$3M incentive paid for med center's efficiency projects. (Albany Medical Center)

ALBANY, N.Y.--The first installment of utility incentive payments total at least $3.15 million was paid to Albany Medical Center here last month to subsidize an energy management program that will save more than a million dollars a year in energy, maintenance, and labor costs.

Claude D. Rounds, vice-president for plant management for the medical center, told EUN that the energy management program will cost $8,730,000 and save an estimated $1,331,096 a year, which would yield a worst-case payback of four years, two months after the rebates from local utility Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. However, a 15-year maintenance contract with, and 10-year loan from, CES/Way International Inc. could drive the project cost up to $13,275,000 and lengthen payback to 7.5 years. The energy service company is based in Houston, Tex.

"Right now we're under budget and ahead of schedule," Rounds noted, "and I fully expect that we'll be ahead of the game when everything is done." He said the program began in March and will be completed by October 1993.

Once all the planned energy efficiency measures are in place, electricity consumption at the center is expected to drop by 13,312,500 kilowatt hours (kwh) per year and demand will be cut by 2.6 megawatts (Mw), Rounds said. Based on those …