports/outdoor-lighting-ordinances/
More information on the DLC’s LUNA program can be found here: https://www.designlights.org/our-work/luna/why-luna/
ECM Receives Honor from Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls, Inc. recently honored the ECM Holding Group with their 2022 Customer Driven Supplier Leadership Award. JCI cited our $25 million subcontracting project at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
This project was noteworthy for its size, scale, multi-disciplinary scope, and innovative project management. ECM provided multiple energy efficiency measures to almost 7,000 housing units. Most specialty energy subcontractors only offer measures within a single trade discipline. And subcontractors which offer more than one trade seldom coordinate operations between trades on-site.
At Fort Bragg, ECM delivered measures from 4 trade disciplines through a unified command structure called 1-Touch PM™. ECM managed its internal teams at Fort Bragg – Building Envelope Solutions, Aqua Engineering, HVAC Armor, and ECM Lighting – with a single point-of-contact. This style of project management optimized deliveries, set-ups, installations, etc. across the entire 163,000-acre complex.
ECM would like to thank all the people at JCI and Fort Bragg who worked with us to make this huge, multi-measure project a big success!
EMPEQ recognized for potential to play a crucial role in U.S. Department of Defense efforts to fight climate change
EMPEQ was named the winner of a Phase I SBIR contract from the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX program in the most competitive solicitation in the history of the Department. EMPEQ’s focus on helping the Department of the Air Force (DAF) transition to a greener, cleaner future was the key to the application’s success. President Biden issued Executive Order 13990, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, requiring all federal agencies to incorporate climate exposure and sensitivity in cost-benefit analyses; included in this analysis is consideration of the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions in applicable cost-benefit decisions. To this end, the Order required all agencies, including the DAF, to account for efficiency of all existing infrastructure and to incorporate climate exposure and performance metrics into enterprise-wide data analytics efforts. It was in responding to this challenge that EMPEQ’s Fast Site Survey® rose above the competition. EMPEQ’s revolutionary software solution reduces the time spent on this initial energy assessment process by 80% and substantially lowers the knowledge barrier to conducting these assessments. The product’s native intelligence and growing body of data identifies, digitizes, quantifies, and organizes equipment and other energy-consuming infrastructure with one-click of a smartphone’s camera – providing even the most novice user powerful insights on energy usage and emissions.
Grant Capital Management completes $12.7M in financing for Jersey City Housing Authority
Baltimore-based Grant Capital Management Inc. recently announced it has provided $12.7 million in funding for the implementation of a second-phase energy efficiency project at the Jersey City (N.J.) Housing Authority.
The funding covers $2.5 million in Phase 1 energy equipment and about $10 million in new energy efficiency measures. The Authority contracted Siemens Industry Inc. to purchase and install energy upgrades across 1,679 housing units throughout Jersey City.
The second-phase energy project will allow the authority to install new energy efficiency equipment that will be paid for by the project’s savings. Additionally, the authority will be saving more than $500,000 in utility costs.
Grant Capital Management is a minority owned firm that has provided more than $5 billion in lease-purchase financing and more than $1 billion within the energy efficiency market.
Turntide’s Smart Motor System Reduces Energy Consumption for Shopping Centers
The Macerich Company a leading owner, operator and developer of one-of-a-kind retail and mixed-use properties in top markets, is working with Motus Power and Turntide Technologies (Turntide) to help decarbonize and reduce energy consumption at 23 mall locations across the country.
Motus Power, an installer of energy-saving solutions specializing in HVAC efficiency projects, introduced Turntide’s Smart Motor System as an HVAC retrofit solution to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. A pilot program at Macerich’s Los Cerritos Center demonstrated impressive results, with 56% energy savings over the existing AC induction motors in its rooftop HVAC units.
Turntide’s motors are currently in 18 shopping center locations across the U.S. and will scale to more than 20 in 2023. Across all sites, the projected energy savings will be more than 1.5 million kWh, equating to a carbon reduction of over 1,000 metric tons of CO2. That’s the same environmental impact as using 120,000 fewer gallons of gas or carbon sequestered by 1,258 acres of forests in one year.
Wendel’s Maricopa County Community College District Water Conservation Program
In Arizona, water is a critical resource. Sustainable water management practices are necessary to ensuring the availability of these resources for future generations. The series of improvements undertaken by this project reduced potable water consumption by over 42% for the impacted campuses.
After a multi-year evaluation, the College moved forward with the first group of projects, retaining Wendel to help them accomplish their goals. The first group of projects improved data availability through an initial investment in a submetering and a dashboard system. This allowed us to connect the campuses to the classrooms. Additional submetering was added to cooling towers to manage water treatment systems and track the amount of water that was being discharged to the sewer system. Irrigation controls for some campuses were updated to include new sensors and advanced capabilities to reduce usage based on soil moisture content. The team also changed the source of irrigation water from municipal water system to reclaimed canal water. Finally, the existing plumbing fixtures were upgraded to with newer fixtures that have reduced water usage requirements.
The utilization of canal water for irrigation, which has several benefits over using potable water including significant cost savings as canal water can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of potable water, increased environmental responsibility as it eliminates the water loss, energy use, and chemical treatment associated with the treatment of potable water, and CO2 savings and lowered electrical demand on the grid as canal water is conveyed to the end users via gravity rather than energy consuming pumps. The upgraded irrigation control system is comprised of advanced, or “smart” irrigation controllers and substations with on-site soil moisture sensors. The new controller allows the soil moisture sensors and local weather data to optimize water usage. Facility managers are also able to view and control the irrigation system remotely from devises such as computers, phones, or tablets. The upgraded cooling tower and water sub metering system connects to an online dashboard, allowing facility managers better insight into the water consumption. As the College expanded the use of submeters, they incorporated more data into our dashboard system. This data visibility helps inform their behavior and turned the system into a tool for experiential learning and enhance their sustainability curriculum.