Industrial Utility Efficiency

Energy Incentives

Sustainability is “Part of Who We Are” at Eastman

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

By making sustainability a requirement and a core element of its growth strategy, Eastman has improved the energy efficiency of manufacturing operations by 13% since its baseline year of 2008 (the year Eastman became an ENERGY STAR® Partner). By 2018, Eastman had decreased its greenhouse gas intensity by 20%, two years ahead of its goal. Additionally, Eastman received the 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence, marking the company’s eighth consecutive ENERGY STAR award: two years as Partner of the Year and six years of Sustained Excellence recognition.
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Better Plants® Partners Get a Leg up in the Battle for Energy and Water Efficiency

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

In 2019, more than 230 Better Plants partners took advantage of the program to gain considerable ground in their sustainability efforts. In so doing, they cumulatively saved more than $6.7 billion in energy costs and more than 1.3 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs). These same companies have more than 3,200 facilities and represent approximately 12% of the U.S. manufacturing energy footprint. In addition to energy, partners are excelling at projects to improve water efficiency.
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Culture Building with ENERGY STAR® Energy Treasure Hunts

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

There are many reasons why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® Energy Treasure Hunts have proven successful in helping companies save energy and natural resources, but one that rises to the top is their ability to build a culture of energy efficiency throughout an organization.
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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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The Compressed Air Challenge: Twenty Years and Moving Forward

By Steve Briscoe, President, Compressed Air Challenge

As the current president for the Compressed Air Challenge™ (CAC), it is an honor to write about this organization and how it has progressed, now since we have hit our 20-year milestone. What it means to be involved in the CAC means something different to each person who has contributed. What I will share in this article is from my own experiences and observations over the past 21 years in the compressed air industry, with some help from my fellow board members.
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Nissan Curbs Compressed Air to Achieve Energy Savings

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Nissan North America operates on a massive scale. The company’s powertrain assembly plant in Decherd, Tennessee, alone encompasses 1.1 million square feet, and manufactures engines for 14 different vehicles. The facility also handles crankshaft forgings, cylinder block castings, and other machining applications. Over the course of one year, the powertrain plant churns out approximately 1.4 million engines, an equal number of crankshaft forgings, and 456,000 cylinder block castings.
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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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CalPortland Energy Management Earns Another ENERGY STAR Award

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Making cement is an energy-intensive process. In a cement plant, the electrical energy load can reach up to 25 MW, consuming 185 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. In addition, the plant consumes a large amount of coal and natural gas. CalPortland is an enormous producer of cement, concrete, aggregates and asphalt. With 80 facilities spanning five states across the western U.S., one might logically assume that CalPortland consumes a lot of energy.
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ENERGY STAR® Sustains Excellence

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The ENERGY STAR Awards are EPA’s highest honors for superior energy efficiency, and several award categories exist. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Industrial Partners could receive either Sustained Excellence or Partner of the Year in the Energy Management category. These awards go to organizations for adopting a continuous energy management strategy across the organization’s entire portfolio of buildings and plants and for communicating the value of ENERGY STAR and energy management broadly.
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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 Management at Saint-Gobain

Compressed Air Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Brad Runda, Manager-Energy, Saint-Gobain Corporation.

Congratulations on Saint-Gobain being named a 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is the second year in a row you’ve won the award. Why was this award received?
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Grimmway Farms Implements System Automation

Patricia Boyd, Ecos Air

This article presents a case study of Grimmway Farms; a carrot growing and packing firm located in California’s Central Valley that was able to improve its compressed air system efficiency after implementing system automation and making relatively small equipment and piping changes.
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