Department of Transportation

State to save hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed airport electricity savings

HONOLULU — The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) has entered the second phase of its Energy Savings Performance Contract with Johnson Controls to provide high-efficiency lighting at 11 Hawaii airports and solar photovoltaic systems at Honolulu International Airport. The total guaranteed energy savings at Hawaii’s airports is more than $606 million over a 15-year period with the addition of Phase 2.

Phase 2 of the contract guarantees $65.5 million in energy savings through the replacement and retrofit of 47,747 existing florescent lamps to Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps, the application of high-end trim to 8,256 LED fixtures (which customizes the light level for an area in order to prevent using more energy than is necessary), and the installation of 15,683 photovoltaic roof-mounted panels including parking lot canopy systems at the Honolulu International Airport capable of producing 5.3 Megawatts of power. Phase 1 and Phase 2 will install a total of over 98,000 light fixtures and over 24,400 photovoltaic panels for a total of nearly 8 megawatts of energy savings and power generation.

“This initiative’s unprecedented energy and cost savings confirms that going green is good for our local economy. The cost-effective investments are cutting energy demand and increasing efficiency, which contributes to the reduction of the state’s dependence on fossil fuels. This is an important part of reaching our long-term energy sustainability goals,” said Gov. David Ige.

“Installing photovoltaic to help meet the energy needs at the state’s largest airport makes sense,” said Ford Fuchigami, Hawaii Department of Transportation Director. “We are continuing to transform our transportation infrastructure to advance the state’s sustainability and energy efficiency goals.”

This initiative aligns with Gov. Ige’s Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative sustainability goals and makes a significant contribution to energy efficiency and economic value by further reducing energy usage at state airports by nearly 63 million kilowatt hours per year over the 15-year performance period. That energy savings is equivalent to powering 9,264 homes a year. Over the life of the project the energy saved could power more than 175,000 homes.

Construction to implement Phase 2 is scheduled to take place over the next 24 months and is financed by realized energy savings, not taxpayer money. The construction will not impact flight schedules or operations.

Johnson Controls is also working on Energy Savings Performance Contracts to improve efficiency for the highways and harbors divisions within HDOT. The total amount of guaranteed savings for airports, highways and harbors divisions projects is more than $776 million over the life of the contracts.

Hawaii’s commitment to sustainability is evident in recognition by the Energy Services Coalition (ESC) that the Department of Transportation, Airports Division, performance contract for nearly $209.8 million, is the largest single state contract for energy performance in the nation. ESC is a national nonprofit organization of experts working together to increase energy efficiency and building upgrades through energy performance contracting.

The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism estimates that over the life of the contract, which ends in 2034, the economic impacts will be $27.3 million in tax revenues (in 2016 dollars), $186.6 million in income to households (in 2016 dollars), and 867 jobs generated or supported each year during the first two years of construction in Phase I with 257 jobs supported each year during Phase II construction and installation and an average of 63 jobs generated or supported each year during the performance period.

In addition, the contract supports Hawaii’s commitment to the Performance Contracting Accelerator Program, part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Initiative.

Performance contracting implements energy and water efficiency projects using guaranteed energy savings to pay for the projects. State and county agencies face increasing energy costs and the need to replace or upgrade aging, inefficient, and obsolete energy and water consuming equipment. Capital improvement and operating budgets have been unable to keep up with the needed upgrades for energy and water efficiency. Performance contracting allows agencies to fund some of these needs and to install energy efficiency retrofits in a timely manner. Performance contracting retrofits can take less than one year to up to three years to install. Therefore, energy savings occur sooner than later. Capital improvement projects can take from six to 10 years, resulting missed opportunities for annual energy savings.

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