Energy usage reductions at Niskayuna Town Hall won’t be hidden in electricity bills or coated wires, because a new monitor installed in the lobby allows anyone to see just how much it’s using.
Newly displayed data shows town officials have cut back on electricity usage at Town Hall through various energy reduction efforts. A monitor displaying a revolving array of graphs was recently installed in Town Hall and shows data on electricity usage. The system behind the monitor is part of a pilot program administered by the state. The screen is in the lobby of Town Hall to the right of the Board Room doors.
“What you see is that each year the amount of energy we are using is less and less,” said Richard Pollock, superintendent of engineering for the town.
In 2009, the town put in a system to control the air handling in the building, so if nobody is in Town Hall on weekends or at night the air circulation shuts down. Also two years ago, the town put in motion sensors for rooms and hallways to deactivate lights if nobody has walked down a hallway after a certain period of time.
In 2010, the town replaced the chiller unit for the air conditioning of the building with a more efficient model after it failed.
“Because of those projects you will see the bar graphs (showing energy usage per month and compared by year) going down, so going forward as we do more projects we are going to be able to see in real time what the energy savings are,” said Pollock. “In the past what we would have to do is take our monthly National Grid bills and dump that into the program, but going forward we have a meter on the electric panel box in the basement, so it’s actually measuring in real time energy being used.”
Councilwoman Denise Murphy McGraw said the project was initiated at Town Hall after grant money was made available from the state. Schenectady County Community College, where McGraw is the chairwoman for the Board of Trustees, originally received grant money for the same project on campus. This led her to pursue also doing the project in Niskayuna.
“The state in particular was interested in targeting some municipality and government buildings where they could set up terminals exactly like this … and then be able to use the data and look for energy efficiencies,” said McGraw. “While I was in the original meeting, where they were talking to me about the community college, I said, ‘Can we do this at the Town of Niskayuna also?’”
She said there are only a handful of the pilot programs around the state, with Schenectady County holding two, so it is great to bring the opportunity locally.
“They’ll help us to work to find other ways we can achieve energy efficiencies and then we can work through Rich [Pollock] and other consultants that they provide through NYSERDA to see if we can qualify for other grants,” said McGraw. “A lot of people come into this building, so it is also an idea that we thought was important to kind of elevate the awareness of all of this.”
Supervisor Joe Landry said the monitor is operational now, but the town is still working through some bugs and hurdles to get it fully functional. Once it is active, the monitor would be on showing the different graphs and charts throughout the day for anyone to see. He added the town is also going to look at adding more revolving screens with different types of data. Also, more sources of energy and locations could be added, but electricity usage at Town Hall is the only data currently displayed.
“You could send information here from other locations and show how you are saving energy elsewhere, which leads into some other NYSERDA grants,” said Landry.
Town looks to grants for green upgrades
Matt Yetto, engineer for the Town of Niskayuna, said the town is also pursuing three projects through the NYSERDA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Gram Program, which funds projects reducing energy use and fossil fuel emissions.
The biggest project is replacing three large existing electric motors at the town’s water plant that pump water into the system. The estimated time for payback of the project is less than two years and the motors are estimated to cost $80,000.
“The existing motors date back to the ‘60s and they’re not that efficient and we are replacing them with high-efficiency motors,” said Yetto. “The current motors they are off or they’re on and when we first turn them on they take a huge electrical draw from the system … just to start them alone the demand charges that are associated with that … we’re saving $26,000 a year and the estimated energy savings is almost $17,000 annually.”
Variable speed drives will also be installed, which allow the pumps to be throttled back and be used more efficiently. Landry said if it slowly builds up to the maximum usage over time then it lowers electricity costs.
The second grant is for $10,000 towards the replacement of existing lighting fixtures and bulbs at the waste water treatment plant, water treatment plant and two pumping stations. The bulbs will be replaced with higher efficiency bulbs and motion sensors will be installed to control this lights.
“Common practices now, safety wise, they leave the lights on at all times,” said Yetto.
The estimated payback for replacing all the light fixtures targeted in the grant is nearly 4-and-a-half years.
The final project is to replace one of the pumping station’s 1960s era meter, which Yetto said is highly inefficient. The project is the smallest, with an estimated cost of $1,000, and has a 2.2-year payback period.
“All these projects pay for themselves with the energy savings quite quickly,” said Yetto. “It is replacing something that a few years down the road we would have to replace anyway.”
The town would only pay 10 percent of the cost for each project, which would end up totaling around $10,000.