The accounting department at Southern California Edison last week made out a giant check in the sum of $192,000 to Westfield Culver City as a rebate for the shopping mall’s energy conservation. Infrastructure upgrades at the mall, completed last year, are expected to save more than $200,000 in annual energy costs.
The mall converted to a Trane-designed chilled water system that stores ice at night when electricity rates are low, then uses the energy to cool the building during the heat of the day, when high electricity demand often results in blackouts.
Trane, a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand, presented Westfield executives with its Energy Efficiency Leader Award. Johnny Brown, direct sales manager for Los Angeles at Trane, gave the award to Joe Jaworski, vice president of national operations for Westfield LLC, which owns Westfield Culver City, and Jonathan Krausche, the company’s director of sustainability.
“We’re excited that this innovative set of solutions meets our goals of efficiently providing a comfortable shopping environment for our customers while taking pressure off the electricity grid during critical peak periods, making Westfield Culver City a more environmentally sustainable business,” said Jaworski.
City councilmembers Micheal O’Leary and Scott Malsin addressed the crowd at the award ceremony on the second floor of the mall. O’Leary spoke about the urgent need to develop sustainable practices, and Malsin congratulated Westfield for their role as a conservation leader within the city.
Westfield selected the energy conservation measures after completing a detailed energy study of the mall. Energy-modeling software was used to weigh the merits of potential solutions before Westfield ultimately chose the ice storage system.
Not only is Westfield reducing operational costs, the mall is also attempting to ensure a comfortable shopping environment for its customers. Replacing the dated packaged rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, the new system includes a backup component to ensure a consistently comfortable environment in the 360,000-square foot common area affected by the improvements.
The three-story indoor shopping mall was modernized in 2009, and has a history of coordinated conservation projects. Westfield hopes that the new cooling system will help the community manage a chronic energy deficiency by reducing its own requirement during high-demand periods.
