Thursday, April 4, 2002 • Vol 8, Issue 7
Energy-saving projects again result in incentives from city agencies, this time totaling $750,000
By CLAY EALS
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PHOTO BY MICHELLE HRUBY
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| Gary Zarker (left), superintendent of Seattle City Light, gets a tour of a sixth-floor laboratory from Russ Schwartz, the Alliance's director of diagnostic and support services. Looking on are City Light officials Javad Maadanian and Joan Walters. |
If anyone still doubts whether energy conservation saves money, a spate of four ceremonial checks totaling more than $750,000 presented to the Hutch and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance last week would serve as convincers.
With "cash" in hand, Gary Zarker, superintendent of Seattle City Light, toured Day Campus buildings on March 26.
Zarker presented $510,650 to the Hutch for several energy-conservation steps, including an innovative program that only a few lab institutions in the nation have implemented - a Variable Volume, Variable Pressure (VVVP) project that slices in half the energy use of continuously operating equipment supplying air to the Labs.
The City Light Superintendent also presented $123,500 to the Alliance for energy efficiencies designed into the clinic building, which opened in January 2001.
In addition, Puget Sound Energy and Seattle Public Utilities accepted the installation of three other energy-conservation projects and the implementation of the Hutch's washer heat-recovery project, issuing checks for $92,000 and $24,000 in incentive funds, respectively.
Bob Cowan, manager of Facilities Engineering, said the checks reflect his department's desire to reduce energy consumption and associated costs so that more money can be devoted to scientific research, "to provide world class facilities engineering at the least possible cost.
"The city has a program that pays up to 70 percent of the cost of an energy-conservation project so that they don't have to buy the energy on the spot market or build new generation capacity," he said. "Last year, hey made an offer we couldn't refuse: a 20 percent bonus for starting and completing a project by November.
"With the Alliance startup, construction of the Yale Building, cell processing and other remodels, without that extra 20-percent incentive, we might not have started the VVVP project until this year. And by getting it done last year, it paid for itself in seven months and will keep saving us $167,000 every year."
Cowan credited the work of Jim Walker, staff engineer and lead for energy conservation. "His efforts, coupled with Rick Larson and the controls team, Mark Hungerford and the electrical team and all the operating engineers, made it happen, despite competing demands for their time.
"We are a leader in this field. No one in the field of laboratory buildings is really doing it to the level we're doing it to."
