Union City and Chevron Complete Energy Efficiency Projects

The City of Union City has announced the latest achievement in their energy efficiency efforts.

City officials joined Chevron Energy Solutions on Tuesday to celebrate the completion of infrastructure upgrades that will significantly reduce Union City’s energy and maintenance costs.

Launched in 2010, the project was a partnership with Chevron Energy Solutions, who developed, designed and constructed the upgrades.

The upgrades included replacing 4,500 streetlights to save energy and improve lighting and structural upgrades to various city facilities, including a roof upgrade to improve City Hall’s earthquake safety.

The project was an effort to modernize old energy frameworks without disrupting existing city services or impacting taxpayers. It was financed through a federal grant and anticipated energy and maintenance savings, according to City Manager Larry Cheeves.

The city expects the upgrades to yield savings over the project’s 15-year lifespan.

“These projects help meet specific needs our city has had as we have struggled to replace aging infrastructure while maintaining our commitment to provide quality services to our residents,” Cheeves said. “By utilizing anticipated reductions to our energy and maintenance costs to help finance these projects, we have innovatively upgraded and modernized our facilities with the expectation of actually saving taxpayers money.”

Chevron Energy Solutions was equally excited about the project. An arm of the Chevron Corporation, Chevron Energy Solutions has developed hundreds of energy efficiency projects for education, government and business facilities, according to a press release. Since 2002, the corporation has spent about $4.4 billion on renewable energy and expects to spend $2.2 billion more by 2013.

“We are proud to partner with cities to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that exist to help local governments balance their budgets by reducing energy and operating costs,” said Chevron Energy Solutions President Jim Davis.

“The leadership shown by Union City serves as a model for public agencies throughout the Bay Area and throughout the country,” he added.