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Siemens Efficiency Technology Helps City Of Jacksonville Bring Green Initiatives To Life
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Siemens and Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown recently celebrated the implementation of a technology that will dramatically reduce electricity use in the city’s Ed Ball Building which houses several city departments, including the Neighborhoods Department, Planning Department and Jax Parks.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony, Mayor Alvin Brown stressed the city’s commitment to sustainability and thanked all of those involved in providing this technology to the city.
“It’s encouraging to think that the Ed Ball building improvements will save taxpayer money today and lead to a better tomorrow for our kids and grandkids,” said Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown. “The City of Jacksonville is committed to leading by example and promoting sustainability in all areas of our community. I commend Siemens for the hard work that is driving innovation in Jacksonville.”
This sustainable initiative was funded by the City of Jacksonville’s federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block program (EECBG) and utilized Siemens’ Demand Flow system, a unique energy optimization application for water-cooled centralized chiller plants that automatically controls and sequences operations based on energy demand, from optimizing temperature set points to maintaining proper pump and fan speeds. The result is dramatically reduced electricity use in the central plant— an area that typically uses the most energy in a facility.
When originally proposed, Demand Flow was conservatively estimated to save the Ed Ball Building approximately 661,712 kWh on an annual basis. However, since Demand Flow’s inception on September 14, 2012, performance data collected from the chilled water plant suggest the estimated annual savings will be significantly higher at 1,000,157 kWh, a 51 percent increase in savings compared to original estimates. At the city’s current electricity rate, those reductions will translate into more than $100,000 in annual utility savings.
“Our Demand Flow technology significantly reduces energy consumption, which will translate into thousands of taxpayer dollars saved in energy costs each year,” said Tracy Raulerson, Energy and Environmental Solutions account executive, Siemens Building Technologies. “Siemens is proud to team with the City of Jacksonville to achieve its goals of a becoming a greener, more sustainable city.”
As such, Siemens is helping the City of Jacksonville make its sustainability efforts transparent to the taxpayers by installing a 60-inch flat panel screen at the building’s security guard station. Visitors can view live data for the building’s energy usage, including savings from the building’s Demand Flow implementation. The kiosk also features monthly tips for consumers to help them to be more energy efficient in their homes and workplaces.
For more information on Siemens’ Demand Flow technology, please visit http://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/bt/global/en/buildingautomation-hvac/building-automation-solutions/demand-flow-chiller-plants/Pages/demand-flow-chiller-plants.aspx.
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About Siemens
Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector, with approximately 87,000 employees worldwide, offers sustainable technologies for metropolitan areas and their infrastructures. Its offerings include complete traffic and transportation systems, intelligent logistics, efficient energy supply, environmentally compatible building technologies, modernization of the way power is transmitted and distributed, and smart consumption of electricity. The sector is comprised of the Rail Systems, Mobility and Logistics, Low and Medium Voltage, Smart Grid and Building Technologies Divisions as well as Osram Sylvania. For more information, visit www.usa.siemens.com/infrastructure-cities
The Siemens Building Technologies Division is the world’s market leader for safe and energy efficient buildings (“green buildings”) and infrastructures. As a service provider, system integrator and product vendor, Building Technologies has offerings for building automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), fire protection and security. For more information, visit http://www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies
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