By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
University has been working on energy conservation since
In an effort to save money and protect the environment, the UA signed its first major energy management services contract last week with Arizona Public Service Energy Services.
The contract aims to assist the University of Arizona in conserving energy - mainly reducing the electricity bills, said Thomas Thompson, a University of Arizona attorney.
"If the UA does $26 million worth of energy-management services business with APS Energy Services in four years, then the UA will get a full discount in buying electricity," Thompson said.
APS Energy Services sells bulk power to large commercial companies in the deregulated markets in Arizona and California.
In three months, the APS Energy Services will conduct an energy audit at the UA campus and target areas where the energy can be more efficiently used, Thompson said.
By saving energy, "we don't have to spend much money, and that leaves available money for other operational costs," he added.
The UA has been working since the '70s for energy conservation and looking for additional ways for efficient use.
"In the 1970s, the UA buildings were overlit, and one way to save from energy was to de-lamp," said Terry Sweet, facilities department senior staff technician.
Two decades later, lamps collected dirt, and uneven lighting in buildings needed an upgrade.
In 1991, the facilities management department performed a five-phase lighting upgrade project to re-illuminate buildings around campus.
The project replaced the inefficient, fluorescent lighting with surface-mounted or recessed fluorescent lighting. It also lowered the corridor exit lights from 40 watts to 4 watts.
"Old, inefficient lighting just looked terrible," Sweet said.
The university completed the last-phase energy fixtures at the Biological Sciences West building during the summer, Sweet said. About 2,000 light fixtures were replaced, which cost the UA bout $200,000, and will yielded $47,000 annually in energy savings, he added.
"But we get all our money back around three-and-a-half years with the environmental benefit as well," he added. "We don't have enough money, so we improve light, and it pays for itself."
In addition to saving energy, the lighting upgrade also increased environmental and psychological benefits, Sweet said.
The upgrade of the lighting eliminated PCB magnetic ballast, "an unfriendly contaminant material to the environment," Sweet said.
"People praised me like God, but all I did was to turn on the lights for them," Sweet added.
Each new building on campus has its own energy-saving system, Thompson said.
"Old Main doesn't have much, whereas the ILC will have the most energy-saving system," he added.
If the university approves the suggested energy proposals by the APS Energy Services, in about six months, the UA will start working with the energy management services.
