Lighting Retrofit Project Delivers Energy Savings for College

Fairbanks Energy Services, a design/build energy efficiency firm based in Hingham, Mass., recently completed a project that retrofitted the Providence, R.I.-based Providence College’s Phillips Memorial Library with LED lighting and advanced lighting controls. This upgrade is estimated to save the institution more than 1 million kWh annually and $100,000 in operating costs.

Fairbanks Energy chose Lutron’s networked systems to upgrade 4,000 existing fixtures to 1,500 retrofitted or replaced fixtures. In addition to energy and cost savings, the school also is supported by a $250,000 utility incentive from the National Grid incentive program, receiving a two-year payback on the project.

Fairbanks Energy provided project management from initial site evaluation for the efficiency opportunity to designing and building the resulting lighting solutions. The controls installed as part of this project advanced the capabilities of the LED lighting to include occupancy sensors, grouping fixtures into zones, scene controls, scheduling, and additional controls.

“We were able to both significantly improve lighting in the Phillips Memorial Library for hundreds of students, staff, and faculty using the space every day and find a solution that will deliver continual operational savings,” said Andrew J. Sullivan, executive director, physical plant, Providence College. “Fairbanks Energy Services’ LED lighting project additionally supports our institutional commitment to reducing energy consumption.”