With another productive year of saving energy and money for hundreds of customers, NCAT's Energy Services team has played a significant role in reducing energy usage in Montana by more than 53,000,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually.
NCAT is a performance contractor working with NorthWestern Energy's demand side management program. The 53 million kWh saved is an accumulation of projects in partnership with NorthWestern Energy since the NCAT team's inception in 2006. It means 201 railroad cars of coal will not be needed every year. The lifespan of these improvements is estimated to be 15 years, so that our total impact by 2027 is taking 3,015 railroad cars out of use, with a savings of 795,000,000 kilowatt hours.
In the last year alone, as government agencies rushed to take advantage of federal funds for energy-efficiency and conservation upgrades and private businesses sought to reduce energy consumption and take advantage of utility rebates and incentives, team members worked on more than 1,000 different projects in Montana.
Team members worked on state, county, and city government facilities as well as privately owned buildings. Dave Houser, NCAT's Energy Services Business Development Director, said the federal stimulus funds available for government buildings, public schools and rural hospitals were used to leverage existing funds to achieve even more energy efficiencies and cost savings than originally planned. For projects using these stimulus funds, NCAT helped reduce electricity usage by more than 13.2 million kilowatt hours per year, and reduced natural gas usage by nearly 20,000 dekatherms per year.
According to Ken Phillips, the Senior Energy Engineer for the Montana State Building Energy Program, the 80 projects we have completed for the state have helped save more than $1,100,000 per year in energy costs.
Staff assessed energy usage and savings opportunities across a wide range of facility types, including university buildings, hospital campuses, the state crime lab, parking lots, fairgrounds, dairies, and a nonprofit ranch serving troubled youth that has 10 separate buildings.
They provide detailed information on how building owners can reduce energy usage and energy costs. The staff members provide an economic analysis of energy savings and project costs, giving the owner a breakdown of costs for equipment replacement and estimates of energy savings both in kilowatts and in dollars. NCAT staff members also help customers develop rebate forms and customized incentive requests and submit them to the utility company.
"Much of our work focuses on savings through upgrading lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment and controls," said Houser. "Most building and facility owners are surprised at how much energy they can save by simply upgrading to more efficient lightbulbs and installing occupancy sensors. For a typical facility, an owner can cut their energy usage by as much as 15% with these simple steps."
According to Phillips, NCAT’s audits can turn up serious problems with equipment and supply lines as well.
"NCAT engineer Vicki Lynne had just completed an energy study at one of our state hospitals, and the numbers for natural gas usage just didn’t make sense," Phillips said. "So we conducted a leak-detection survey, which identified 11 leaks in the system. Repairing those leaks not only diverted a disaster that could have taken lives, it saved the state significant money in natural gas usage."
Share Share this on Facebook
