2RW Consultants provided professional engineering support to the Georgia Power Company for lighting efficiency upgrades at five sites in Georgia and Alabama.
The work was done under the federal area-wide agreement held by prime contractor Georgia Power Company with the federal government. The lighting projects, funded using 2009 American Recovery and Redevelopment Act (ARRA) monies, were undertaken by GSA for the purposes of improving the quality of the lighted environment for GSA workers, improving lighting energy efficiency, and improving the value of GSA owned and managed properties. 2RW responsibilities included:
• Project management
• On-site lighting energy audits
• Creation of lighting upgrade strategies and scopes of work
• Quantification of energy and dollar savings
• Detailed design and preparation of contract documents to obtain fixed prices from contractors
• Construction administration
• Lighting systems and controls commissioning
• Pre- and post-construction electrical monitoring to quantify actual savings
• Development of as-built record drawings
Due to the tight schedules imposed by the ARRA program, the first phase of the project – lighting audits, savings calculations, and conceptual design development – was completed in 45 calendar days. To meet this aggressive schedule, 2RW fielded five field crews to survey eight buildings (federal courthouses, federal office buildings and associated parking structures) with a total floor area of over 2.5 million square feet at five locations throughout GSA Region 4.
Based on the first phase results, 2RW engineers assisted with the final design of lighting upgrades at five buildings. Among the innovative strategies used to reduce lighting energy use were:
• Volumetric luminaires
• Spectrally Enhanced Lighting
• T5 fluorescent lamps
• Electronic programmed-start ballasts with ballast factors selected for defined illumination
• Dual-technology occupancy sensors and vacancy sensor lighting controls.
These projects, completed in 2012, represent approximately $4 million construction, and will save approximately $175,000 each year. 2RW was a sub-contractor for this project to Avid Energy LLC, a subsidiary of 2RW Consultants and S.L. King & Associates, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia.
