Orion Energy Systems: Change to energy efficient lighting system brings environmental stewardship award to ACI

For further Information contact:

Dave Cary, Communication Specialist
Orion Energy Systems
(920)-892-5804
dcary@oriones.com

Bill Nell, Jr, President
ACI Industries Inc.
851 N Progress Dr.
Saukville WI 53080-1615
(262) 268-2837

Fluorescent system from Orion drops lighting power
consumption 53%, provides environmental benefits

ACI Industries inc., a Saukville WI contract manufacturer has been chosen to receive the Orion Environmental Stewardship Award for its recent annual 55,444 kWh lighting power reduction — better than 50 percent — that came as a result of a change in plant lighting to a system from Orion Energy Services of Plymouth WI.

Environmentally, a power reduction this size means that over the 20-year anticipated life of the Orion lighting system, some 1,081 tons of carbon dioxide, 295 tons of carbon, 4.7 tons of Sulfur dioxide and 2.3 tons of Nitrogen oxides — all pollutant by-products of power generation — will not be released into the atmosphere. It is also the air-scrubbing equivalent of a 10-acre forest or removing nine cars from the road permanently and is the conservation equivalent of saving 4,577 gallons of gasoline each year. The move also cut ACI’s electric bill for lighting by over 50 percent, as well.

“We appreciate the award because we want to be a good neighbor,” said Bill Nell, Jr., ACI president.. “We want to do our part in trying to save energy Cost is certainly one aspect of it – a business always has to look at that aspect first — but from an environmental standpoint, we think we’re doing our part.”

Nell explained how the project came about. “We didn’t like the lights we had, metal halide lighting. A lot of them had been going out because the ballasts were burning out. We knew we needed to do something.”

The Orion solution, he said, gave the firm better light at half the cost — with lamps that lasted longer and cost far less to replace when they needed replacing.

All told, the Saukville contract manufacturing firm replaced 56 400-watt metal halide fixtures in two warehouse areas with the same number of Orion Illuminators. Lighting power consumption dropped from a previous annual total of 108,326 kilowatt-hours (kWh) to 52,882 kWh, to produce the 53 percent saving of 55,444 kWh per year

“Important as they are, the benefits of this project do not end with cost savings, positive environmental impact and a better quality of light,” commented Orion president Neal Verfuerth. “Taking 55,444 kWh off the power grid benefits our economy because it tends to lessen the upward pressure on electric power rates by decreasing the demand – and that is an issue we are all facing.”

These savings are real and permanent,” Verfuerth continued. “This sustainable savings of electrical consumption could serve as a model for other companies, and is especially important for smaller businesses who are actually players in a global energy marketplace.”

“But best of all, ACI didn’t have to give anything up or ‘do without’ to achieve all this. I see nothing but benefits in their move in any direction I look. And that is the way we think things should work.”

ACI Industries is described by Bill Nell Jr. as “…a contract manufacturer or job shop. We do a variety of things – machining, metal stamping, metal fabricating.” ACI is located in the Saukville, WI Industrial Park, and serves a variety of clients. Nell can be reached by email at aciind@aol.com.

Located in Plymouth, WI, Orion Energy Services has been innovating in the energy and lighting business since 1996. Orion’s innovative Illuminator ® fixture, an energy-efficient lighting platform for industrial applications, has been awarded a series of 14 patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, Orion has applied for numerous other patents related to metering and control technologies for lighting. Neal Verfuerth, Orion President, received one of Wisconsin’s most prestigious awards, the Ernst & Young 2004 Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year.

Orion provides capacity displacement solutions for supply side management, transmission management, and demand side management for the electricity industry. Visit the Orion website at http://www.oriones.com/.