St. Joseph, Missouri is entering into a partnership with Schneider Electric to begin construction on a new energy efficiency and infrastructure modernization project. St. Joseph is investing in facility and core infrastructure upgrades as part of its broader commitment to leverage technology to bring the city into the 21st century. The project will combine a creative financing approach with innovative technologies to cut energy spending and strategically use the funding for capital improvement to cover more strategic facility initiatives.
St. Joseph has struggled with limited funding for facility and infrastructure improvements, deferring a modernization plan. To fund these critical improvements, the city is employing an energy savings performance contract (ESPC), where energy and operational savings are used to fund the improvements. This takes the burden off the taxpayers and creates additional opportunities to make modernization upgrades that further reduce operational costs.
The project invests in 19 sites, including City Hall, and delivers comprehensive facility improvements to modernize lighting, HVAC systems, plumbing retrofits and other energy efficiency and operational improvements — ensuring comfortable working spaces for the community and staff. The upgrades will also connect all city facilities to a single building automation system to create greater city-wide visibility into energy usage. In addition to creating better transparency for operations and energy use, the building automation platform will standardize the processes within the city’s day-to-day operations. This will benefit the city long-term and accelerate longer-term capital improvement needs through the savings generated by initial energy and operational reductions.
In addition to the facility and infrastructure improvements, the project will create significant energy reduction, estimated to save the city more than $218,585 in the first year.
The 4th Annual Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference takes place May 13 – 15, 2019 in Denver. Learn more here.
