Campus Life

Penn State program helps companies make good on energy pledge

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State’s Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP) has announced it is working with two large companies in the state that have committed to substantially reduce their overall energy consumption.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems in Scranton, Pa., and World Kitchen LLC, in Charleroi, Pa., near Pittsburgh, are volunteering to meet future energy challenges by participating in the Mid-Atlantic Energy Management Demonstration Project for Superior Energy Performance (SEP) certification, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

PennTAP’s technical specialists are helping these companies understand how they are using energy. The specialists will help to then identify areas within the facilities that can benefit from energy reduction, whether through conservation or technology improvements. PennTAP also will help the companies create a framework that allows for the continuous improvement in how they manage their energy.

World Kitchen LLC and General Dynamics must create an energy management system that meets international standards and must verify that they have made a five percent improvement of energy savings to become a certified partner within the SEP program.

“By following the procedure for how they will analyze their data, the company will be confident that the dollars they are investing are getting the desired improvements and that they are meeting their energy reduction goals,” said Ralene Molina-Kreiser, a PennTAP senior technical specialist.

Molina-Kreiser said she expects the two facilities to be SEP certified by fall 2011.

The Pennsylvania companies will be in the first group of 25 companies in the United States to be eligible for the certification. Competition among Pennsylvania facilities to participate in this demonstration project with PennTAP was intense.

“The competition was due to the fact that DOE wanted only one or two clients in Pennsylvania for the pilot project,” said Wayne Figurelle, director of PennTAP. “Our marching orders were to find the most committed company with the highest potential return on energy savings and implementation.”

Both companies also signed the DOE’s ‘Save Energy Now’ LEADER pledge, which commits them to a 25 percent reduction in energy over 10 years.

For further information about this program, contact PennTAP Director Wayne Figurelle at 814-777-2965 or http://www.penntap.psu.edu online.

PennTAP engages, guides and empowers businesses and organizations throughout the Commonwealth and beyond by providing objective and experience-based technical and workforce solutions that enable clients to succeed and thrive, stimulating economic growth for Pennsylvania. PennTAP is part of Penn State Outreach, the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education. Outreach serves more than 5 million people each year, delivering more than 2,000 programs to people in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, all 50 states and 114 countries worldwide.

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated November 18, 2010