Constellation Awarded $21.5 Million Contract to Implement MCEC-Financed Energy Conservation Measures at the University of Maryland, College Park

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Constellation, an Exelon company, has been selected by the University of Maryland (UMD) to implement $21.5 million in energy conservation measures at the university’s College Park campus.

While UMD is the end-use customer, Constellation’s contractual relationship will be with the Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC). The state instrumentality — whose mission is to advance clean energy and energy efficiency in Maryland — secured $18.3 million of tax-exempt financing for the project’s development.

“MCEC is proud to continue providing technical support and advantageous capital to enable the success of similar energy projects in Maryland,” said Wyatt Shifflet, director of finance programs for MCEC. “Working in partnership with facilities managers and project developers like UMD and Constellation, we can effectively bring about desired cost savings, building improvements and the associated employment, not to mention the related environmental benefits.”

The upgrades are anticipated to save UMD approximately $1.7 million in the first year (with continued annual savings over the 13-year performance period) and conserve more than 6.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and more than 39,000 cubic feet of natural gas per year. These improvements will have the same annual impact on greenhouse gas reduction as taking nearly 1,500 cars off the road or conserving 777,000 gallons of gasoline, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculations.

“Constellation is proud to support the University of Maryland’s goal of reducing energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020,” said Michael D. Smith, senior vice president, Distributed Energy for Constellation. “We’re excited to help enhance the learning environment through infrastructure and energy improvements for the University’s students, faculty and staff.”      

The conservation measures to be installed by Constellation include: energy efficient lighting, lab hood ventilation upgrades, new automated HVAC controls, building envelope improvements, transformer updates and chiller plant optimization. The project will impact eight on-campus buildings, including J.M. Patterson Hall and Hornbake Library. The work is slated to be completed by April 2019.

“This energy performance contract will help the University reduce its energy consumption and provide important savings of energy costs via the various energy conservation measures that will be deployed,” said Mary-Ann Ibeziaok, director, Engineering & Efficiency for UMD. “We are grateful for our relationships with Constellation and MCEC for this exciting collaboration.”