Port of Houston
At a Glance
Industry
Government/Public Administration
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2016
Location
Houston, TX
Summary
Adithya Dahagama identified immediate opportunities for enhancing energy, resource and economic performance for the Port of Houston Authority.
Goals:
The Port of Houston Authority enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Adithya Dahagama to help establish an energy-use baseline for its buildings and assess opportunities for on-site renewable energy generation. Adithya was tasked with exploring strategies and opportunities around the electrification of port-owned vehicles to manage future energy cost and operational GHG emissions, as well as estimating the financial investments and return on investment of various opportunities.
Solutions:
At the Port Houston, Adithya Dahagama focused on: installing building energy efficiency, creating a light duty vehicle replacement decision tool and exploring the potential for on-site and rooftop solar PV at the Port of Houston. To develop a set of energy efficiency best practices, Adithya collected and analyzed energy use data for the Executive Building (EB), focusing on two components on building efficiency: savings from the ongoing lighting retrofit program and potential financial savings from installing a Building Energy Management System (BEMS). Adithya also obtained building energy performance data from the Sustainability team at the City of Houston to compare EB to other office buildings in Houston.
To inform Light Duty Vehicles (LDVs) replacement at the Port, which has more than 300 LDVs, Adithya worked with the Environmental Affairs Department to identify important attributes in a new vehicle. Using mileage and maintenance cost data, as well as emissions data from the EPA, he built a multivariate decision tool to support vehicle purchase decisions. Low maintenance costs and new long rage Electric Vehicles (EVs) were identified as the potential drivers for EV adoption at Ports and other LDV fleet-based businesses.
After collecting annual energy use data and identifying both opportunities and constraints of installing on-site Solar PV, Adithya determined that four warehouse roofs at the Turning Basin have the potential to generate more than half of Port’s annual energy demand of 40TWh. Working with the finance team, he identified potential grant opportunities for installing close to 8 MW of solar PV on a brownfield site.
Potential Impact:
Adithya’s projects could save Port of Houston $26.1 million in net operational costs. Annually, they could save 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 18,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 10,000 kilograms of NOx and other smog causing pollutants. With these project, Port of Houston has the ability to establish energy and sustainability leadership, as well as accomplish its vision to become America’s distribution hub for the “next” generation.