Birmingham-based
Energy Sciences Resource Partners has worked its energy-saving magic with the city of Madison Heights, making it the latest municipality to update city buildings in the interest of saving tax dollars.
Changes such as the installation of motion-sensing lights and other forms of energy-saving lighting design to City Hall, the senior center, the police department and the Department of Public Services will save the city $23,000 annually. Energy Sciences co-owner Frank Schulmeister says a second round of energy consumption improvements will result in even more savings on energy bills.
"What's even better is this is creating jobs and we're being environmental stewards by saving all these kilowatt hours that have to be produced by these big power plants," Schulmeister says. "It's good for commerce all the way around."
While numerous local, county and state buildings across Michigan, including Rochester and Auburn Hills and dozens of others in metro Detroit, have completed energy-efficiency upgrades, private business is also making sure they are tight when it comes to energy.
"We have clients that range anywhere from 5,000-square-foot single business to Chrysler Corp. and Dow Chemical," Schulmeister says.
Energy Sciences specialty is to identify energy waste, design a plan to address it and help secure funding to make the improvements. Madison Heights' changes came at a cost of $99,400. Funds came from
Energy, Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. The second round of changes in Madison Heights will upgrade heating and cooling systems at city buildings and be paid for with an $83,347 loan from the
Michigan Public Service Commission. The improvements are aimed at reducing Madison Heights' energy usage by 25 percent by 2015.
The majority of energy reduction design projects, if not all, use state funding, grants or rebates from
DTE's Energy Optimization Program, Schulmeister says. Energy Sciences, one of several energy consulting companies, has rounded up more than $500,000 in the last year, he says
Sources: Automation Alley;Frank Schulmeister, co-owner, Energy Science Resource Partners
Writer: Kim North Shine
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