Small Town News

PUD 3/Simpson complete conservation project

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Mason County PUD 3 recently completed a project to replace lights in Simpson Timber's Shel-ton waterfront and Johns Prairie locations which saved 7 percent of the utility's overall power consumption.

"You may have noticed that the lights down at Simpson are very white and bright lately," PUD 3 Conservation Manager Justin Hol-zgrove said. "That's new."

With energy efficiency funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) the PUD replaced all of the large T-12 flourescent lights at Simpson's two locations with smaller T-8 and T-5 foures-cent lights.

"Essentially, every light was changed out, Holzgrove said. "They actually are more efficient lights.

Replacing all of Simpson's lighting will save 4,190.9 megawatt hours (MWh) per year, he said.

"To put that in perspective that's about 7 percent of our system load," PUD 3 Power Supply Manager Matt Samuelson said. "That's a lot of energy."

Saving the energy also helps the PUD meet renewable energy requirements under Initiative 937 (1-937), which required all utilities to obtain 3 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2012, 9 percent by 2016 and 15 percent by 2020.

The PUD payed $652,519.47 to replace the lights, which was entirely covered by energy efficiency funds from BPA, Holzgrove said.

Holzgrove and the PUD worked with Tony Enslow, Simpson project engineer and environmental specialist. Enslow could not attend the PUD 3 Board of Commissioners' most recent meeting on Tuesday to discuss the project, but wrote comments on the project that were shared in a presentation Holzgrove gave to the PUD Board.

"Our collective efforts have made this county-wide lighting project a real success. In addition to reducing our energy consumption, the new lighting fixtures, ballasts and sensors have also increased our facility's lighting quality and intensity; making our facilities a safer and more enjoyable place to work," Enslow wrote.

The federal government has mandated that T-12 lights will no longer be manufactured after July 2012.



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