BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. - Siemens Building Technologies Inc. has announced the implementation of an energy savings performance contract project with West Virginia University (WVU) designed to significantly reduce the annual energy and water usage at its Morgantown campus facilities. The project is being administered through a comprehensive program of energy-efficient capital improvements financed by the savings generated from avoided energy costs over a 10-year period.

“This project will benefit WVU by reducing energy costs by providing the university with more energy efficient and comfortable facilities that are equipped with many new improvements,” said Narvel Weese, WVU’s vice president for administration and finance. “We have been challenged over the years to try and upgrade, improve, and maintain equipment that doesn’t meet modern-day energy efficient standards. This project will go a long way toward meeting that challenge, and build on other campus efficiency projects.”

These improvements have been designed to reduce electrical, heating, and cooling demand, as well as lower water usage. Once completed, annual energy savings are anticipated to reach 7,791,600 kilowatt hours of electricity and 43,099,000 pounds of steam. According to Siemens, over the 10-year contract period this will reduce emissions of typical greenhouse gases (CO2, NOx, and SO2) by more than 1.6 billion pounds and save the equivalent of some 140,000 barrels of crude oil.

Under the $7.8 million first phase of the energy savings contract, Siemens will finance the purchase and installation of energy-saving lighting, building automation controls and programming, chillers, steam traps, process water conversion and side stream filtration, weatherization, and other energy and water savings improvements to WVU’s buildings.

In the first phase, campus buildings involved include the Mineral Resources, Engineering Sciences, and Engineering Research buildings, the National Research Center for Coal and Energy, WVU’s greenhouse, the Evansdale Library, and the Agricultural Sciences Annex. Also slated for improvements are the chiller plant building, the Brooke Tower, and the Creative Arts Center. The second, third, and fourth phases are scheduled to follow at 18-month intervals.

Joe Fisher, associate vice president for facilities and services at WVU, noted that “Old, broken-down equipment will be eliminated, and routine maintenance required to keep the old equipment running will be reduced, allowing staff to focus on other work.” The effect will be to free up otherwise overburdened capital budgets, said university officials, enabling it to address other, more pressing infrastructure needs while improving the quality of life for students, faculty, and staff.

This project supplements other energy efficiency improvements underway on campus. For example, WVU is working to meet the energy efficiency standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program in Oglebay Hall, where three heat-recovery units planned for installation in the attic will significantly lower its energy usage bill.

For more information on Siemens Building Technologies, visit www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies.

Publication date: 02/26/2007