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PROJECT
hvac
Thermal Storage Slashes Energy Costs A Florida school district implemented energy-efficiency measures that saved 30% to 40% on utility costs.
The first St. Lucie County School District building to implement IceBank tanks in the form of a full-storage system was St. Lucie West Centennial High School, Port St. Lucie, FL.
S
t. Lucie County School District (SLCSD) is a K-12
ergy-efficiency upgrades, SLCSD made a commitment to pro-
system in Florida with more than 40,000 students and
mote energy-efficiency awareness and improve equipment. St.
5,000 employees. Over the past seven years, the district
Lucie assembled an energy-advisory team and partnered with
has made a commitment to creating healthy, energy-efficient
the local utilities that supplied power to the district. Full-time
building environments that reduce operating costs. The district
energy manager Sean P. Murray was hired to develop and exe-
has implemented energy-efficiency upgrades that include an
cute a strategy to reduce utility costs as well as track and monitor
ice-enhanced chiller plant using Calmac Mfg. Corp.’s (Fairlawn,
results. Murray implemented ice-based thermal energy storage
NJ), thermal-energy storage technology, independent meter-
into existing facilities and managed a behavior-modification
ing equipment, and air-cleaning technology. The ice-enhanced
program. Additional strategies included utility rate-structure
chiller plant has allowed SLCSD to save 30% to 40% on utility
modifications, control-system enhancements, and other ener-
costs annually—in total, about $5 million in savings to date.
gy-efficiency upgrades.
In 2007, SLCSD had one of the highest energy costs/sq. ft. of all
Calmac’s IceBank thermal-energy storage was identified as an
the school districts in the state. The facilities within the district were
important solution. Despite drawing power from two utilities that
wasting energy, and the schools were faced with a lack of funds. En-
used very different pricing structures, energy storage would allow
ergy costs within the district were paid from the same pool of financ-
a facility drawing power from either utility company to shift ener-
es that covered teacher salaries. This meant energy inefficiencies
gy usage away from expensive peak-demand periods.
within the facilities were having a serious financial impact on how much salary revenue was available to educate students. Acknowledging that the district was in desperate need of en32
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OCTOBER 2014
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“We did our homework and looked at a variety of technologies,” said Murray. “After looking at Calmac and looking at some of the other manufacturers, we decided that there was no competition,
