Greg Palko, ORNL's energy efficiency manager for facilities, says the effort is working.
"Over the last two years, we've invested about a million dollars a year in infrastructure improvements that have paybacks so that the utility savings pay for the original processing of that equipment," Palko says. "What you do is try to save money on the front end and through these investments just like you were replacing a water heater at home or were buying compact fluorescent light bulbs at home."
Palko says the laboratory is working on a utility budget of $20 million per year, but energy costs for the facilities are being reduced.
"We're just doing it on bigger industrial equipment, such as major fans, major air-conditioning systems and different systems like that," Palko says.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.