Kilowatt Crackdown celebrates biggest energy losers
The Building Owners and Managers Associations of Greater Minneapolis and Greater St. Paul today joined Xcel Energy in announcing the winners of the first annual Kilowatt Crackdown, a new energy conservation initiative. The year-long contest challenged Twin Cities area building owners to improve their buildings’ efficiency.
“We are thrilled that so many building owners participated in this event,” said Judy Poferl, president and CEO of Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota, an Xcel Energy company. “We all know that energy efficiency makes good business sense as well as good environmental sense, but a contest like this is a great way to help companies get started.”
A total of 86 buildings in the Twin Cities participated, saving over 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s equivalency tool, the savings equate to a reduction of more than 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or taking 1,800 vehicles off the road. It’s also enough electricity to power more than 1,100 homes for a year.
The Winners Are:
Kilowatt Cup (Best in Show)
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Minneapolis winner:
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Carlson Real Estate (multiple buildings)
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St. Paul winner:
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Lawson Commons
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Highest Performing Building
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30,000-99,999 square feet
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Carlson Center East 1, Minnetonka
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100,000-499,999 square feet
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Lawson Commons, St. Paul
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500,000+ square feet
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Marquette Plaza, Minneapolis
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Most Improved Building
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30,000-99,999 square feet
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One Carlson Parkway, Plymouth
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100,000-499,999 square feet
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Ramsey County Courthouse/St. Paul City Hall
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500,000+ square feet
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Target Plaza North and South, Minneapolis
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Most Valuable Tenant Award
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Minneapolis winner:
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IDS Green Team
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St. Paul winner:
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Ramsey County Courthouse/St. Paul City Hall
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Companies implemented changes such as retrofitting lighting, upgrading motors and variable frequency drives, buying higher efficiency heating or cooling equipment and conducting building tune-ups. Xcel Energy distributed over $1 million in rebates.
The Building Owners and Managers Associations and Xcel Energy provided free assistance by helping building managers benchmark energy use through an ENERGY STAR tool, then determining a list of suggested improvements and finally locating stimulus funding and rebates to help offset the cost of improvements.
The Kilowatt Crackdown partners include Xcel Energy, BOMA Greater Minneapolis, BOMA St. Paul, the St. Paul Port Authority through its Trillion BTU project and the city of Minneapolis through its financing programs.
According to ENERGY STAR, energy represents the single largest operating expense for commercial buildings. The Kilowatt Crackdown not only improves a business’ economic competitiveness, it also helps expand the energy conservation industry by creating new “green jobs” and creates a national center of expertise. Additionally, it reduces the use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information, please visit www.bomampls.org. For more information about Xcel Energy and its energy saving programs, please visit www.xcelenergy.com
Xcel Energy Inspiring Efficiency Through Energy Innovation Corridor
As a sponsor of the Energy Innovation Corridor in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, Xcel Energy has seen its benefits extend not only to area residents, but to all the sponsors of the collaborative as well. For example, some of the programs that Xcel Energy has developed, such as their smart grid technology pilot, SmartVAR, have proven so successful that the utility company has adopted them in other part of their service area throughout the upper Midwest and they plan to implement them throughout their entire system.
The Energy Innovation Corridor is a clean energy and transportation showcase that offers a wide range of energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean transportation and smart technology tools and programs to local businesses and residents. It lies along an 11-mile stretch between Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The Corridor started in 2009, when a group of 21 businesses, nonprofits and government agencies created a unique proving ground for integrated sustainable energy and transportation planning along a future light rail route. The group has collaborated to provide a variety of energy and transportation programs, rebates, financing and services to residents and businesses in the corridor.
Among the most successful programs is the Home Energy Squad, which provides home energy assessments with immediate on-site implementation of low-cost, energy-saving measures such as installing CFL bulbs, programmable thermostats and low-flow showerheads.
Other projects include bike and car sharing initiatives, the installation of electric vehicle charging stations and a program that allows residents to borrow PowerCheck meters from local libraries to learn how much energy is used by various appliances in their homes.
Businesses can take advantage of programs too – including energy efficiency rebates and financing for buying high-efficiency equipment as well as renewable energy rebates including Solar*Rewards. Another initiative, called the BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) Kilowatt Crackdown, pits buildings against each other to see who can achieve the most energy savings over the course of a year.
During its first 18 months, the Energy Innovation Corridor turned out results that include the avoidance of more than 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide and had an estimated economic impact of nearly $10 million.
For more information about Xcel Energy, please visit www.xcelenergy.com.
Parking Garage Lighting: Brighten It Up and Keep Costs Down
Sometimes it takes an extra push to get the efficiency wheels turning. Fifth Street Towers parking garages in downtown Minneapolis had three incentives: the backing of their electricity provider, Xcel Energy—in the form of expert advice and a big rebate; a deadline; and, a low contractor bid. They knew the stars were aligned and that it was time to make a change.
The building manager felt that the light levels in the garages were fine, but also believed that the lighting system could be operating more efficiently. Thousands of parking garages across the country use high-intensity discharge lamps, including metal halide or high pressure sodium lamps, but the result is often ineffective and inefficient lighting.
Xcel Energy, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, recommended that Fifth Street Towers switch to high-intensity fluorescent (HIF) fixtures.
Recent improvements in fluorescent technology had made HIF lighting more attractive than high-intensity discharge lamps in parking garages for many reasons. Among the most important to the building owner were the lower operating cost, higher overall lumen or brightness output, and the more natural light color that the HIF fixtures produce. The final clincher was the Xcel Energy rebate. Xcel Energy offered a rebate of up to $85/fixture—up to 60 percent of project cost.
The building went ahead and converted 314 fixtures in two parking garages from metal halide and high pressure sodium to 2 and 3-lamp T8 fluorescent fixtures. The total cost was $46,000, and the Xcel Energy rebate came to $26,690.
The building manager says the new lights have reduced their energy use by more than 60 percent, which is significant given that these lights are on constantly. This will save Fifth Street Towers approximately $23,000 a year in electricity costs, which will pay them back the cost of their new lighting system in about one year.
The building manager also said that the rebate process was easy, the installation went well, and that the maintenance staff will not have to replace lamps anytime soon. And the light color the new HIF lamps produce improves the feel of the entire facility.
Xcel Energy serves 3.4 million electricity customers and 1.9 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies in eight Western and Midwestern states. For more information about Xcel Energy, please visit www.xcelenergy.com.