New Jersey Transit – Daniel Ryan – 2015

Goals

The objective of the 2015 EDF Climate Corps fellowship at NJ TRANSIT was to analyze five strategic facilities, two passenger train stations and three bus maintenance garages, identified as a part of the NJ TransitGrid project. For each facility, fellows Daniel Ryan and Sindhu Maiyya were tasked with recommending energy conservation measures, energy management strategies and distributed energy systems capable of supplying reliable power during storms or other times when the utility grid is compromised.

Solutions

As a part of the analysis, the fellows were asked to perform a financial and environmental assessment for the identified measures, strategies and distributed energy resource architectures. Based on facility use and resiliency requirements, a number of cost-effective energy efficiency (EE) and distributed energy resources (DER) were recommended. EE upgrades included: replacing high-use and high-wattage lights with LEDs, efficiency retrofits for escalators, variable frequency drives for air handling units and pumps and replacing old and inefficient HVAC equipment. DER recommendations included: Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems for electricity and heating requirements, solar photovoltaic (PV) for cost and environmental benefits and batteries for facility black start capabilities and grid stabilization.

Potential Impact

Ryan and Maiyya’s recommendations have the potential to produce annual savings of $7.1 million, 6.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity, and 16,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.