Industrial Utility Efficiency

Energy Incentives

YoCream and Blount Save with the Energy Trust of Oregon

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Since 2002, Energy Trust of Oregon has saved and generated 728 average megawatts of electricity and 52 million annual therms of natural gas. This is enough energy to power Multnomah and Washington counties while heating Deschutes County homes. ETO has saved enough energy equal to the output of a power plant and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. In total, they have invested $1.5 billion to save customers more than $6.9 billion on their energy bills over time. They have also added $5.7 billion to the local economy, including $1.7 billion in wages, $312 million in small business income and employment equal to 4,700 full-time jobs lasting a decade.

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New DOE Air Compressor Regulations

By Bruce McFee, President, Sullivan-Palatek

The U.S. Department of Energy has initiated the efficiency regulation of oil-flooded rotary air compressors. This has the potential to cause a big change for the air compressor industry, as models from 35-1,250 cfm with pressures ranging from 75-200 psi (5.2-13.8 bar) will need to meet a minimum isentropic efficiency.
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YoCream and Blount Save with the Energy Trust of Oregon

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Since 2002, Energy Trust of Oregon has saved and generated 728 average megawatts of electricity and 52 million annual therms of natural gas. This is enough energy to power Multnomah and Washington counties while heating Deschutes County homes. ETO has saved enough energy equal to the output of a power plant and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. In total, they have invested $1.5 billion to save customers more than $6.9 billion on their energy bills over time. They have also added $5.7 billion to the local economy, including $1.7 billion in wages, $312 million in small business income and employment equal to 4,700 full-time jobs lasting a decade.
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Turbo Blowers Generate Significant Energy Savings at Victor Valley Wastewater

By Robert Lung for the U.S. Department of Energy Better Plants Program

A replacement strategy for air compressors and blowers integrated into a system-level approach towards energy efficiency can deliver significant energy savings and optimize equipment performance. At the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, a blower replacement project yielded annual energy savings of more than 928,000 kWh and $98,000 in energy costs, while improving the reliability of its secondary treatment process. In addition, the agency qualified for important incentives from its electric utility — significantly improving the project economics and resulting in a 2.94-year payback.
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Establishing the Energy Incentive Benchmark - The Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy® Program

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Keith Martin (Director Energy Efficiency) and Cheryl Miller (Energy Efficiency Advisor) from Ameren Illinois and Robert Baumgartner (Business Program Manager) from Leidos Engineering. Seven years ago, a team of three of us at Ameren Illinois made the commitment to create and deliver a program that would make a difference. Today, the Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy program is an award-winning energy efficiency program covering southern and central Illinois. After six program years, we are thrilled to report our business customers are saving over $132 million in annual energy costs due to energy efficiency measures they implemented with financial incentive assistance from ActOnEnergy.
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Retro-commissioning Incentives for Compressed Air Systems with Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy

By Nathaniel Q. Altfeather, Engineering Manager, SAIC

This article discusses the challenges and successes encountered while creating a retrocommissioning offering for industrial compressed air systems. The pilot program succeeded in enrolling seven different manufacturing facilities that, combined, represented more than 5,475 connected compressor horsepower. Five of the seven companies completed the pilot program and captured more than 2.3 Million annual kWh at an incentive cost of less than $0.03/kWh for the first year’s savings.
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PG&E’s Third-Party Energy Incentive Programs

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Mr. Justin Kjeldsen, Mr. Jeff Kohn, and Mr. Sam Zimmerman, Senior Program Managers for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

PG&E runs energy incentive programs through two channels. We have our core channel representing the majority of our energy incentive offerings, and we offer energy incentives through third-party channels. Our Third-Party programs account for approximately twenty percent (20%) of the energy incentive dollars. PG&E has contracted with thirty-four (34) third-party companies, or implementers, to run fifty (50) contracts.
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Energy Trust of Oregon's Production Efficiency Incentive Program

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Mr. Ray Hawksley (Industrial Technical Manager) of the Energy Trust of Oregon Inc.

Energy Trust of Oregon is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping utility customers benefit from saving energy and tapping renewable resources. Our services, cash incentives and energy solutions have helped participating customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas save nearly $600 million on energy bills.
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Energy Incentives from Great River Energy

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Mr. Jake Selseth (Energy Incentive Program Administrator) of Great River Energy (GRE).

GRE administers a $9.5 million dollar energy rebate incentive budget in 2010 for our 28 co-ops. Fifty percent of the budget is designated for Residential and fifty percent targets Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural. This is the same budget we had in 2009 and in 2008, our budget was $6.5 million.
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Energy Rebates Assist Industrial Sustainability Initiatives

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices

The CFO asks the Corporate Energy Manager, “The numbers for this energy efficiency project look too good to be true - $334,000 in annual energy savings requiring a $89,000 investment (after the energy rebate) with a simple ROI of just 3 months?” “How do we know the reduction in kWh useage, which the energy auditor has promised, will actually happen?” “Why don’t we just deploy this same capital into a production project where we have more experience and confidence in the expected ROI?”The recently hired Corporate Energy Engineer answers, “Those are the right questions to ask - we strongly believe in this opportunity for the following reasons.”
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Incentive Program Profiles

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U.S. DOE News

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