City of Rochester
At a Glance
Industry
Government/Public Administration
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2018
Location
Rochester, MN
Net Present Value:
$104,000
Annual kWh Savings:
72,000 kWh
Annual CO2 Reductions:
65 metric tons
Summary
April Hurry helped the City of Rochester Department of Parks and Recreation lay the groundwork for implementing energy efficiency and capital improvement projects.
Goals
In its 2016 Master Plan, Rochester MN Department of Parks and Recreation made protecting the environmental health of the community a guiding principle. Through the incorporation of sustainable design and maintenance practices, the department plans to make Rochester a model city for sustainability. Additionally, the city adopted a goal of reducing its 2005 baseline carbon emissions by 30% in 2025 and by 80% in 2050 and was committed to projects that could potentially reduce the department’s utility expenses by 15-20%. EDF Climate Corps fellow April Hurry was brought in to help implement those projects.
Solutions
Hurry put the implementation process in place for several projects including:
- LED lighting retrofit projects - Hurry prepared six different Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and issued them to prospective vendors. These projects included replacing T8 fluorescent lamps in buildings and parking lot fixtures with LED equivalents. After bids were received, she analyzed the costs and recommended those that had appropriate payback periods.
- Lighting Audits: Hurry recommended professional lighting audits (and received proposals) for two energy efficiency plus capital improvements projects. The audits will evaluate the existing lighting systems for the two sites and prepare scopes of work for these projects.
- Other Energy Savings: April solicited proposals to install programmable thermostats at four buildings, a centralized irrigation control system for eight sports fields, and a capacitor bank to increase the power factor at one sports field.
Potential Impact
The LED lighting retrofits are scheduled for implementation in Fall 2018. The lighting audits will provide scopes of work available for advertisement and implementation in Spring 2019. Proposals for the irrigation controls, thermostat upgrades and capacitor bank were received and can be implemented in Fall 2018. Together, these projects are expected to save the Parks and Recreation Department $21,000 in utility costs and approximately 72,000 kWh of electricity usage annually. The reduction of 65 tons of CO2 emissions will help the Department to meet their share of Rochester’s 2025 and 2050 goals.