In the next phase of its national program to optimize efficiency and conserve natural resources, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today announced that Chevron Energy Solutions will complete major energy efficiency upgrades and a hybrid renewable power plant — including a fuel cell and two solar electric technologies — at the USPS's largest processing and distribution facilities in San Francisco. Together the two mail facilities — the San Francisco Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC) and Embarcadero Postal Center (EPC) — comprise 1.2 million square feet, employ about 3,000 people and process 7.5 million pieces of mail daily. Both facilities operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The USPS is the largest employer in San Francisco's Bay View/Hunter's Point district, where the P&DC is located.
Chevron Energy Solutions, a ChevronTexaco (NYSE: CVX – News) subsidiary, will develop, engineer and construct the project over the next year. The work will involve numerous energy efficiency measures, including new energy management and compressed air systems, lighting retrofits and comprehensive heating, ventilation and air conditioning system upgrades. At the P&DC, a 680,000- square-foot facility, Chevron Energy Solutions will also install high- efficiency natural gas cooking equipment for the cafeteria, and a new hybrid solar/fuel cell power plant comprised of a 250-kilowatt fuel cell; 185 kilowatts of crystalline-silicon solar panels mounted on a parking canopy that will track with the sun; and 100 kilowatts of flexible, amorphous-silicon, roof-mounted solar panels.
The improvements at both facilities will lower total annual electricity purchases by $1.2 million or 10 million kilowatt-hours — a 46 percent reduction. In addition, the energy efficiency upgrades will reduce the P&DC's and EPC's heating needs by 69 percent and 28 percent, respectively. In total, these improvements translate to avoided local electric utility emissions of about 6,600 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting about 1,860 acres of trees.
The $15 million cost of the project will be wholly funded by energy savings, contributions from the USPS's CFC refrigerant replacement program, and more than $2.6 million in grants and incentives from the U.S. Department of Defense and the State of California.
The San Francisco project is part of a larger USPS contract with Chevron Energy Solutions to install energy efficiency improvements at mail facilities throughout Northern California. CES recently completed improvements at the USPS processing facility in West Sacramento, and is upgrading facilities in Colfax, Marysville, Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, Vacaville, Winters and other Northern California locations. Together these improvements will save the Postal Service more than $2 million per year in energy costs. In addition, the USPS has contracted with CES to install improvements at its Memphis, Tennessee mail processing facilities.
Since 1985 USPS has reduced its energy consumption nationally by more than 20 percent. A leader in using renewable energy, it has installed solar power systems at facilities in California, Colorado, Rhode Island, Texas and Puerto Rico, installed fuel cells in Alaska, and begun using geothermal technology to heat and cool facilities in Oklahoma and Maryland. Over the past year it also dedicated new "green" post offices in Ft. Worth, TX, and Corrales, NM.
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