Washington Gas – Andrew Seal – 2011

Goals

Andrew Seal spent his summer in the Washington D.C. metro area evaluating commercial and industrial building energy efficiency projects for Washington Gas, which delivers natural gas to more than one million customers throughout the region.

Solutions

While Washington Gas had already completed several energy efficiency projects as part of their existing sustainability program, Seal was able to identify lighting retrofits, HVAC efficiencies and tax incentives that offer significant savings. Some of these recommendations have already been implemented with the remaining having been added to the company’s 5-year budget forecast.

Potential Impact

Combined, these efficiency measures could save the company over $900,000 in net operational costs over the project lifetimes by cutting the equivalent of more than 198 million kilowatt hours per year while simultaneously avoiding about 750 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. In addition, tax deductions identified related to a new industrial campus pursuing LEED Gold certification amount to approximately $2.8 million.