When you have many facilities to heat, cool and light properly, you want to do it as efficiently as possible and without spending an arm and a leg. So when the city commissioners of Augusta-Richmond County, Ga., cast about to find a contractor that could handle the job, the Trane Company made them an offer they couldn’t refuse: Borrow over $24 million to upgrade the various systems and pay for it out of a guaranteed $1.4 million in annual savings. If the city cannot meet its savings goals, Trane will make up the difference.

A comprehensive approach

          According to Ron Lampkin, interim director of Augusta’s Central Services Department, rising repair and maintenance costs led the city to seek a comprehensive approach to upgrading its energy infrastructure. Getting the project across the finish line took a team effort led by the city’s forward-thinking department teams and commissioners with a vision of a sustainable future for Augusta-Richmond County.

          “Through a request for qualifications to identify an energy services company who could work with Augusta to implement turnkey, performance-based services, the Trane Company was selected as the most qualified vendor to perform the engineering, project development, and construction,” he said.

Funded primarily through a Tax-Exempt Lease Purchase Agreement as well as funds from the American Rescue Plan, the Performance Agreement for Comfort by Trane incorporates a variety of energy conservation measures and upgrades at 82 Augusta Richmond County facilities including: parks and recreation centers, libraries, fire stations and public safety buildings, as well as the Municipal Building, Judicial Center and the Charles B. Webster Detention Center. The upgrades’ scope varies by facility but includes a combination of LED lighting, water upgrades, HVAC retrofits, building automation system controls, building envelope and photovoltaic systems.

The project has been broken into multiple work packages scheduled to complete at different intervals to maximize energy savings and navigate lead time for materials. Lampkin said that from start to finish, implementation is projected to take over 24 months.

“Trane is executing the work out of the local Trane Supply and Service office and working with over 15 contracting and engineering partners to complete the project scope,” Lampkin said.

The savings add up

          When completed, Augusta-Richmond County expects to save over 9,700,000 kilowatt hours in electricity and 80,000 therms of natural gas. Using the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator to convert carbon metrics, Lampkin said this is equivalent to 4,652 tons of CO2, or approximately 586 households of energy consumption over an entire year. The county will also save more than 16 million gallons of water per year, or enough to fill more than 26 Olympic-sized swimming pools annually.

The photovoltaic system will include a 100-kW canopy-mounted solar array that will be located in the parking lot at the Municipal Building. The energy generated by the array will primarily be used to offset the electrical consumption of the electric boiler in the Municipal Building. Besides providing this clean, renewable energy to the building, the solar canopy will provide covered parking for a portion of the parking lot and down lighting for better visibility at night.

Hall County, Ga., has also embarked on a similar energy-savings journey. It also worked with Trane in February to complete comprehensive energy and infrastructure upgrades at the Hall County Government Center. Through the process, energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality improvements were identified and implemented in the Government Center to meet the requirements of a modern office space in the Southeast and support the county’s energy reduction goals. In addition to making significant renovations to the five-floor, 131,000-square-foot building over 18 months, the building’s HVAC units were upgraded; its air distribution was reconfigured for improved comfort and air quality; and its building automation controls platform was advanced to replace the building’s outdated technology. The county is expected to realize an approximate 35% reduction in energy usage annually — or roughly 950,000 kWh in electricity — because of these efforts.

“This was a significant, much-needed renovation project that will serve our county well for many years to come,” said Hall County Assistant County Administrator Katie Crumley. “Working with Trane, we now have a Government Center facility that operates more efficiently and sustainably, while creating a more comfortable, welcoming and productive environment for employees and citizens alike.”

Augusta-Richmond County expects to enjoy the same kind of positive outcomes when its project is completed in 2025. “The first year of guaranteed savings will yield over $1,100,000 in utility bill savings as well as an additional $300,000 in operational savings,” Lampkin said. “Total savings for the first year will be over $1.4 million.”

Next Article: Stormwater project completion fixes channel erosion in Colorado Springs