The DOE has recognized Cummins’ Jamestown Engine Plant in New York for energy efficiency achievements under the Better Plants Challenge.
Jamestown Engine Plant: Facility-Wide Energy and Infrastructure Improvement Project (EERE)
On November 6, 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Cummins Inc. for energy efficiency achievements at its Jamestown Engine Plant in New York. The plant is a showcase project under Better Plants Challenge, the industrial component of the 2011 Better Buildings Initiative, which aims to make commercial and industrial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020. It is the first Cummins facility to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status. The plant features a 2 MW solar installation capable of generating approximately one-third of its power requirement on the sunniest days. Its facility-wide efficiency improvements will result in estimated energy savings of 250 billion British Thermal Units (BTUs), equivalent to approximately $1.4M in savings on annual energy bills.
According to DOE, the Jamestown Plant undertook its largest infrastructure upgrade in more than 40 years, facilitating critical equipment updates for increased energy efficiency, greater reliability, and operational stability. The company pursued a phased, whole-building energy and infrastructure improvement project with $5.1M earmarked for energy efficiency projects. Efficiency improvements include energy-efficient lighting, thermal insulated roof with solar panels, and upgrades to heating-and-cooling and energy control systems. Efforts are underway to eliminate steam use by replacing it with direct-fired gas units and new cooling equipment that can save approximately four million gallons of water annually. It has installed regenerative dynamometers that facilitate energy recovery from engine-testing to supply power to the facility.
Under the Better Buildings initiative, Cummins committed to a 25 percent energy intensity reduction by 2016 across 104 facilities – including 19 plants representing eight million square feet – and has already achieved the goal with a 34 percent cumulative reduction. Better Buildings Challenge partners are involved in energy efficiency projects at more than 9,000 facilities – more than 2,100 buildings aimed to improve energy efficiency by 20 percent and 4,500 buildings by 10 percent relative to their baseline years.
