Performance contract delivers energy savings

The Quadrangle on the FAMU campus

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Tallahassee, Fla.-based Florida A&M University (FAMU) has signed a $12.2 million performance contract that will save the historically black college and university (HBCU) about $1.2 million in equivalent guaranteed annual energy savings. The school chose Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Siemens to implement the contract. In 2009, FAMU contracted with the company on a $2.4 million project that introduced the energy efficiency and financial benefits of performance contracting to the school.

The new 18-month project, which began in May, includes several facility infrastructure improvements, including a steam system infrastructure renovation, an advanced solar-thermal heating system for the swimming pool, central chilled water and steam plant improvements, building automation improvements, and ventilation and dehumidification improvements for the library. ?Our first project with Siemens gave us the opportunity to see first hand the financial and operational effectiveness of performance contracting,? said FAMU President James H. Ammons. ?We are moving forward with Phase 2 ? a project that will yield tremendous energy savings and support campus sustainability measures far into the future.?

Because plans call for partial decentralization of the steam heating plant and the implementation of other facility improvement measures to campus buildings, energy savings will be sizable. For example, natural gas consumption will be reduced 42.6 percent, which represents an annual equivalent savings of $706,204. Electricity consumption will be reduced 12.1 percent, creating nearly $564,000 in equivalent cost savings on top of reductions and savings that came from implementing Phase 1.

Siemens? experience delivering performance contracts to institutions of higher education served to boost the confidence of school officials who were concerned about the ambitions of the project. ?On many levels, Siemens worked with the FAMU facilities personnel to help them understand that other universities with similar campus profiles in the southern U.S. have successfully decentralized their steam systems,? said Dave Hopping, vice president and building automation business unit lead for Siemens Building Technologies. ?We worked closely with these schools so FAMU officials could see for themselves how well these improvements can work to increase efficiency.?

The Tallahassee, Fla., campus, which encompasses 156 buildings and 3.9 million square feet, is home to 13,284 students and the largest HBCU in the country. Over the 18-month project, 21 area boilers will be installed in individual buildings. According to FAMU administrators, just a small portion of the steam plant project would have required a capital budget expense of more than $5 million ? a cost that FAMU would not be able to bear without the financial support of the performance contract.

As it stood, the steam system was running at a high rate of pressure just to serve one building. Installing area boilers at the dorms and science buildings enables the university to shut down the steam system during the warm-weather months (six months each year). Other improvements include chiller plant optimization via Siemens Demand Flow optimization software, which will increase chilled water system efficiency and capacity.

To ensure central command and control of the majority of campus facilities, Siemens building automation systems are being installed in 14 buildings (one-third of the buildings on campus). That integration will support efficient operations and provide energy consumption transparency through an energy management control platform ? technologies that will support and sustain FAMU?s educational mission into the future.

The Siemens Building Technologies Division is service provider, system integrator and product vendor. The firm has solutions for building automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fire protection and security. ?

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