Thursday, June 9, 2011

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Announces a $213 Million Energy Savings Performance Contract with FDA's White Oak Campus

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=524
On April 29, 2011 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $213 million Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration White Oak Federal Research Center. The task order is the largest awarded under the ESPC program since it began more than a decade ago. This project will make the FDA research center in Silver Spring, Maryland a model of energy efficiency, by helping save more than 5.5 trillion BTU over the twenty-year life of the project, this is equivalent to the energy delivered to over 134,000 homes for a year. In the first year alone, the project will save more than $25 million in energy and avoided operations and maintenance costs.

The contract, awarded by the General Services Administration (GSA) to Honeywell International, will use avoided energy costs to leverage private-sector investment to pay for the $213 million project, which will support the equivalent of 2,300 jobs for a year.

ESPCs are designed to help the federal government conserve energy and water and increase the use of clean renewable energy—all without adding to the national deficit. An ESPC is a partnership between a federal agency and an energy service company (ESCO). The ESCO conducts a comprehensive energy audit for the federal facility and identifies improvements to save energy. In consultation with the federal agency, the ESCO designs and constructs a project that meets the agency's needs and arranges the necessary financing. The ESCO guarantees that the improvements will generate energy cost savings sufficient to pay for the project over the term of the contract. After the contract ends, all additional cost savings accrue to the agency.

This project features a combined heat and power plant that reliably produces electricity for the critical laboratory needs of FDA and uses waste heat to produce building heating and cooling. The construction will be complete in 2014 and will produce 250,000 megawatt hours per year. In addition to the combined heat and power plant, the project will include upgrades to the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, improvements to lighting—including the latest LED technology—and modifications to the building envelope to make it more energy efficient. When the impact of electricity generation by the utility is taken into account, all of the energy conservation measures will result in energy savings of at least 279 billion BTU per year for 20 years—equivalent to removing more than 4,000 cars from the road each year.

The Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) ESPC contracts are administered by DOE and are available to all federal agencies. DOE provides the expertise for both technical and financial aspects throughout the development of each project. The federal government is the largest single user of energy in the United States, and ESPCs provide federal agencies with access to alternative financing at a scale that is needed to meet the challenge of boosting the use of renewable energy and reducing energy and water consumption.

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) facilitates the federal government's implementation of sound, cost-effective energy management and investment practices to enhance the nation's energy security and environmental stewardship. For more information on FEMP, please visit the FEMP website.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) www.DOE.gov
Press Release dated April 29, 2011

No comments:

Post a Comment