In late October 2015, we organized a celebration event at Maine Machine Products in South Paris, Maine. Maine Machine Products’ 65,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility contains the latest in CNC and multi-axis machines and precision equipment. They currently operate two shifts, both staffed with associates who are highly experienced and quality focused. They are a world-class manufacturer of custom components and assemblies for targeted high-tech markets, such as semi-conductor, medical, defense and aerospace, telecom and fiber optics, and oil and gas.
MMPCo’s Facility Manager, Barry Kilgore, contacted us early in 2015 looking for ways to reduce energy expenses.
Working with Bob Degruchy of Graybar Electric, we designed a lighting retrofit plan that would decrease MMPCo’s annual electricity usage over 600,000 kWh. The system they chose included fixtures manufactured in the US by Cooper Industries and Light Corporation.
We were able to address Maine Machine’s HVAC energy costs with the CATALYST system from Transformative Wave Technologies. CATALYST is a combination hardware and software platform that has consistently produced energy savings of 40% to 60% in systems exactly like MMPCo’s.
With help from Brant Small of Transformative Wave, a CATALYST system was designed that would reduce electricity usage by approximately 325,000 kWh per year. The overall savings of 925,000 kWh is enough energy to power the average home for 100 years.
With the project costs and the savings estimates calculated, we submitted the project to Efficiency Maine for pre-approval. LED lighting is a standard part of lighting retrofit projects within the industry. Energy-saving controls designed specifically for constant volume rooftop HVAC units, however, had not been done in Maine before as part of an Efficiency Maine program; The technology needed to be researched and verified.
We worked with Efficiency Maine to have the CATALYST system evaluated and the bundled project pre-approved for incentives in an amount that represented 50% of the project cost and provided Maine Machine Products with a one-year payback. The project began in July 2015, and concluded in October 2015.