Reprinted from the October 9, 2010 edition of the Co-op City Times.
By Rozaan Boone
The benefits of Riverbay’s cogeneration plant continue to increase as energy savings for August reach the highest level yet resulting in more than $1.6M.
In its monthly analysis, the Riverbay Finance Department recently reported that the community saved a total of $1,644,439 in electric and gas costs over its budgeted allotments for the month of August. The savings in August increased $797,132, or 94% higher, than in July when energy savings totaled $847,307. Spending on gas for cogeneration in July was $1,148,930 because of increased testing compared to just $657,855 in August.
In addition to cogeneration producing conservatively about 95% of the development’s energy needs, Riverbay also became eligible for ConEd’s new tariff rates for electric and gas consumption now that the community’s primary source of energy is from the cogeneration plant. These new rates became effective in July for electric consumption and in August for gas consumption.
Peter Merola, Riverbay’s Director of Finance, said that when comparing Riverbay’s purchases of electric from this time last year when cogeneration was not yet fully up and functioning, to present day, figures show that Riverbay is now purchasing 95% less electricity from ConEdison.
In August, $2,396,857 was budgeted for electric consumption while the actual cost was only $304,041. The budgeted amount for gas during that same month was $1,406,999 and the actual expense was $1,197,525. During the month, $657,851 was spent on gas for cogeneration.
Net savings for July was $847,307; for June, $1,058,207; for May, $1,067,145 and for April, $1,517,244.
Arthur Debowski, Vice President of Sales at Great Eastern Energy Company, said that his company manages the fuel supply for Co-op City, which, in this case is natural gas and oil.
“We are doing the ConEd tariff rate analysis to lower the cost of running the cogeneration project at Riverbay,” said Debowski. “As a result, we try to pick the lowest tariff to lower the cost or expense to Co-op City residents. We advise Riverbay about innovative ways to buy gas, about staying on top of cost and how to run the facility to continue cutting cost.”
Great Eastern Energy Company, known as one of the region’s leading providers of deregulated natural gas and electricity service, is based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and also has offices in Texas, Massachusetts and New Jersey. According to the company’s website, it is an approved Energy Service Company and offers flexible energy service solutions for residential, business, industrial and institutional customers.
Since April of last year to March of this year, Co-op City has realized $7,501,948 in savings. From April of this year to August, Riverbay has seen net savings of $6,134,341, for a total to date of $13,636,290 in savings.
“The energy savings from the cogeneration facility are important to the Co-op City community because these monies are being reinvested into the ongoing capital projects which include window replacements and balcony & façade repairs,” said Merola.
Over the past five years, the shareholders of Co-op City have invested some $76M in the 40 plus year old Power Plant to upgrade and modernize equipment and build an energy efficient 40 megawatt cogeneration plant. With the community only needing 24 megawatts of power at peak usage periods, the extra capacity provides redundancy in case of equipment failure, as well as the ability to sell the excess capacity providing a new income stream. The Co-op City cogeneration plant is also connected to ConEd’s grid which allows it to run parallel to the system, and also buy and sell electricity as needed.
“What this means is that it is an extra insurance to the residents of Co-op City because if cogeneration fails, ConEd is still functioning as a last resort backup,” said Debowski.
Reprinted from the October 9, 2010 edition of the Co-op City Times.
