Siemens Helping City of Houston Save Energy in City Buildings
October 21 2008 - 11:45AM
PR Newswire (US)
First U.S. city to move ahead on municipal building retrofits with
the Clinton Climate Initiative's Building Retrofit program BUFFALO
GROVE, Ill., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemens Building Technologies,
Inc. is one of two companies that have been awarded the first phase
of a multi-tiered, demand-side energy management project by the
City of Houston as part of the city's commitment to save energy,
protect the environment and contain operating costs as a
C40/Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) partner city. CCI's Energy
Efficiency Building Retrofit program brings together many of the
world's largest energy service companies, financial institutions,
and cities in a landmark effort to reduce energy consumption in
existing buildings. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070904/SIEMENSLOGO ) "We're
committed to making these changes and institutionalizing best
sustainability practices in the way the city of Houston operates,"
says Mayor Bill White. "It will improve our quality of life,
protect the environment, save us money, and it's simply the right
thing to do." "Siemens applauds Houston's effort in partnership
with CCI," says George Nolen, president of Siemens USA. "We are
committed to bringing the full depth of our experience, project
management and technology to help Houston attain its goals in
environmental protection. Siemens is proud of all of the work that
we have done -- and will continue to do -- in order to help this
great city attain long-term sustainability for its infrastructure."
The first phase of this performance contract has been assigned with
Siemens poised to retrofit some 5,500,000 square feet of city
facilities. "Our first priority will be to consider what
improvements can be made to the City of Houston's 271 facilities,
addressing energy efficiency, conservation and operational cost
reductions," explains Issa Dadoush, P.E., Director for the City of
Houston's General Services Department. Local Siemens engineers and
technicians will analyze a multitude of sustainable and green
initiatives to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gases. Not
only will the project focus on energy and water conservation, but
also making certain emergency response facilities
disaster-resistant and "passively survivable." When completed, the
energy efficiency improvements are projected to save enough
electricity annually to create millions of dollars in savings and
significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Siemens and the City
of Houston have had a long-standing and successful relationship
when it comes to large-scale energy management projects. Recently,
Siemens and the General Services Department finished the third
phase of an extensive multi-million dollar demand-side interior
lighting retrofit program which helped the City avoid using some
5,320,000 kWh of electricity annually, allowing Houston officials
to receive more than $250,000 in rebate dollars from the local
utility, CenterPoint Energy. This program alone resulted in enough
annual electricity savings to avoid the equivalent of emitting
approximately 2,642 tons per year of greenhouse gases into the
local environment. Siemens was also recently chosen by the Public
Works & Engineering Department to retrofit the majority of the
City of Houston's traffic signals with energy efficient
light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. "We are doing many things
throughout the City to manage our costs and save energy," explains
Mayor White. "Replacing traffic signals with LED lights, for
example, will end up saving us millions of dollars. In the 2007
State of the City address, I challenged the business community to
join us in slowing energy consumption in the next three years," he
emphasizes, "Our goal is to make Houston the energy conservation
capital of the world. It makes good business sense." As a leading
provider of energy and environmental solutions, building controls,
fire safety and security systems solutions, Siemens Building
Technologies, Inc., makes buildings comfortable, safe, secure and
less costly to operate. With U.S. headquarters in Buffalo Grove,
Ill., Siemens Building Technologies employs 7,400 people and
provides a full range of services and solutions from more than 100
locations coast-to-coast. Worldwide, the company has 28,000
employees and operates from more than 500 locations in 51
countries. For more information on Siemens Building Technologies,
visit: http://www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070904/SIEMENSLOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Siemens Building
Technologies, Inc. CONTACT: Steven E. Kuehn of Siemens Building
Technologies, Inc., +1-847-941-6047, Web Site:
http://www.sbt.siemens.com/
http://www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies Company News
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