Monday, March 23, 2009
By Harold Gwin
Without the improvements, electricity usage would have been significantly higher.
YOUNGSTOWN — A push for energy efficiency across the Youngstown State University campus is having significant results, particularly in the use of electricity.
Changes made over the last couple of years have resulted in a savings of more than $300,000 a year in electricity costs, said Ralph Morrone, YSU facilities manager.
The university’s trustees approved an energy-reduction plan in December 2005, agreeing to hire Johnson Controls Inc. at nearly $11.5 million to design and implement various energy-saving measures and paying off that debt with a projected $15.7 million in energy savings and reduced operating costs over a 10-year period.
Morrone said that work involved the installation of more-efficient lighting in all of the university’s buildings as well as upgrading the steam heating and cooling systems.
The goal was to provide an overall annual energy savings of about $1.3 million, he said, noting the university is approaching that mark.
The Johnson Controls contract has the company guaranteeing those annual savings. Failure to reach that mark would require the company to write a check to YSU for the difference, said John Hyden, executive director of facilities.
“We’re pleased,” he said. “For the most part, it’s working out.
“We’re leading Ohio [universities] in taking energy conservation measures. Electricity is a major part of the contract.”
Electrical usage on campus has dropped some 4 million kilowatt hours since fiscal 2005-06, a decline of 10 percent.
That translates into a savings of more than $300,000 a year, he said. That’s just on the electricity actually used.
“It’s not cash you can take to the store,” Hyden said.
“It’s really a cost avoidance rather than a savings in someone’s pocket,” Morrone explained.
“Costs for electricity, steam and other utilities continue to rise, “but, by implementing these improvements, those costs will not be as high as they could have been. We are avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of costs,” he said.
Without the improvements made under the Johnson Controls contract, YSU’s electrical usage would have reached about 50 million kilowatt hours in 2007-08, Morrone estimated.
That means that electrical consumption is down by nearly 10 million kilowatt hours — which translates into about $700,000 in “cost avoidance,” he said, noting that similar savings are expected this year.
The contract essentially gives the university state-of-the-art equipment that it can use for the next 30 years, he added.
The $5.8 million YSU spent on utility costs in 2007-08 would have been closer to $6.5 million, had the university not launched the energy efficiency effort, he said.
“Cost avoidance is paying off the contract — and then some,” Morrone said.
The efforts won’t end with the Johnson Controls contract. More energy efficiency changes are being contemplated, including better regulation of heating and air conditioning systems.
gwin@vindy.com