Interstate Electrical Services Corp. was recently awarded a lighting retrofit project by the University System of New Hampshire (USNH).
Out of $71 million in stimulus money appropriated to N.H.'s Office of Energy and Planning for energy projects, $10.7m was directed to reducing energy consumption in NH State-owned building and an additional $1.3m targeted USNH energy efficiency projects.
The USNH chose to use their portion of the money for lighting retrofits for buildings on the Keene, Plymouth and Durham campuses. Interstate Electrical Services was chosen in a competitive bid to perform the lighting retrofit.
According to Don Hagstrom, USNH project manager, "Interstate's pricing was so competitive that we were able to schedule additional upgrades not in the original scope of work; a real benefit to the University."
Not in the original project is the yet-to-be completed LED lighting upgrade at the Keene Campus, as well as lighting and fixture upgrades for both the Gym on the Plymouth State campus and a similar upgrades to the Dimond Library located on the Durham campus. "Installing energy efficient lighting and motion sensor switches in the Dimond Library will provide a huge cost saving to the university system, commented Hagstrom, particularly when you consider the fact that the building is basically open to students until 2:00 am daily. Stimulus money from the government comes with a number of qualifiers and requires contractors to work just a bit harder on the book keeping and reporting end of things."
According to Laura Richardson, ARRA coordinator for state energy programs of the N.H. Office of Energy and Planning, "Not only was Interstate competitive, but their work was high quality and their people a pleasure to work with. The 'Buy American' and 'Davis-Bacon' provisions included in stimulus projects can cause problems because they require extra effort to track down the origin of all components and document payroll and wages. Interstate managed the process will little problem. We couldn't be happier with the results."
"With increased focus on reducing energy consumption, lighting is one of the most obvious targets," said Jamie Boilard, vice president of northern service for Interstate. "By taking the time to really understand your lighting needs and then installing state-of-the-art, energy efficient lighting fixtures combined with motion sensors where appropriate you can not only dramatically reduce energy usage, but create a pleasing work environment. When the lighting is right, you would be surprised how the personality of a building can change. We have been doing these types of retrofits for years and it is always gratifying to see the customer realize their goal of reducing energy consumption, and even more so when they comment on how the new lighting scheme has positively affected their environment.
"The bonus for us on this job was the people we worked with from the university system and on the various campuses. Everyone was a real pleasure to work with; positive, proactive and totally professional," said Boilard. "I feel like we forged some real partnerships and look forward to working with them again on future projects."