Sacramento County’s Energy Program Manager, Dan Mendonsa, is the first to be named Energy Manager of the Year by the Northern California chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers. http://www.aeecenter.org
“We are extremely proud of Mendonsa for the positive recognition he’s brought to the County’s energy program,” said County Executive Bradley J. Hudson. “His work has resulted in an annual energy reduction of millions of kilowatt hours, thousands of CO2 metric tons, and the cost savings to the County is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Mendonsa works with County departments and regional partners to leverage funding and achieve greater project results where possible: “As a customer of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the county worked with SMUD on multiple energy-saving projects and helped with obtaining grants for cost-effective emerging technologies,” said Mendonsa. “And now, we are off and running with the projects and reaping the rewards.”
The projects included:
A retrofit of more than 1,300 parking garage and high-bay lights with efficient LED fixtures. The retrofit saved over $100,000 and one million kilowatt hours per year and was paid for with grants and rebates. The project also reduced maintenance costs since the new lights last three times longer than the originals lights.
Interior LED lights with advanced light controls in 9,000 square feet of office space that reduced lighting energy use by 80 percent.
Energy-managing projects, allow County buildings to use up to 400 kilowatts less energy, by automatically raising the thermostats for more than two million square feet of the County’s buildings.
An upgrade of a 3,000-ton chiller plant with variable-frequency drives and added controls to reduce annual energy usage by more than 500,000 kilowatt hours and reduce electricity costs by more than $50,000 per year.
“We look for opportunities in every project to protect the environment and save taxpayer dollars,” Mendonsa said. “Managing our energy efficiently and launching these green projects just makes good business sense.”
For more information, visit Green Sacramento County or www.SMUD.org.