Auburn Hills lands $200K to improve energy efficiency

Thursday, October 14, 2010 | Source: metromode

With nearly $100,000 in grant money, and a near-equivalent amount in matching funds, the city of Auburn Hills will be making its buildings more energy-efficient.

The city was among communities that received a Michigan Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant for energy efficiency projects, sourced from federal stimulus funding awarded by the Bureau of Energy Systems. For Auburn Hills, that means new electrical meters, new lighting, an energy audit, and an energy system that can be controlled remotely.

Dan Brisson, the city's manager of facilities and roads, explains that the funds will be used on four phases, the first being lighting upgrades. Afterward, the city will work on upgrading its energy-management system, where employees can log on via the Internet and control temperatures and occupancy schedules from anywhere.

"It's kind of a programmable therm for home, but with a broader scope," Brisson says.

The administration building, for example, is currently made up of 17 different heating and cooling zones, so one side of the building could be cool enough for heat while the other side is warm enough for the A/C. Plus, if someone forgets to dial back the heat or A/C before leaving for the day, that can be rectified from a computer.

Also to be installed are individual electric meters on six of the city's facilities, which are currently connected to one meter. This will also help measure how efficient each of the buildings are, explains city water resources coordinator Shawn Keenan.

"That's going to help us better measure our energy use for each of those buildings, as it works toward achieving energy efficiency goals the city has," he says.

The funds will also be used for a more comprehensive audit on the city's community center.

The state funding received for the project was $97,553, with the city matching almost as much. But Keenan estimated a savings of at least $9,556 each year, as well as a reduction of 106,181 kilowatts and 90 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

"A lot of this work was planned before the grant, and the grant is allowing us to do more, more quickly," Keenan says. "We share all of our ideas to come up with good solutions that are really sustainable."

Brisson hopes the projects will be nearly wrapped up by the time temperatures start to drop, so the city can take advantage of the new heating technologies. Not only are the improvements good for the Earth, but they make good business sense, too, he says.

"We have utility bills just like the homeowner," he says. "We don't want to pay more for electricity if we can make improvements. Anything we can do that makes economic sense to reduce energy consumption and take a green initiative, we're going to try to do."

Sources: Shawn Keenan, water resources coordinator and Dan Brisson, manager of facilities and roads, city of Auburn Hills
Writer: Kristin Lukowski