LOS ANGELES, June 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California
Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and the University of
California Santa Barbara (UCSB) today announced the
successful completion of two joint energy efficiency projects. In
total, the projects are saving the university 66,000 therms of
energy every year. The reduction in energy use equates to removing
about 350 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the same as a
reduction of 866,516 miles driven by passenger vehicles per year.
Both projects were part of California's joint Energy Efficiency
Partnership between state universities and investor-owned
utilities. Over the last five years, SoCalGas has supported over
184 energy efficiency projects, saving university campuses over
6,000,000 therms of energy—a $6
million savings— and providing over $6,300,000 in incentives through this state
program.
In 2013, the University of
California (UC) system announced its Carbon Neutrality
Initiative, which commits UC to emitting net zero greenhouse gases
from its buildings and vehicle fleet by 2025, something no other
major university system has done. SoCalGas' energy efficiency
programs support the campus and their ambitious conservation
goals.
"SoCalGas is committed to providing affordable, clean energy
solutions to our customers," said Brian
Prusnek, director of customer programs and assistance at
SoCalGas. "We value our partnership with the UC and CSU
university systems, and through our energy efficiency solutions, we
are working together to lower utility bills and curb carbon
emissions."
"Whole-building energy efficiency projects at UCSB have proven
to be strong financial investments and have helped us create more
comfortable, safer, and more controllable environments for campus
end users," said Jordan Sager,
energy manager at UCSB. "SoCalGas has been a great partner to work
with on these projects from start to finish."
The first of the two UCSB projects began in 2018 as part of the
university's high opportunity projects and programs (HOPP's)
initiative. SoCalGas and Southern California Edison co-funded the
project, which investigated how best to update two important
laboratories at the university. The utilities conducted an energy
management plan to document and list the savings, costs and
measures to implement an energy efficient system.
The utilities identified multiple measures to reduce energy
consumption in the building's lighting and HVAC systems by
installing occupancy sensors, wireless thermostats and low-power
LED lights. The campus also added high efficiency dedicated natural
gas boilers to each building. A new chilled water system including
a cooling tower, and pumps were also installed. Following the
installation of the energy efficient system, the utilities verified
the energy systems using the Normalized Metered Energy Consumption
(NMEC) approach, which uses building-level metered energy data to
verify savings. The project resulted in natural gas savings of
60,959 therms, and the university received an incentive from
SoCalGas of $152,000.
UCSB also installed an ozone laundry system to support their
laundering of uniforms and sports gear for the university's
athletic department which was eligible for a rebate from SoCalGas
in the amount of $5,850 and will save
the university approximately 5,880 therms of energy.
SoCalGas continues to be a leader in researching and developing
new technologies that improve energy efficiency and protect the
environment. Over the past five years, SoCalGas energy efficiency
programs delivered more than 204 million therms in energy savings,
enough natural gas usage for 125,000 households a year, and
reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 1,000,000 metric tons,
the equivalent of removing more than 230,000 cars from the road
annually. These advances have also helped save SoCalGas customers
nearly $225 million in utility bill
costs.
To learn more about SoCalGas' energy efficiency programs and
services, visit socalgas.com or call 800-427-2200.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is
the largest gas distribution
utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers
affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable gas service
to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of
Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of
residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying
clothes or other uses. Gas delivered through the company's
pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to
Californians— about 45 percent of electric power
generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.
SoCalGas' vision is to be the cleanest gas utility
in North America, delivering affordable and increasingly
renewable energy to its customers. In support of that vision,
SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional
natural gas supply with renewable natural gas (RNG) by
2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by
dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is
also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure
while keeping bills affordable for our customers. From 2014 through
2018, the company invested nearly $6.5 billion to upgrade
and modernize its pipeline system to enhance safety and
reliability. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra
Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based
in San Diego. For more information
visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas
on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas)
and Facebook.
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SOURCE Southern California Gas Company