McAllen Rewarded $32K for Energy Efficiency

MCALLEN, TX REWARDED FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Receives Incentive from AEP Texas CitySmart® Program

MCALLEN, TX. – (Feb. 10, 2012) – The city of McAllen will celebrate its fourth year of participation in the AEP Texas CitySmart Program, which helps municipalities save energy and money, at a check presentation on Feb. 27. The City Council and staff will accept a check for the $32,480 in incentives it earned through its participation in the CitySmart Program in 2011. Since joining the program in 2009, the city has completed 35 energy efficiency improvement projects in its facilities. The city’s efforts will save more than $111,000 in energy costs annually.

“We are making good on our efforts toward a “greener” McAllen.  With the assistance of programs like CitySmart, our staff continues to integrate and make recommendations toward greater energy efficient systems and components within our inventory of buildings,” said McAllen Mayor Richard F. Cortez.

  The CitySmart Program provides no-cost facility improvement recommendations and financial incentives based on the total amount of energy the new equipment will save. In 2011, the city installed energy efficient air conditioning and lighting systems in 19 buildings, including several fire stations and the airport. The new equipment will save nearly 902,000 kilowatt-hours of energy annually, which is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 70,000 gallons of gasoline, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculations.

“Participation in programs such as these allow us to save money in operational costs and also reduces the overall need of electrical providers to add costly production capacity.  These benefit everyone’s bottom line,” added Mayor Cortez.

In addition to financial incentives, the program provided no-cost technical assistance to ensure the city selected the appropriate high efficiency equipment. As part of its participation in the program, McAllen staff will continue to evaluate additional efficiency opportunities.

“We identified a real need for an energy efficiency program that specifically targets school districts,” said AEP EE/DM Coordinator Monica Craig. “This program is an organized effort to bring needed resources and energy efficiency to Texas.”