Businesses find savings in energy incentive programs

CEDAR RAPIDS - Quaker Foods and Snacks in Cedar Rapids put up $700,000 this past year to upgrade some 4,000 lighting fixtures. In return, the PepsiCo division should see federal tax incentives of $125,000 along with a $246,800 rebate from Alliant Energy.

That doesn't include savings it also will reap from using more energy-efficient lighting.

Some return.

Yet at a time when budgets are tight and energy costs are rising, not all eligible Corridor businesses are taking advantage of the financial incentives Alliant Energy, MidAmerican Energy, Black Hills Energy and Linn County Rural Electric Cooperative can offer for energy efficiency.

Utility customers pay into a fund each month based on the amount of electricity and natural gas they use. The fund provides rebates and financing for energy-related improvements.

“As rate-regulated utilities, we are required to run energy-efficiency programs by the Iowa Utilities Board and we have goals for each customer class” - residential, agricultural, small business, commercial, large commercial and industrial - said Kari Gehrke, Alliant Energy product manager in Cedar Rapids.

“Customers are paying into the fund each month, and if they're not taking advantage of energy efficiency programs, they're leaving money on the table.”

Programs are available to provide financing for energy-related improvements for retrofitting existing buildings as well as new construction projects, Gehrke said. Alliant Energy also offers energy design assistance, intended to provide customers with information that could pay long-term benefits in the form of lower energy costs.

The eight-month lighting retrofit at Quaker replaced high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor fixtures with fluorescent fixtures, according to Andy Taylor, senior resource-engineering. The new lights yielded an annual savings of 2.73 million kilowatt hours of electricity, or $185,000.

The Alliant Energy rebate and the federal tax incentives “gave us at a payback period of about 2.2 years, and our employees are pleased with the new light levels,” Taylor said.

For Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Alliant Energy recommended installation of an energy management and control system to control the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems in nine facilities on its campus. The utility also suggested domestic hot water circulation and relighting the university's main gymnasium.

“When we were getting prepared to build our University Center, Alliant brought in a design team at no cost to us to help us make decisions on lighting, controls and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning equipment,” recalled Barb Pooley, Mount Mercy vice president for finance and business operations. “The geothermal system cost about $220,000 more than a standard system.

“We will get a nice rebate from Alliant Energy when the construction is done, and we also will realize considerable energy savings.

“The design firm figured that the payback was about six and half years. That made going with the geothermal system a no-brainer.”

Mount Mercy is saving 1.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity and nearly 73,000 therms of natural gas each year as a result of energy-efficiency projects.

In fall 2010, Alliant Energy worked with Hy-Vee Food Stores on two lighting projects at the Hy-Vee store on Mount Vernon Road SE in Cedar Rapids. The store replaced 12 metal haloid parking lot lights with new, energy-efficient LED lamps, saving more than 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year.

“Not only do the LED lights look better and cost less to operate than traditional parking lot lights, they also last a lot longer,” said Jeff Hubler, Hy-Vee store director. “It's challenging and expensive to replace lights at the top of tall posts. The fact that LED lamps last around four times longer is a real maintenance benefit.”

Hy-Vee also replaced 26 halogen lights inside the store's health food section with LED lamps. Hy-Vee expects to save more than $5,000 a year in energy costs from both projects.

At Genencor International in Cedar Rapids, the majority of a cooling project in a recent $48 million expansion involved two large plate and frame heat exchangers used in conjunction with a new five-cell cooling tower.

The unit, which earned Genencor a custom rebate for investing in high-efficiency equipment, allows cooling without the use of water chillers, saving 4.9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

“We worked with Alliant Energy to install the correct equipment to eliminate the purchase of a chiller, which would only operate five months out of each year,” said Cassidy Whitmore, Genencor quality assurance and quality control manager.

Energy rebates also can help a growing business qualify for state financial assistance for an expansion project. American Profol, 4333 C St. SW in Cedar Rapids, is considering a $14 million project that will involve a building expansion as well as add a seventh cast polypropylene film production line.

The company is seeking $250,000 in direct financial assistance from the state and it would qualify for $200,000 in energy efficiency rebates from Alliant Energy.