The A.B. Jewell Water Treatment Plant in Tulsa has cut its energy bill by $22,000 annually and kept employees happy by updating its lighting, according to a Dialight case study posted at Water Online.
The story suggests that the driver wasn’t economics, but the inconvenience of keeping 350 metal halide, high pressure sodium and T12 fluorescents operational. The “dingy, distorted” colors from the metal halide and sodium lamps also was an issue.
The facility decided to upgrade with Dialight’s LED StreetSense and Vigilant high bays, low bays, flood lights and area lights. The total number of lights necessary was reduced from 350 to 259.
The facility cut 446,576 kWh, which will result in annual energy savings of $22,300. The project earned an incentive of $32,000 from The Public Service Company of Oklahoma. The treatment plant saved $10,000 annually on lighting maintenance.
The water treatment plant isn’t the only energy project in Tulsa. Beneath an urban reuse area in the Guthrie Green section of downtown, geothermic boreholes were drilled into a 120 500-foot field before the construction of two buildings began. The boreholes are yielding 600 tons of heating and cooling to the structures -- the Tulsa Paper Company and the Hardesty Arts Center – and enabling them to cut their HVAC bills by 60 percent.
