(Credit: Pixabay)The Massachusetts-based Worcester Housing Authority (WHA) today announced a second phase of its energy efficiency project totaling $13.5 million. The work is a continuation of an existing energy performance contract (EPC) with between WHA and Ameresco and builds on energy conservation measures Ameresco implemented in 2008. This brings the total project value to $23.6 million, affecting 15 of the WHA’s federal developments.
As New England’s second largest housing authority, WHA provides housing for more than 3,000 households in the Worcester community. Under the EPC, this second phase will upgrade interior and exterior lighting fixtures across WHA developments, replace windows at its Elm Park and Lincoln Park high-rise buildings and make improvements to three cogeneration units at other WHA developments. These improvements come at no upfront cost to WHA, which also receives incentives for efficiency improvements from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Many housing developments, universities and even the military are using EPCs for energy savings. Just last month, Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut announced it would be implementing an $83.1 million energy savings performance contract. The core of the ESPC project is the expansion of on-site cogeneration capacity and microgrid system. During grid outages, these measures will support 100% of the power requirements for the submarine base’s mission-critical piers and nuclear submarines in port.
The project, in partnership with Noresco, is championed by the Navy’s Resiliency Energy Program Office and contracted through the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center. According to representatives at the submarine base, it strengthens the Navy’s energy security.
