With older buildings in need of renovations and a budget already stretched thin, the University of North Carolina Wilmington creatively sought ways to maximize energy efficiency. The result was a performance-based construction contract with Brady Energy Services to upgrade the oldest portion of campus.

The 19-year contract will cost UNCW more than $4 million upfront, though over the course of the contract the university should recoup more than the initial investment. According to projections, the school will save upwards of $330,000 a year throughout the life of the contract, for a total savings of more than $6 million. The contract also stipulates that Brady guarantee the savings or else pay that money back to the school.

“It’s either you’re paying the utility company or you’re investing in your own facility,” said Tim Gasper of Brady Energy Services. “If you don’t execute the program, you’re just not getting the benefit, converting presently wasted energy dollars into energy efficiency and conservation.”

Steve Sharpe, UNCW engineer explained the benefits of performance-based contracts. “It’s a mechanism for funding projects. We pay the loan off through the cost savings differential and any extra savings go back to the state.”

In addition to the cost savings the construction will provide, UNCW should also receive a rebate of about $200,000 from Progress Energy. Prior to entering into the contract with Brady, UNCW sent a request for proposal to more than five companies.

Brady has already entered into similar contracts with other schools in the state, including University of North Carolina Greensboro.

That $6 million contract began in Sept. 2007 and guaranteed $548,474 in savings per year. Measurements made available from Brady show that in the first year the cost savings exceeded projections by almost $20,000.

“We’ve had great success with our energy saving measures and expect our savings to continue well into the future,” said UNCG Assistant Vice Chancellor Frederick Patrick in a case study.

Looking at Brady’s success at UNCG, UNCW chose Brady for the performance-based contract. Sharpe said that every year of the contract Brady will provide an energy report, audited by an independent third party, explaining there are “checks and balances all the way through the process.”

The contract at UNCW follows a similar format to the UNCG work, laying out a number of measures to lower energy costs. Some are simple and immediate, such as a massive lighting overhaul in Randall Library. The result is a cleaner, longer lasting light that emits less haze and is more efficient.

“This gets us the biggest bang for the buck,” said Phil Weathersbee, the project manager for Brady, about the lighting overhaul. Motion sensors have also been installed to reduce the amount of unnecessary light emitted.

Sharpe explained that new buildings on campus are constructed with motion sensor lights, but old buildings need retrofitting.

“The library ceiling is full of lighting, a lot of times there is simply no occupancy in certain areas,” Sharpe said. “It’s being more sophisticated and smarter about our energy usage.”

According to Weathersbee, since construction began in the spring, UNCW should already be saving money on its electric budget.
The Brady crews make every effort to be as non-invasive as possible.

“To date, there have been no complaints from users or Randall Library occupants about service disruptions stemming from the implementation of energy conservation measures,” said Sarah Watstein, university librarian, in an email.

The major work is set to begin in December, after exams, while students will be home for the holidays. One major focus of the efficiency plan is to connect the older campus buildings to a central power plant that was built four years ago.

“This plant is a lot of what this performance contract is about. Getting older buildings connected to this plant so we can retire old equipment and get more efficient,” Weathersbee said.

Currently, older buildings like King Hall, Alderman Hall and Keenan Hall have their own boilers, heating and cooling equipment, and ventilators. When construction is complete, these services will be piped in from the central plant and the old inefficient equipment will be removed.

“We had this brand new efficient energy plant, and these older buildings were supposed to be connected and weren’t. They had 20-year-old AC systems and boilers. The performance contract allows us to connect those buildings. This is a longer term payback,” Sharpe said.

The new heating and cooling systems will be computerized. The old equipment was set at a temperature and remained at that temperature 24 hours a day. The new equipment can be programmed to run more efficiently when buildings are not in use.

“A lot of times you didn’t know you were wasting energy, as long as the building wasn’t too hot or too cold, there wasn’t a problem. Now we can see the problems, and keep the efficiency of our buildings up,” Sharpe said.