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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2004

ACCD RECEIVES ENERGY INNOVATOR AWARD FROM CITY PUBLIC SERVICE

On October 5, 2004, Alamo Community College District (ACCD) received the Energy Innovator Award in the Educational Category from City Public Service (CPS), the local utilities services provider, at the CPS 2004 Energy Innovator Awards Recognition Breakfast, held at the Villita Assembly Building.

CPS noted that ACCD slashed electric usage by 16.5% and natural gas consumption by 41%, for a total savings based on actual utility rates of $645,858 between June 2002 and May 2004. These savings are attributed to an aggressive, district-wide energy retrofit and operations maintenance program using an innovative process known as Continuous Commissioning. As a result students and faculty at Palo Alto, St. Philip's and San Antonio College, the District Offices and the Southwest Campus Center are enjoying greater comfort while saving energy and reducing costs. Replacing T-12 with T-8 fluorescent lights and electronic ballasts reduced electrical consumption and heat gain significantly, and improved the quality of light. ACCD also conserved energy by installing classroom occupancy/motion sensors, and replacing less efficient heating and cooling units with new higher efficiency ones, having a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) of 12.0 and above. In addition, new and expanded direct digital control (DDC) systems allowed ACCD to reduce kilowatt demand by 6.5%.

ACCD participates in the U.S. Department of Energy partnership "Rebuild America Program", a national network of governmental and educational institutions committed to implementing and sharing energy-efficient improvements with others. ACCD partnered with the Texas A&M University Engineering Extension Service (TEES) and the Texas A&M University Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) to identify, design and implement selected Energy Cost Reduction Measures (ECRM's) for this program. ACCD also reported the results of their project to the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) to support efforts to contain air pollution emissions, and to the Texas Energy Partnership Program sponsored by the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO).