ENER-G Rudox Completes Green Makeover For Masonic Village Senior Living Facility

On Apr 29, 2016

On Earth Day, ENER-G Rudox and the Masonic Charity Foundation of New Jersey celebrated a landmark sustainability project. The $8.9-million sustainable makeover of Masonic Village, a senior living community in Burlington, will make it one of the most energy efficient, sustainable and resilient in the northeastern United States – resulting in major carbon and cost savings, at no capital expense to the charitable organization.

The Masonic Charity Foundation of New Jersey appointed New Jersey-based energy management and combined heat and power (CHP) specialist ENER-G Rudox Inc., in conjunction with clean energy infrastructure developer, Blue Sky Power and MCFA Global, to develop, design, engineer, construct, and finance a campus-wide microgrid for its Masonic Village senior care facility.

“With this project, ENER-G Rudox delivers a solution that many are excited about, but few have accomplished. We have been able to turn the ‘academic’ potential of microgrids that drives analysts’ optimism, into a practical real world solution. The total package will provide economic benefits, as well as redundancy and sustainability for Masonic Village and allow the facility to reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 452 metric tons per year, the equivalent benefit of negating more than one million miles driven by the average car,” said Ryan Goodman, President, ENER-G Rudox.

The multi-million dollar energy infrastructure improvements to the 450-acre campus included the installation of a highly efficient 498 kW natural gas ENER-G Rudox CHP system that provides heat and electricity for the facility. Additionally, ENER-G Rudox performed comprehensive lighting and boiler plant upgrades to reduce the facility’s current energy profile.

The CHP system is integrated with the facility’s existing 1.16 MW solar PV field and 1.5 MW standby diesel generator, enabling 100 percent operational capability in the event of a grid outage.

The project was financed using ENER-G Rudox’s ‘Energy Services Agreement.’ Under this arrangement, the Masonic Charity Foundation was responsible for $0 in up-front investment capital, and received a guaranteed minimum savings of $209,000 per year over the 20-year contract term.

“The Masonic Village at Burlington is an outstanding facility dedicated to its residents. The unity of purpose of the Board of Trustees, ENER-G, MCFA, RAI and Blue Sky Power combined with the support of the Board of Public Utilities and PSE&G enabled us to bring a truly innovative clean energy microgird to fruition at the almost 120 year old facility, making it one of the most sustainable, energy efficient and resilient senior living communities in the country,” said Ben Parvey, CEO of Blue Sky Power.

“Assisted living and senior care facilities are often excellent candidates for distributed generation technologies due to their operating profiles and infrastructure requirements. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, we’ve seen an increased interest in improving resiliency in these facilities,” Goodman continued. “However, many facility managers are unaware of the fact that they can improve resiliency while simultaneously reducing their carbon footprint and saving money. The Masonic Village of Burlington, NJ project illustrates this capability, and thus enables the facility to remain on the cutting edge of its industry.”

The economic benefits of CHP are derived from their improved efficiency in comparison to traditional utility-grade power plants. While the typical plant is 35 percent efficient and loses an additional 1-2 percent in transmission, onsite CHP technologies can reach efficiencies of over 85 percent by reusing the waste heat that is a natural by-product of electric generation. In addition, lucrative incentives are available in New Jersey and many other states to help offset the cost of CHP projects. The Masonic Village of Burlington, NJ received a $996,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for execution of this project.

“It takes a forward thinking executive team to accomplish a project of this magnitude, and we would like to thank the Masonic Village of Burlington, NJ and Ashlar Creative Solutions for their contributions throughout this process.” said Goodman. “In addition, the staff at PSE&G, TRC, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities all played critical roles in making this project happen, and showed exactly why New Jersey is a national leader in alternative energy adoption. We would also like to thank our partners at Blue Sky Power, Ray Angelini Inc. and MCFA Global, who continue to set themselves apart in their ability to facilitate and execute these types of projects.”

Related Articles: