COUNCE, TENN.—A recent demonstration project at Pickwick Landing State Park Resort has created excitement throughout the state’s park system about reducing energy usage and costs. The four-week study was a joint effort of TVA, Pickwick Electric Coop (PEC), and Tennessee Department of Energy and Conservation (TDEC). The result of the project: a 44 energy savings in the hotel rooms and 64 percent in the cabins—all without negatively impacting guest comfort convenience, according to park personnel.
The study evaluated Energy Technologies Group’s S3E guestroom energy management system, which had consistently shown more than 40 percent energy savings in other parts of the country. Based on these results, plans are underway to install the S3E system throughout the state’s park lodging network, which would generate an estimated savings of $350,000 annually when fully implemented.
Reducing and controlling energy use and demand are important to all the project participants. Reducing operating costs for the parks is an obvious interest, but the environmental impact is also a big interest for TDEC. And, reducing and leveling demand is important to TVA (a U.S. government corporation) and its distributors like PEC, so they have a significant interest as well.
Savings Claims Often Not Believed
While the marketplace abounds with systems designed for this purpose, the U.S. Department of Energy studies have shown that rarely have such systems’ performance met expectations. As a result, hotel operators—and these study participants as well—have understandably grown skeptical of manufacturers’ savings claims.
ETG’s S3E system uses patented operating methodology to double the energy and cost saving impact of competing systems (according to federal government studies). ETG is based in the Pittsburgh area and is exclusively represented in the TVA service ares by the Energy Solutions Division of Business Matters, Inc. of Selmer, Tenn. To contact Business Matters, call Mike Cain at (731) 645-0257, or e-mail cmichaelcain46@ymail.com.
For more information on Energy Technologies Group and its S3E Energy Management System, contact Kevin Snyder at (704) 780-3404, or e-mail ksnyder@energytechgroup.com.
