HBO, LIPA Team Up for Efficiency Upgrade

Long Island Power Authority is helping Home Box Office fund and install energy efficiency measures in an expansion of an existing communications center that should save the TV company 1,300,000 kWh in energy a year.

The project, part of LIPA’s Commercial Efficiency Program, is expected to also save HBO approximately $200,000 annually in electric costs at the Hauppauge, N.Y., facility.

The energy efficiency measures implemented by LIPA’s contractor TRC include high efficiency air conditioning equipment, LED lighting and occupancy sensors, roof and wall insulation, and variable speed controls on all system pumps.

Improvements installed by HBO will reduce LIPA’s peak demand by 276 kW, which is enough to power approximately 144 average-sized Long Island homes, and represents energy cost savings that exceed the State of New York’s Energy Conservation Code by 19 percent, LIPA says. HBO will benefit from LIPA rebates for many of the upgrades to the facility.

In July 2010, it emerged that six facilities in the state had installed Optimum Energy’s OptimumHVAC software product. The facilities were expecting to save a combined 9.9 million kWh of energy each year as a result of the refits. Most of the projects were are eligible to receive the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority or LIPA incentives.