Challenge

The City of Alexandria was faced with the need to do major improvements to their aging ice arena. In partnership with the city, Apex Arena Solutions, SBC, looked to find a number of energy saving improvements for its facilities.

Our Solution

The City chose from measures such as energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems, controls systems and more. Some of the efficiency efforts throughout the arenas included:

• Lighting was retrofitted or replaced with new LED lights throughout the interior of all city facilities, resulting in improved lighting and energy savings of over 50%.

• A new ice rink floor on the West Rink was installed. The old floor had piping 5 inches below the surface resulting in significant energy losses. The new floor held the refrigeration piping to within one inch of the surface to optimize heat transfer and reduce energy use.

• A new type of snow melt pit system was installed, reducing the time and energy required to melt the resurfacing snow.

• High efficiency screw compressors are now operated with unique control strategies, which resulted in energy use reductions of over 30% from conventional technology.

• Street lights and traffic signals were replaced or upgraded from high pressure sodium to LED. These improvements have resulted in improved light levels, less light pollution, and energy savings of more than 50%.

• At City Hall, improvements include the installation of a high efficiency building control system, a new condensing boiler (over 90% efficient) and new VFD’s for the hot water pumps.

• Downtown and Plaza Liquor stores were retrofitted with new cooler doors and refrigeration systems, which reduced operating costs while improving the look and function of the stores.

• Other improvements included IT system upgrades, destratification fans, and building envelope improvements that provided additional energy savings to the city.

Final Result

Major capital improvements paid for by the energy savings project included: new boilers at City Hall, new arena refrigeration system and ice rink floor, new roof at RCC, and new digital controls at RCC and City Hall.

The savings resulting from the improvements allowed the city to offset the majority of the costs. This resulted in $5.6 million dollars of improvements, with only a $1.9 million dollar impact over 20 years to the taxpayers. Energy and operational savings resulting from the project totaled more than $200,000 in savings each year.

Project Numbers:

• Total Project Savings:  $200,000 Annually

• Electric Savings: 2.7 Million kWh/Yr.

• Gas Savings: 42,500 Therms/Yr.