McKinstry aids King County with important energy upgrades
November 2009
Guaranteed Savings will Create Jobs, Slash Consumption, Save County $820,000 per year
McKinstry, King County’s selected energy savings partner since 2006, has proposed a proven pathway for the County to realize significant savings in energy costs. Following a thorough energy audit of the county’s courthouse and jail facilities, McKinstry’s plan is slated to lower heating costs for the courthouse and jail by over 50% - or a minimum of $820,000 per year. McKinstry’s findings have been verified by State of Washington GA Engineers, an impartial third party.
The improvements, to be implemented this month, include installation of new heating and domestic hot water boiler plants atop the King County Correctional Facility jail and the King County Courthouse. One of the largest mobile cranes available in the construction industry will be used during the installation.
This work will take place over the weekends November 14 – 15 (courthouse boiler plant) and November 21 – 22 (jail boiler plant) blocking the streets in front of the buildings for staging safety. The weekends designated for installation were chosen to have the least impact on traffic pedestrians and employees.
The boilers, designed and built by McKinstry, are a five-part modular design, pre-assembled at McKinstry’s 100,000 square feet Fabrication facility in Georgetown. Each section weighs about 20,000 pounds. The plants will be connected to the building piping, and once in place, will undergo a rigorous commissioning or testing process before being brought on line this winter.
The new boilers will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 1,715 metric tons per year due to the increased efficiency of on-site boilers compared to the current steam heating system. The boilers will re-circulate the hot water it uses, thus closing the system and ending the 6.7 million gallons per year of condensate discharge into the sewer.
According to King County representatives, this project has been well vetted and is in complete alignment with its objectives to save energy and create family-wage jobs. It is expected that the McKinstry plan will: create approximately 54 project-related construction jobs and save County union jobs.
Upgrades to both facilities will include efficiency improvements beyond those to the steam system. As with most projects McKinstry undertakes, the company guarantees the proposed savings, and in fact, expects to help the King County exceed those savings.
“Water conservation and carbon reduction is central to future generations,” notes Ash Awad, McKinstry’s Vice President of Energy Services. “This project is just one more small step McKinstry and King County is taking toward ensuring a cleaner, healthier environment for us all.”
