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Riverside Community College and NORESCO Partner on $5.5 Million Project to Bring Impressive Energy Savings to the District

Business Wire, February 14, 2007 – WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NORESCO, a national leader in guaranteed energy savings programs and on-site energy management, has been selected by the Riverside Community College District (RCCD) to design and install energy and facility upgrades totaling $5.5 million. Total energy savings are expected to exceed $8.9 million over the next 20 years. With these upgrades, RCCD will also avoid over $2.4 million in maintenance costs and emergency repairs that would otherwise be drawn from operating and capital replacement budgets over the next 15 years.

The energy project will improve infrastructure, efficiency, technology and safety at the three California campuses: Riverside City, Norco, and Moreno Valley. Funding will include California Community Colleges/Investor Owned Utility (CCC/IOU) Energy Efficiency Partnership Program rebates. The energy project will implement energy conservation measures consistent with the executive order from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the local “Measure C” bond issue.

RCCD currently operates with critical systems that are approaching or have exceeded their useful lives. The project will replace systems with state-of-the-art solutions to improve energy consumption, reliability, maintenance, environmental impact, and user comfort.

"We are committed to creating comfortable and safe campuses for our students," said Dr. Jim Buysse, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration. "By making these energy-efficient, environmentally friendly improvements, we can accomplish that goal and save the taxpayers money over the longer term. It's a tremendous benefit for our students and our communities."

Rick Ellis, Western Director of Construction Services for NORESCO, commented from NORESCO’s Ontario, California office, “The leadership and collaboration practiced at RCCD during the planning process have been impressive. It is truly a delight and an honor to work with a client like RCCD that values vision as part of the culture.”

Lighting improvements will provide improved interior lighting at each campus with retrofits to more efficient lamps, ballasts, and reflectors. The Riverside City campus will also benefit from improved exterior lighting in parking lot and service road areas. Improved energy management systems will allow the campuses to lower energy consumption by gaining more control over operation of devices. Five chillers to be installed are designed to operate at nearly twice the electrical efficiency of current units and with environmental-friendly refrigerant.

NORESCO is one of the largest U.S. energy services companies specializing in the development, design, construction, financing, and operation of energy and environmental efficiency projects, performance contracting, and central energy plants. Its clients include various departments of the U.S. government, school districts, local governments, and industrial and commercial businesses. Over the past two decades, NORESCO has implemented more than $2 billion in energy projects at more than two thousand sites throughout the United States and abroad.

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