Energy Savings Success Story

Project description:
In April of 2002, the Portage facility pursued the opportunity to reduce utility costs associated with lighting the manufacturing facility. Work began with Alliant Energy (local utility) to evaluate current usage and potential energy and cost savings. An evaluation determined that a relight program could save the facility as much as 70 KW or 582,100 KWH annually. The relight program consisted of replacing existing 34w T-12 fluorescent fixtured systems with energy efficient T-8 fluorescent fixtured systems. In addition, new reflector shield systems were installed for more efficient use and distribution of light.

Plant: Portage I, Wisconsin
Division: Custom Sheet & Rollstock
Energy Type: Electricity
Energy Target: Lighting
Baseline Usage/Cost: 1,200,249 KWH
Target Usage/Cost: 618,150 KWH
Total Energy Savings: 48%
The electric utility formalized an agreement with the facility to utilize Encompass All System Go to perform the work, while the repayment for the project would be supplied by Alliant through a 5 year plan generated from the cost savings. The facility arranged an agreement to average out the cost of the project over 60 months. Thereafter, the facility would begin to realize the cost savings associated with the modifications. Repayment will be complete in December 2007. In addition, an agreement was signed to provide guarantee to maintain or increase lighting levels resulting from the project.

Financial and Environmental Benefits:
There were numerous benefits realized from the project. The following summarizes many of the benefits:
  1. Maintenance personnel have stated that the lifespan of the new lights was extended from approximately 1 year to 3 years or more. This allowed for a decrease in both labor and material costs to maintain sufficient lighting for the operation.
  2. Alliant Energy provided information supporting that implementation of the project positively impacted the environment by reducing annual emissions (associated with the generation of electricity) for the following constituents:
    • 1,558,505 lbs. Carbon Dioxide
    • 7,615 lbs. Sulfur Dioxide
    • 3,858 lbs. NOx
  3. Personnel have stated that the new light is of better quality. Pre-existing light had a "yellow" tint.
  4. In some cases (such as offices), bulbs have been removed while providing sufficient lighting to perform work, further reducing the amount of electricity utilized.