One county in Texas is seeing big savings with an energy efficiency project. Webb County faced a growing list of delayed maintenance construction projects that drove up the operational costs. As such, the county set out on a progressive energy efficiency project that modernized several of its facilities and will reduce its energy consumption by a whopping 35 percent. The expected resulted savings is more than $10 million.
The objective of the project is to improve the county’s aging facilities and is designed to leverage the savings from the energy budget to continue to fund much-needed infrastructure upgrades and improve quality of operations.
Upgrading Critical Infrastructure to Meet Future Needs
One focus is rebuilding and expanding the county’s downtown central chiller plant and upgrading the building automation systems, both of which were beyond useful life. The county partnered with Schneider Electric on the project. Now, the central chiller plant is set up to support future expansion needs as part of a strategic plan to ensure future needs are proactively managed in a cost-effective manner.
The project enables the county to upgrade its critical infrastructure, while delivering significant energy savings. Even more, it will have an impact on both the local economy and the environment. Once completed, the project will provide energy efficiency savings equivalent to removing 4,497 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or removing 874 cars from the road or planting 4,805 acres of new trees.
Construction of this project is currently underway and is scheduled to be completed at the end of next year. The county officials are encouraging residents to also participant in the program to reduce energy use and waste as well.
