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PA Department of General Services Earns Award for Curbing Energy Use in State Office Buildings

Posted on: Thursday, 10 September 2009, 10:30 CDT

Reducing Energy Consumption by 18 Percent Saves $2.2 Million Annually

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Department of General Services has received a 2009 Green Power Award for its work to reduce energy consumption in state office buildings by 18 percent, an accomplishment that saves taxpayers $2.2 million annually in utility costs.

"Pennsylvania is leading by example by working hard to conserve energy while saving precious natural resources, and DGS is proud to help achieve this accomplishment," said DGS Secretary James P. Creedon. "We are honored to receive this prestigious award and we will continue to do all that we can to reduce energy consumption while being responsible environmental stewards."

The 2009 Green Power: Turn It On! Award will be presented by PennFuture, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, at its awards ceremony planned today at noon in Philadelphia. The PennFuture awards recognize individuals and organizations for their work in promoting clean, renewable energy in Pennsylvania.

Through a 2004 executive order, Governor Rendell placed DGS in charge of an energy-management and conservation campaign in all state-owned buildings. As a result, many state office buildings have undergone a complete top-to-bottom "green" transformation, and the state's workforce has embraced an energy-savings culture.

Some of the key initiatives DGS implemented to reduce energy include mandatory office temperature set points of 75 degrees during the summer and 67 degrees during the winter, heating and ventilation upgrades, replacing incandescent with fluorescent lighting, removing unnecessary appliances, installing sensor lighting, replacing decades-old single-pane windows with double-pane windows, using low-flow restroom fixtures, and adding insulation and recaulking building exteriors.

DGS also is using "load shedding" technology in some state office buildings as a way to reduce energy use. Load shedding conserves energy use during peak demand times by automatically reducing electricity loads, such as turning off lighting.

Secretary Creedon also pointed to the use of Guaranteed Energy-Savings Act (GESA) projects used by the state that improve the overall efficiency of a building, with no up-front capital expenditures. These projects are also available to local governments, school districts and other organizations. The energy and cost-savings achieved by the project are used to finance the costs of the work, making the project essentially budget neutral.

There are 38 GESA projects underway at state-owned buildings. Once all projects are completed, the state will avoid using nearly 266 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually -- or the same amount of energy needed to power nearly 25,000 average residential homes for one full year. It will also avoid emitting 136,768 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which would be the equivalent of removing 23,890 passenger vehicles from the road each year.

For more information on GESA, visit DGS on the Internet at www.dgs.state.pa.us , and click on the "DGS Energy Management Office" icon at the lower right.

CONTACT: Edward Myslewicz of Pennsylvania Department of General Services, +1-717-787-5996

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of General Services

Source: PR Newswire

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