ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. - Lime Energy will continue a successful relationship with a retail electronics chain after helping it save more than $700,000 a year in energy costs. P.C. Richard & Son has retained Lime Energy's services through July 2008 following a successful initial five-year contract in which the company reduced energy usage by nearly 4 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) a year systemwide at the company's 50 locations throughout New York and New Jersey.

Lime Energy initially installed a total of 350 monitoring units known as eMAC (equipment monitor and control) units on the HVAC systems at the 50 retail stores. The energy savings are based on an average cost of electricity of 18 cents per kWh. Energy savings at the 50 locations has removed an estimated 2,786 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. The reduction is the equivalent of permanently removing the emissions of 547 passenger cars from the road, and the electrical energy saved is enough to power 324 households for a year.

P.C. Richard has indicated it plans to install the eMAC system in the construction of all new retail stores.

"We are obviously very pleased with the savings we have realized directly through the efforts of Lime Energy in installing and monitoring the eMAC equipment at our retail locations," said Peter Richard, executive vice president for the company, which is headquartered in Farmingdale, N.Y. "This has been one of those unusual projects which seems to be working better than we expected going in and, at the same time, it makes it possible for our company to make a significant environmental contribution."

"Our monitoring equipment has been both reliable and easy to maintain and has produced consistent results," Richard said. "Lime Energy has been delightful to work with over the years."

Dan Parke, president and chief operating officer of Lime Energy, said P.C. Richard has been an ideal customer with a major footprint across a broad cross-section of the Northeast.

"This company is large enough - and the results have been impressive enough even to us - to really communicate the message that major energy savings are possible and are literally happening every day with the eMAC system," Parke said.

The eMAC technology enables companies to benefit from both energy savings and, if available, utility energy efficiency incentives using the customer's existing HVAC systems. The eMAC itself attaches to the HVAC unit and uses wireless control capabilities to access control software developed and operated by Lime Energy.

The eMAC system conserves energy and maximizes efficiency in three ways:

• It sets both maximum and minimum temperature levels for thermostats at individual or multi-site company locations;

• The system features nighttime setback to automatically adjust temperatures at night and readjust before opening time in the morning; and

• It incorporates a proprietary technology known as PERC (premium energy recovery) which measures temperature, reviews set points, and measures cold air in the discharge unit to develop an algorithm to conserve the amount of time the compressor is operating.

The system includes ongoing remote computer monitoring by Lime Energy's HVAC specialists, providing the ability to go online and analyze, modify, or repair systems as required.

For more information about Lime Energy, visit www.lime-energy.com.

Publication date: 04/30/2007