Public Sector
Maine municipalities are often faced with budget pressures and high operating costs to maintain older municipal buildings that house town offices, public works garages, fire stations, and wastewater treatment facilities. Energy efficiency is a great way for municipalities to save energy and money, and improve comfort, safety, and maintenance costs in the process. Efficiency Maine offers incentives for energy efficiency upgrades.
Small Municipality Retrofit Projects – CIP FON-004-2021
Efficiency Maine’s Commercial and Industrial Prescriptive Program is seeking applications for the Small Municipality Retrofits Funding Opportunity Notice (FON-004-2021). This FON offers enhanced incentives for high-performance heat pump retrofits and LED lighting retrofit projects in municipal buildings in small municipalities. Click here for more information or to sign-up for an informational webinar.
Lighting
Reduce energy use and lighting costs with high-efficiency lighting solutions and controls
Municipalities have significant lighting savings opportunities from high-bay lights in public works garages to incandescent bulbs in desk lamps. Municipalities may also have significant opportunities to save with lighting controls. Lighting zones can be tied to dimming or occupancy controls to reduce over-lighting in spaces not in use. Controls can also link to building schedules for even greater synergies between usage patterns and lighting. Many municipalities have purchased their streetlights from their utility and converting streetlights to LED. Efficiency Maine incentivizes high-efficiency lighting, including:
- Indoor Lighting
- Outdoor Lighting
- Screw-in Bulbs
- Lighting Controls
Heating, Cooling, and Ventilation (HVAC)
Municipalities may have very different HVAC systems in the various buildings. Efficiency Maine offers incentives for a number of heating, cooling, and ventilation technologies. For example, by upgrading to systems that allow zone-by-zone temperature control, town facilities may be able to reduce energy costs and ensure the comfort of staff. Heating and cooling systems with controls or demand control ventilation may be modulated to meet occupancy and temperature requirements. Offices and break rooms in garage spaces, which are more frequently used, and may need to be kept at a different temperature than the garage itself, may benefit from a room-heating solution, like a ductless heat pump. Garage and high-bay spaces in public safety buildings may also benefit from infrared heating systems.
Efficiency Maine offers incentives to upgrade to high-efficiency systems including:
- Boilers and Furnaces
- Ductless Heat Pumps
- HVAC Controls and Demand Control Ventilation
- Heating Controls
Water Heating
Municipal buildings can save energy and money by installing high-efficiency water heating systems
Water heating efficiency is another opportunity for energy savings for municipalities. Spaces with water heating needs remote from the current water heating system may benefit from a tankless water heater. Spaces with a high-volume of water use, such as a fire station changing room, may benefit from a heat pump water heater. Efficiency Maine offers incentives for:
- Heat Pump Water Heaters
Plug Loads
Save with high-efficiency office equipment.
Managing plug loads is another significant electricity-saving opportunity for Maine towns. Consider purchasing ENERGY STAR® certified equipment when next updating office equipment, which is 30-75% more efficient than standard equipment. In addition, there may be opportunities to power down some equipment when not in use in public safety buildings, garages, and other facilities. Learn more about managing plug loads with ENERGY STAR®.
Water/Wastewater Treatment
Water and wastewater treatment facilities require significant energy to power pumps, run aeration systems, exchange air, and control other operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. According to the US EPA, water and wastewater treatment accounts for 35% of a typical municipal energy budgets. To help reduce these costs, Efficiency Maine’s custom program offers incentives a wide variety of tailored energy efficiency projects, including:
- Variable Frequency Drives for motors
- Combined Heat & Power (CHP) Systems
- High-efficiency pumping and aeration equipment
- Automated controls
Custom Solutions
Don’t see your energy solution listed above? Efficiency Maine also offers incentives for customized, site-specific energy solutions, including building envelope upgrades, combined heat and power installations, and more. Click here for more information on the Custom Program.
Get Started
- Ready to upgrade your municipal buildings with high-efficiency equipment? Work with an Efficiency Maine Qualified Partner in order to be eligible for these incentives.
- For larger projects, municipal officials may want to consider including energy-saving technologies or efficiency incentives in RFP or project guidelines.
- Click here to find a Qualified Partner working near you. If you work with a contractor that is not yet a Qualified Partner, urge your contractor to find out more information here.