News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston will move forward with a project designed to reduce the city’s operating costs and energy consumption.
Performance Services presented the Board of Aldermen with ideas Tuesday night. Business Development Manager Brian Stone said that two of the easiest parts of the project with the most impact would be installing LED lighting within all city buildings and reducing heat loss via building weatherization. Stone said they would also install smart thermometers in every building to maximize energy savings whenever they are empty.
“This will not cost the city of Livingston a dime over your budget,” Stone said. “Your current budget, this actually reduces the money you spend in your budget by $14,000 in year one. So it saves more than it costs. We guarantee the savings on an annual basis.”
Stone said the project would also include the addition of variable frequency drives for the water and sewer plants. He said these would allow the motors at the plant to adjust their output as demand changes throughout the day.
“Right now, your equipment at the water plant runs all-out unless it is manually adjusted by the water plant staff,” Stone said. “So in the mornings, you probably need that to be run from 6:00am to 10:00am, you need them to run 100%, but you may not need them to run 100% between, you know, midnight and that 6:00am. So variable frequency drives automatically adjust the speed of that equipment so that it scales it back to 30% or 50% or whatever percentage is needed so it runs at maximum efficiency.”
Stone said the sewer plant would also get a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to automate many of its processes. Stone said they are working on a solar array at the raw water intake.
“This is dependent on a utility easement from the Army Corps of Engineers, so we’re going to – we’re working on that, but that’s the only piece. This would actually reduce the consumption of that plant by $125,000 a year,” Stone said.
The board gave Stone approval to begin searching for financing options to be brought before the board at a later time.
“What this allows us to do is simply say, ‘This is what the project is,” Stone said. “‘These are the scope items. We’re now going to get financing offers.'”
Stone said they also have two different systems they will use to find leaks in the city’s water systems, and will train the city’s staff how to use one of them so it can be used well into the future. He said those plans should reduce unaccounted water loss by 6-8%.
Stone is an employee of Performance Services, the company hired by the city to oversee the project.
