Utah Prisons Earn Award for Energy Plan

SALT LAKE CITY – An $11.5 million project that reduced utility bills for the Utah Department of Corrections (UDC) was recently named a 2004 Energy Champion by the Association of Professional Energy Managers.

Geothermal heating, low-flow water fixtures and occupancy sensor-controls are among the energy-saving measures the UDC employed to cut costs as it confronts aging corrections facilities, outdated equipment, rising utility bills, and comfort issues for staff and inmates. Future plans call for energy-generating wind mills.

“We developed an innovative approach that saves money, provides facility and equipment upgrades and even helps the environment – with no up-front costs to taxpayers,” says Kent Beers, director of capital improvement projects for the Utah Division of Facilities Construction and Management (DFCM).

In 2003, when the state officials released a report identifying repairs to state-owned buildings that would cost $1.1 billion over 10 years, there was a collective groan throughout the UDC. Facing a budget shortage and a legislature reluctant to raise taxes for correctional upgrades, the DFCM first looked to reduce energy costs, which could free up money for other infrastructure needs.

After a competitive RFP and with technical and management support from the Utah Energy Office’s State Buildings Energy Efficiency Program, the DFCM hired Johnson Controls Inc. to provide an energy-services performance contract. This type of funding mechanism pays for capital improvements over time through guaranteed reductions in energy and operational costs.

Johnson Controls was responsible for performing engineering analyses and designs, installing energy equipment and arranging project financing. The first site was the Utah State Prison at Bluffdale, a complex of 112 buildings and up to 4,300 inmates. Johnson Controls identified improvements with the best payback.

“We found traditional energy and water-efficiency measures, such as retrofitting lights, installing low-flow water fixtures and using controls for night setback and demand limiting,” says Bruce Munson, a Johnson Controls account executive. “But we also suggested some more unusual cost-saving features, including installing occupancy sensor controls to reduce vending machines temperatures when vending areas are unoccupied and adding kitchen waste pulping machines to minimize water content, thus reducing sewage fees.”

Johnson Controls' most impressive strategies involve on-site renewable energy. Bluffdale is uniquely situated for renewable energy resources including a geothermal source below the prison and a better-than-average wind resource with an average wind speed more than 10 mph.

In the first phase, Johnson Controls redesigned the heat recovery system at an old geothermal wellhead to capture and utilize the heat. A variable flow pump with maximum flow rate of 300 gpm was installed, and hot water from the well (about 185 degrees F) is pumped through a heat exchanger, which provides all the space heat and domestic water heat for a 39,000-square-foot cellblock. The water leaving the pump (about 160 degrees F) goes either to the prison fish farm or flows into a cooling pond. Overflow from the pond flows into the Jordan River.

In the second phase, the geothermal pump capacity was increased to 700 gpm with the heat exchanger extracting another 30 degrees F during winter months. The pump now provides space heat and domestic water heat for the prison furniture and sewing shop and a dormitory. In addition, domestic hot water is provided to the other culinary, laundry, and cellblock facilities.

In a third phase, a 50-meter anemometer was erected in November 2003 to gather wind data and determine viability for installing wind mills that would provide up to 1.5 megawatts of power in 2005.

“We proved to the legislature that performance contracting is beneficial and a viable source of funding for capital improvement projects,” Beers says. He notes that in 2003, the legislature authorized the DFCM to spend $40 million in capital improvements, and performance contracting provided an additional $20 million in project funds.