The New York Power Authority (NYPA), the nation’s largest state public power authority, says it has completed energy efficiency projects that will result in $4 million in annual savings.
The projects are part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Build Smart NY program. a push to reduce energy use in state buildings 20 percent by 2020 and help municipalities also cut their use.
NYPA also is pursuing hundreds of other energy efficiency projects, in various stages of development, at public facilities across the state. The authority issues competitive solicitations and hires private energy efficiency contractors to do the work. Solicitations are posted here.
The $4 million in savings came from 100 state and municipal facilities, which made the improvements from January through June. The upgrades range from new lighting, to heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems, to electric motors. The energy savings will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 14,650 tons a year, which is the equivalent of removing more than 3,000 vehicles from the road, according to NYPA.
NYPA’s uses a comprehensive financing-and-implementation approach for the projects, including the design and engineering work. The authority recovers its costs by sharing in the savings. After the costs are recovered over several years, the state or local government customer keeps all of the recurring savings, which are in addition to lower maintenance costs.
During 2014, NYPA has also coordinated the initiation of energy master plans in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers to reduce the energy costs and carbon emissions of those cities. The authority also is spearheading energy master plans for several State University of New York campuses, among other state entities.
NYPA says that its energy efficiency improvements of the last 25 years lowered the annual electricity bills of public facilities by tens of millions of dollars. Peak electricity demand has been cut by more than 244 MW and greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 955,000 tons per year.
Descriptions of the energy efficiency projects that NYPA has completed in 2014 are available at http://www.thenypa.com/sites/eeprojects/pages/EnergyEfficiencyProjects.aspx
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