WWW.CLEANENERGYRESOURCETEAMS.ORG

CASE STUDY: LOCAL GOVERNMENT ENERGY EFFICIENCY

What’s Happenin’ in Hennepin?: Hennepin County’s Energy Efficiency ProjectsWritten by Ryan Sparrow • August 2012

Hennepin County has done a lot to become moreenergy efficient, and they did it fast.

As part of the American Recovery and ReinvestmentAct of 2009, the county received $2.8 million inEnergy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant(EECBG) funding from the U.S. Department ofEnergy. The EECBG grant allowed the county’sproperty services department to do an impressivenumber of building efficiency projects.

The county began with an exacting 18-monthresearch process to evaluate energy use in countybuildings and identify which buildings needed ener-gy efficiency retrofits the most. County staff workedto design efficiency solutions that provided fiscalreturns, lowered carbon emissions, created jobs, andreduced taxpayer burdens. After a thorough evalua-tion, Hennepin County focused its energy conserva-tion efforts on 12 county facilities, including theHennepin County Medical Center, the HennepinCounty Library – Minneapolis Central, the HealthServices Building, and the Hennepin EnergyRecovery Center (HERC).

Building Recommissioning

Both the Hennepin County Medical Center and theHennepin County Library - Minneapolis Centralreceived extensive heating and ventilation systemadjustments to make sure the buildings were operat-ing at the optimal level of efficiency. The adjust-ments performed on the Medical Center have annualcost-savings of $590,000 with a projected two yearpayback, and the adjustments on the Central Libraryhave annual cost-savings of $102,000 with a project-ed 4 year payback. Hennepin County PropertyServices made an agreement with the City ofMinneapolis to receive $117,000 of its EECBG Grantto help fund the work done at the Hennepin CountyLibrary - Minneapolis Central, a landmark in down-town Minneapolis that has sustainability elementsincorporated into the building design.

Lighting Retrofits

Through a Facility Cost Share Grant (also part ofEECBG funding), the State of Minnesota matched 50percent of the project costs up to $150,000 for light-ing retrofits and a replacement of the lighting controlsystem at the Hennepin County Health ServicesBuilding. The upgraded lighting fixtures and con-

Project Snapshot

Location: Hennepin County, Minnesota.

Energy Saved: Combined $967,000 in energy savings.

Type of technology: Energy efficiency; lighting.

EECBG Grant: Awarded:$2.9 million.

Rebates:$40,000 utility rebate.

Community Benefits:Taxpayers save money, more reliable and safertraffic signals.

A worker installs energy-efficient lighting at the HennepinCounty Government Center.

CERTs PARTNERS

University of MinnesotaExtension and RegionalSustainableDevelopmentPartnerships

Eureka Recycling

Southwest RegionalDevelopmentCommission

The Minnesota Project

Minnesota Departmentof Commerce, Division of Energy Resources

FUNDING

This project was madepossible by a grant fromthe U.S. Department ofEnergy and theMinnesota Departmentof Commerce throughthe American Recoveryand Reinvestment Act of2009 (ARRA).

trols have occupancy sensors which save the building money by turning the lights off whenthe room is empty. These improvements have projected annual savings of $30,000 in energycosts, and also qualified for a $40,000 utility rebate.

Eleven of the twelve selected buildings also underwent lighting retrofits. Two larger-scaleprojects included the Hennepin County Government Center and the Hennepin EnergyRecovery Center. All of the 29 floors of the Government Center were re-lamped with low-wattage fluorescent lamps. To reduce disruptions to staff working in the building, the con-tractor worked overnight shifts to replace the 21,658 lamps over six weeks. The lightingupgrades on the Government Center will save the county an estimated 475,000 kilowatt-hours of energy, equivalent to $55,000 annually in electrical costs.

At the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, which is an industrial building that burnsgarbage to produce energy, lighting was evaluated to identify ways to improve efficiencywhile also improving safety for workers. Following the evaluation, EECBG funding wasused to implement a large-scale lighting retrofit that is expected to save $50,000 in electrici-ty costs annually. The facility will lead the way for improved lighting, both for safety andfor energy efficiency, in existing large scale industrial facilities.

Traffic Signal Retrofits

Hennepin County also used its EECBG funds to expand the traffic signal replacement pro-gram. Over the course of 2010 to 2012, 74 incandescent county traffic signals were replacedwith energy-efficient and long-lasting LED bulbs, which have fewer outages and require lessenergy use. Not only do the traffic signal retrofits save the city money, but they also keepcitizens safer. This project is expected to save $60,000 annually in electricity costs and payback in under 5 years.

Leah Hiniker, Hennepin County Energy Manager, could only say good things about theproject: “The traffic signal retrofit is a pretty cool project in all aspects; the communities paythe electricity bill, so this is a dual benefit project in the fact that the cities benefit from thereduction in energy use.” Hiniker added, “we actually gain from the project, because themaintenance of [the signals] is dramatically reduced.”

The Hennepin County EECBG projects gave the county an excellent opportunity to improveinfrastructure and save county residents and ultimately taxpayers money. Hiniker claims,“Some of [the efficiency projects] would probably be sitting still on the back burner waitingfor some sort of funding source. So I think it really did stimulate and expedite us gettingthese projects done and maybe even looking at them on a larger scale.” The county contin-ues to work on improving the metro area’s energy use and overall sustainability.

For more information, contact Leah Hiniker, Energy Manager at Hennepin County, at (612) 543-1219 or leah.hiniker@co.hennepin.mn.us.

GET SOCIAL WITH CERTs:

WWW.CLEANENERGYRESOURCETEAMS.ORG

updates.mncerts.org on.fb.me/mn-certs twitter.com/mncerts linkd.in/mncerts flickr.com/mncertsyoutube.com/mncerts

A worker installs LED traffic signals on Brooklyn Boulevardin Hennepin County.