Best practices in energy efficiency programs in the Northeast
Public Service of New Hampshire's Energy Rewards Program and Southeastern Container
Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) is the state’s largest electric utility, serving more than 475,000 homes and businesses in 211 communities. PSNH offers many energy efficiency programs for both residential and commercial customers. Chief among these is the Energy Rewards Program, which grants incentives through a competitive bidding process to commercial and industrial customers who achieve quantifiable energy savings through the installation of energy efficiency measures.
Under the Energy Rewards Program, PSNH accepts energy efficiency project proposals from its commercial and industrial customers, or energy service companies representing those customers. Bidders must have a minimum of 350kW of peak demand at the proposed project site and the project must save at least 100,000 kWh per year. The minimum project cost is $200,000. Bidders may aggregate multiple accounts or sites to meet these size requirements. All project proposals must identify the financial incentive amount required from PSNH in order for the project to be evaluated by PSNH for funding.
Energy Rewards Program proposals are accepted in two tracks:
- Project Track: Through this process, PSNH seeks proposals for projects that can be developed in a short period of time but contain sufficient detail to accurately estimate energy savings, project costs and other parameters.
- Study Track: PSNH also accept proposals for projects that appear to have sufficient energy savings but require need additional study before implementation. Study track proposals will first compete for a fixed amount of study funding. Once studies are complete, detail project proposals must be submitted to compete for available project funding.
Eligibility
A wide variety of projects that address lighting technologies, HVAC and refrigeration, and others are eligible for PSNH funding. Some of these include:
- Replacing lighting with high efficiency lighting systems and designs
- Installing lighting controls to reduce lighting operating hours
- Installing variable speed drives on motors to manage operation time and output levels
- Replacing low efficiency air conditioning equipment with high efficiency equipment
- Chiller replacement and packaged cooling unit replacement
- Energy management systems to control HVAC and refrigeration equipment
- Compressed air system optimization
- Other customer and manufacturing projects
Measures that are not eligible include new construction projects, any power producing projects such as co-generation, fuel switching (switching from electric energy), and any repair or maintenance project. In addition, any efficiency measure required by law or code, or that represent standard industry practice, are not be eligible for the program.
PSNH will evaluate proposals under the Energy Rewards Program based on five criteria:
- Requested utility participation: This value indicates what percentage of the total project cost is requested from PSNH for the measures to be installed. This portion of the proposal carries the largest weight.
- Cost effectiveness: All projects require that the benefits resulting from measures implemented exceed the costs of installation.
- Comprehensiveness: PSNH values projects that include system designs beyond the simple replacement of equipment.
- Environmental benefits: Credit is given to project proposals that identify non-quantifiable environmental benefits not related to energy savings.
- Project timeline: PSNH encourages projects to be completed in a timely manner and credits projects based on how long it will take to implement.
Utility Incentives Available
The Energy Rewards Program aims to capture energy efficiency savings from projects that are not going through other existing PSNH rebate programs. One of the program’s goals is to assess the degree to which individual projects require financial incentives and to identify what incentives will help to transform the market for efficiency. Therefore, while the Energy Rewards Program does provide funding for measurable energy savings achieved, it does not offer a specific set of published incentives. Rather, each project proposal must identify the incentive amount needed and be qualified under cost effectiveness criteria.
The Customer: Southeastern Container
Southeastern Container (SEC) is a private company owned by a group of Coca-Cola Bottling companies. Formed in 1982, SEC has ten manufacturing plants in nine states (including a location in Hudson, New Hampshire) that produce and supply plastic bottles to Coca-Cola’s many bottling plants.
Since 2002, SEC’s Hudson, New Hampshire location has aggressively pursued initiatives to reduce energy consumption and has installed cutting edge efficiency measures for the plastic bottling industry. As a result, the Hudson location is considered to be the company’s most efficient plant.
SEC is committed to continuous improvement through positive change and always strives to manage its operations efficiently and cost effectively. SEC’s New Hampshire facility was used as a pilot plant to test energy efficiency measures that aimed not only to reduce energy consumption and its associated costs, but also to enhance the plant’s overall productivity and efficiency. Upon the urging of local management, capital funds earmarked to another SEC location were redirected to the Hudson plant in order to undertake projects through PSNH’s Energy Rewards Program.
As a result of its participation in the Energy Rewards Program, 54 percent of SEC’s efficiency improvements were funded through rebates from PSNH.
Efficiency Improvements
SEC has proven to be a leader in pursuing both traditional and innovative energy efficiency measures. Through PSNH’s Energy Rewards program, SEC became one of the first plants in New England to install high efficiency air recovery systems, allowing SEC to produce more bottles while using less energy. Compressed air, using both high and low pressure, is the major source of energy consumption in the production of plastic bottles. The air recovery system (ARS) redirects high-pressure air exhaust to the low-pressure system, allowing low-pressure compressors to be turned down or off depending on the product being manufactured. The ARS works in conjunction with a newly installed compressor control system to improve efficiency. The energy savings related to the ARS have exceeded even the most optimistic estimates and have made SEC’s Hudson plant an example to the manufacturing industry, such that other companies are considering installing air recovery systems because of SEC’s results.
In addition, SEC retrofitted their Hudson plant with approximately 700 high efficiency lighting fixtures and lighting controls. The company has also installed industrial ceiling fans that circulate heat from the machines to provide comfort heating. This measure served to lower SEC’s natural gas heating bills by between $10,000 and $15,000 annually.
Energy Savings
SEC’s Hudson plant has reduced its annual energy consumption by 19 percent and is saving $562,908 in energy costs annually. The energy savings of 4,907,885 kWh and 474 kW annually is enough energy to serve 670 residential homes.
Non-Energy Benefits
In addition to saving energy, the installation of industrial fans to circulate the warm air given off by the equipment at SEC’s Hudson plant has improved occupant comfort.
Furthermore, through several technological innovations, SEC was able to increase its machine speeds. This has led to a decrease in the amount of power needed to make the bottles while increasing the total volume of bottles that are produced. This highlights the fact that the reduction in electricity consumption was not a result of the manufacturing process generating less output but a direct result of the efficiency measures applied.
SEC has also adopted extensive recycling initiatives to reduce waste and contribute to environmental protection. Materials such as rejected plastic bottles are converted to a flake product and are shipped back to the raw plastic producer to become part of the next batch of raw material supply. Additionally, all shipping materials are re-used as many times as possible and are recycled at the end of their useful life.
"The results of our energy efficiency efforts exceeded our expectations," said John Fischer, General Manager of Southeastern Container's Northeast region. "Working with PSNH and our equipment vendor, we calculated that we may save 5 million kilowatt hours per year. However, this number could double depending on production considerations.”
Southeastern Container was recognized by NEEP as a Northeast Business Leader for Energy Efficiency as part of the 2007 Northeast Energy Efficiency Summit. For more information about the program and to view a video clip summarizing the company's efficiency efforts, please click here.
Interested in submitting a case study for NEEP Notes? Please contact Catherine Stanley for more information.
