SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Sempra Energy Solutions, the retail marketing arm of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), announced today that it, along with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), and the Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA), dedicated a new combined heat and power generating plant at the FDA's White Oak complex in Silver Spring, Md. The facility is the nation's newest combined heat and power plant contracted under the Department of Energy's Energy Savings Performance Contracting Program (ESPC). Under ESPC programs, a private company can finance the investment of installing energy-efficient equipment with no up-front costs to the government agency.
White Oak is the new, consolidated headquarters for the FDA. Sempra Energy Solutions has a 20-year contract to provide energy services for the 3 million-square-foot campus. The company is supplying electricity as well as heating and cooling infrastructure for the entire campus. The campus will ultimately be comprised of five groups of interconnected buildings, accommodating 6,200 employees.
"The Federal Research Center is a state-of-art, environmentally sound structure," said Erbin Keith, president of Sempra Energy Solutions. "It is gratifying to dedicate this building knowing that our partnership is an investment in the new campus. We are proud to provide the best, most efficient and most reliable energy infrastructure."
Keith said the new FDA headquarters at White Oak will save the GSA about $2.5 million per year in costs compared to space leased from the private sector. Consolidating all the FDA operations at White Oak has been in the planning stages for 10 years.
Because the FDA needed a fully reliable and steady supply of electricity, Sempra Energy Solutions constructed a central utility plant using combined heat and power technology. The project incorporates renewable energy through the use of photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into electricity. According to the GSA, the plant could reduce the energy consumed at White Oak by 30 percent.
Sempra Energy Solutions is financing the plant and recovering its costs through an energy-savings performance contract.
Sempra Energy Solutions -- a subsidiary of Sempra Energy Global Enterprises, the umbrella for Sempra Energy's growth businesses -- offers commercial and industrial businesses outsourcing services that help them drive efficiencies in the ever-changing energy environment. Sempra Energy Solutions, whose parent company maintains solid investment-grade credit ratings, provides its customers with an integrated mix of services. These services include facility management, supply and price-risk management, energy efficiency, energy-asset management, infrastructure ownership, and information and billing services.
Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with 2003 revenues of $7.9 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 13,000 employees serve more than 10 million customers in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America and Asia.