Spokane Transit’s Facility Upgrades Conserve Money, Energy

SPOKANE, Wash. (July 28, 2017) – Spokane Transit Authority (STA) is saving approximately $136,000 per year in electricity and natural gas costs as a result of energy-efficient improvements made to the agency’s bus maintenance facilities by McKinstry.

In addition to these annual energy cost savings, STA received a $547,269 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to help offset the cost of the project. STA also qualified for $311,333 in incentives from Avista Utilities.

In 2013, STA partnered with Washington State Department of Commerce, Department of Enterprise Services, McKinstry and Avista to evaluate the benefit of a more comprehensive energy savings project.

McKinstry, a national leader in designing, constructing and managing high-performance buildings, conducted an energy audit of STA’s facilities through an inter-agency agreement with the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services. The audit identified multiple opportunities to create significant energy savings.

The resulting project included the replacement of original HVAC units with more efficient heating and cooling systems, thermal pane windows, energy-efficient LED lighting with a 15-year life cycle at the Boone Street and Plaza garages, and a centralized digital control system to establish schedules and setbacks for heating and cooling requirements.

“Thanks to the outstanding efforts of this multi-agency partnership, STA’s goal of creating cost-saving, energy-efficient infrastructure was not only achieved, but exceeded,” said E. Susan Meyer, Spokane Transit Chief Executive Officer.

The Board of Directors approved this initiative in November 2014 and the project was completed in August 2016. At the July 27board meeting, representatives from McKinstry and Avista presented the STA Board with an oversized commemorative check to recognize the energy efficiency savings accomplished by the STA’s facility improvements and acknowledge the successful completion of the project.

“McKinstry has been very impressed with Spokane Transit Authority’s facilities and administrative teams’ approach to saving the agency both energy and operational savings by participating in upgrading their energy consuming infrastructure,” said Kim Pearman-Gillman, Business Development Manager at McKinstry. “This project and the excellent results were due to a strong partnership from the start, and it led to an important group of projects that will benefit Spokane Transit’s bottom line for years to come.”

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