VICKSBURG – (AP) The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen will spend $7.6 million over 15 years to save less than $6.9 million in energy costs.
The three-man board voted last month to enter into a contract with Siemens Industry to make lighting, water use and natural gas more efficient in 44 of the city’s 50 buildings.
“We knew we were going to have to make repairs to the gas meters and water meters,” Mayor Paul Winfield said. “We stood to lose about $4 million a year if we didn’t make the changes. We decided to use this program to make the necessary repairs and other infrastructure improvements.
“We will also be getting new technology and a maintenance program that will make our meters more accurate.”
The project’s cost will be financed through city utility and general funds, with utilities covering about $5.5 million and the general fund, $2.14 million.
The savings will come in $187,375 a year to the city’s general fund and $270,000 a year to the utilities department in revenues recovered from repaired commercial water meters, Siemens representative Chris McNeil said.
Winfield said some of the project’s costs were budgeted in the city’s fiscal 2012 utilities plan.
“The goal of this project is to help the city operate more efficiently and save money,” McNeil said. “We met with the city department heads to find how they operate. We went through this place from top to bottom to find out where we can save money.”
He said the contract will be sent to the Mississippi Development Authority for a review expected to take 60 days.
McNeil said the improvements are expected to be completed in 10 to 12 months, and the work will be done by Siemens workers and local contractors.
“Part of this program is local jobs,” he said.
He said planned improvements include:
– Upgrading lighting fixtures in 44 city buildings, and upgrading and retrofitting 80 downtown street lights, replacing the street lights’ sodium vapor bulbs with more efficient lighting. Light fixtures were replaced during the past three months in four city buildings under a state energy conservation grant. McNeil said those buildings are not included in the Siemens plan.
– Implementing water conservation methods in 15 city buildings, including 31 new toilets, 56 new flush valves and 10 new faucets.
– Installing central controls for air conditioning and heating units in 12 buildings and trending alarms for heating and cooling units and variable frequency drives on pumps at the city pool.
McNeil said the controls will monitor the heating and cooling units and adjust temperatures and reduce energy costs. He said the trending alarms will alert building maintenance employees to problems.
The variable frequency drives, he said, will allow city pool pumps to run at a lower speed, saving energy.
– Upgrading lighting at Halls Ferry, Bazinsky and City Park sports fields. The lighting upgrades have begun at Bazinsky Park, McNeil said, to provide “collegiate light levels,” or brighter lighting.
– Retrofitting or replacing commercial water and gas meters. City officials said residential meters will not be effected in the upgrades.
The project involves efficiency and accuracy improvements to the city’s commercial and residential meters, 10,458 for water and 7,100 for gas.
“We tested your residential and commercial water meters, and your residential meters tested perfect,” McNeil told the board. “Your commercial meters were inaccurate and to the consumer’s benefit. The commercial meters need to be calibrated annually.”
He said the city is losing $270,000 a year through the faulty commercial water meters.
He said the meters will be fitted with new auto relays, which will send meter readings to a central processing unit for more accurate billing.
The residential meters will be upgraded to make billing more accurate, he said.
Winfield said Siemens will inspect the changes monthly after the improvements are installed and will train city workers in the new technology.
“I feel good about the conversion,” Alderman Mike Mayfield said. “This overall project is about the city of Vicksburg being able to say, ‘We did the right thing.”’
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