Auburn - Mayor Timothy Lattimore of the City of Auburn,  and Roger Kelley, president and chief executive officer, New York Power Authority, Monday announced completion of a comprehensive $3.9 million project that includes a geothermal heating and cooling system, a computerized energy-management network and a variety of energy-efficiency upgrades at 13 city-owned facilities.  The project was designed, implemented and installed under the supervision of NYPA’s Energy Services and Technology unit.

The project will yield annual taxpayer savings of $240,000 on Auburn’s municipal electric bills and building systems maintenance costs.  Another energy cost savings for Auburn taxpayers’ amounts to over $33,500 a year from reduced use of natural gas and heating oil. There will also be energy savings of 1.4 million kilowatt hours, which is enough electricity to serve about 120 homes for a year. 

Auburn City Hall and its police and fire headquarters are now heated and cooled with a geothermal system, a clean renewable energy resource that captures the ambient ground temperature stored within the Earth for heating and cooling.

The climate controls for eight of Auburn’s municipal buildings will now be managed by a new computerized energy management system to maximize energy efficiency and savings.  In addition to City Hall, and the police and fire headquarters, the other buildings served by this system are the Genesee Street Municipal Parking Garage, the Public Works Garage Building, the Upper and Lower Pumping Stations, the Water Filtration Plant, and the Waste Water Collection and Treatment Plant.

Another focus of the overall project for the municipal buildings were lighting improvements.  Occupancy/motion sensors that automatically turn off lights were installed in rooms not in constant use.  Standard fluorescent fixtures were upgraded with energy-efficient T-8 lamps and exit signs were outfitted with low-watt light emitting diodes.  Incandescent light fixtures were retrofitted with energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs.