by Shane Henson — December 28, 2011—Two U.S. Department of State facilities in the nation’s capital will soon benefit from receiving Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs), officials within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced. ESPCs allow federal agencies to accomplish energy savings projects without up-front capital costs and without special Congressional appropriations.
Through the ESPCs, Honeywell, a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global macrotrends such as safety, security, and energy, will implement energy efficiency and water conservation measures at the Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, DC, which serves as the agency’s headquarters, and at the Beltsville Information Management Center in Beltsville, Maryland. Saving energy through ESPCs is a key component of the Obama Administration’s recent directive to reduce energy costs in agency facilities, while creating jobs and cutting carbon emissions.
Under the contract, Honeywell will install energy-efficient equipment expected to save more than 25 billion Btu per year—enough to power more than 260 homes for a year—and to generate energy, water, and operations and maintenance cost savings of more than $700,000 in the first year alone. The savings on utility bills created through the facility upgrades will be used to pay for the project over the term of the contract, and the State Department will continue to save energy and money after the contract term has ended, State Department officials said.
Through DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the State Department contract with Honeywell will leverage private-sector investment of $5.5 million and support the equivalent of 60 jobs for a year. The technologies and efficiency measures Honeywell will implement include: chiller plant optimization; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning optimization; advanced metering; and energy management control systems, which control and monitor energy-consuming devices.
