Photo courtesy of Providence Park
Built in 1926, Providence Park has a long legacy in Portland and across Oregon. It’s had different names, owners, and has hosted the Portland Beavers baseball team, the Portland Timbers and the Portland Thorns. It’s also held numerous events including the 2003 Women’s World Cup and the recent sold-out Foo Fighters’ concert throughout its lauded history.
“But, with a 100-year-old stadium comes 100-year-old problems,” said Gabriel Saenz, vice president of operations at Providence Park. “Back in 1926 we didn’t have energy efficiency in mind.”
One significant issue Saenz identified was the use of outdated High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting fixtures along the hallways and corridors. These inefficient lighting fixtures remained on continuously, after events ended, contributing to unnecessary energy consumption and higher costs.
Wanting to save energy and continue their path of being a sustainable and energy efficient organization, the Providence Park team turned to Energy Trust of Oregon to upgrade these behind-the-scenes lighting in the access corridors and hallways.
“Energy Trust brought in an expert who analyzed our lighting then provided options on how we could use cash incentives for lighting upgrades. They were very proactive during the whole process,” said Saenz.
With a $13,300 cash incentive, Providence Park upgraded the inefficient lighting fixtures by replacing them with state-of-the-art LED fixtures. They also added occupancy sensors that now ensure lights only activate when someone is present, providing energy savings.
“The LEDs now allow more control over the previous lights, and we can dim them down to 10% usage,” said Saenz.
According to Energy Trust lighting specialist Jason Ping, the switch to LED fixtures with occupancy sensors reduced energy use from the replaced lighting fixtures by about 60%. The lighting upgrades will save Providence Park $14,300 annually on energy costs, or the impressive equivalent to powering approximately 10 homes’ electricity use for a year.
“It was easy working with Energy Trust. When you have a community that is dedicated to sustainability, it’s exciting to see that,” adds Saenz.
Visit the Energy Trust website to learn more about cash incentives for energy-efficient upgrades. For questions or project support, email our team at existingbuildings@energytrust.org.