SIEMENS BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES UNIT DRIVES PUBLIC BENEFIT PROJECT IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

When Siemens Building Technologies Inc. (SBT) first began discussions with Monroe County, NY about different ways to save county taxpayers money and make the county more energy independent, it took heart from the name of the county's aging power site named "IOLA." It's a Native American word that means 'never discouraged.' That attitude served Siemens and the Rochester-area county government well as they worked their way to a mutually beneficial solution.

That solution is now becoming a reality and it will:
— Reduce costs for county taxpayers.
— Improve air quality in the community.
— Contribute to energy stability in times of high electric demand.
— Retain jobs.
— Help ease the county's budgetary challenges.

— Enhance revenues for Siemens Building Technologies Inc. and earnings for Siemens shareholders.


The project is moving forward through a nonprofit development corporation formed by the county with Siemen's assistance called Monroe Newpower Corp. The work is to decommission the existing power plant at the IOLA site, built in 1925, and to create a new co-generation facility. When completed, the new plant in the former fleet maintenance building will provide heat and electricity to the county hospital, Monroe Community College, with its 34,500 students, and other nearby county offices.

Siemens is installing seven 13,500-kilowatt electric cogeneration units, three at the Fleet plant and the other four at the community college several hundred yards away. Each of these facilities will consist of natural gas-fired reciprocating engine driven electric generators, associated switchgear and new boilers. The project includes one backup plant at each site.

Siemens's construction partners include LeChase Construction as general contractor; Energy Concepts Engineering and M/E Engineers, project managers; Schuler-Haas Electric Corp. as the electrical contractor, and John W. Danforth Co. as the mechanical contractor.

Once completed, the working plants will provide about 95 percent of the facilities' electric energy. This will enhance the community's electric reliability by reducing stress on the utility's system during the high demand periods of summer. The project presented challenges from the start. The county has severe budget shortfalls and County Executive Jack Doyle was looking for innovative ways to overcome them. The county no longer wanted to own the plant, but Siemens didn't want to buy it and take on the costs of another asset. So Siemens's Account Executive, Dan Lynch, who recalled that Native American word "IOLA" — conceived the idea of a local, nonprofit development corporation and Monroe Newpower (MN). MN is financing the construction through 'take or pay' steam and electricity contracts with Monroe County. The county, in turn, will purchase electricity and steam at rates much lower than they are now paying. The concept met both parties' needs.

When it's completed, the generators will provide power to the buildings in parallel with service from the local electric utility. Heat recovery from the new engines as well as new boilers will meet the total heating demands of all the buildings. The boilers are fired by natural gas, which reduces air emissions. Depending on the economies of the marketplace, they can also burn oil. The old IOLA plant burned coal. Siemens and Monroe County project that county taxpayers will save $1.5 million per year in electric power costs and $850,000 per year in steam costs.

When the new plants are completed, the existing IOLA facility will be decommissioned and turned into a museum for the public. Siemens will also remove an unsightly 220-foot stack, an ash silo that stored burned coal waste and some aging fuel tanks.

 

The project will be completed in the spring of 2004 and at least in part because Siemens and all of its partners never forgot the meaning of the word 'IOLA'.