Florida Power and Light Headquarters Juno Beach, FL

The Florida Power and Light (FPL) Headquarters Office Complex campus consists of five interconnected buildings, located at 700 Universe Boulevard in Juno Beach, Florida.  Building A is 91,533 square feet and was built in 1982, Building B is 138,873 square feet and was also built in 1982, Building C is 227,506 square feet and was built in 1987, Building D is 246,838 square feet and was built in 1989, and Building E is 181,230 square feet and was built in 2002.  Over the years the buildings have gone through a few renovations, but are mainly in the original configuration.

The ASHRAE Design Weather Data for West Palm Beach Airport, located 15 miles away, was used for the evaluation of the energy use at FPL Complex.  That data indicates 218 Heating Degree Days (HDD) and 4,044 cooling degree-days (CDD) at base 65F.

Electricity for the complex is metered at 4 locations; #1) Buildings A, B, and C, #2) The Data Center, #3) Building D, and #4) Building E and the parking lot lighting.  The annual electricity consumption for the year ending December, 2009 was 10,966,200 kWh on meter #1, 6,292,800 kWh on meter #2, 3,350,600 kWh on meter #3, and 3,486,291 on meter #4.  The buildings are all electric so there is no gas or oil consumption.

Converting the electrical use into Btus results in total energy use of 84,710,441 kBtus.  This data is used to determine the energy use index (EUI) of the facility, which is expressed in thousands of Btus per square foot per year (kBtu/ft2/yr).  These numbers result in an EUI of 96.2 kBtu/sf/year for the complex.

The cost index for the buildings is $2.44 per square foot per year based on an average electric rate of $0.0896/kWh.

The EUI is the Energy Use Index of a building.  The US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) compiles tables of Energy Use data for many categories of buildings throughout the US every 5 years.  The most recent data available was compiled in 2003; the 2008 data is not available yet.  The data is compiled by various metrics including geographic region, building age, building type and building use.

The EIA Tables show different EUI data for different statistical groupings.  Table C-5 provides kBtu/sf/year by census region.  For the “South” region, all buildings between 100,000 and 200,000 sf, the average EUI is 107.9.  For all office space in the south region, the EUI is 87.0.  For the south region with fewer than 4,000 HDD and more than 2,000 CDD the EUI is 72.8.  For all buildings in the category the EUI is 82.9.

Table C-4 provides cost per square foot per year for similar groups of buildings.  For all buildings between 100,000 and 200,000 sf, the average cost per square foot per year is $1.48.  For all office space in the south Atlantic region, the cost index is $1.43 $/sf/yr.  For buildings in regions with fewer than 4,000 HDD and more than 2,000 CDD the cost index is $1.41.  For all buildings in the category the cost index is $1.43.

These numbers indicate that the FPL Office Complex buildings are somewhat above the average in energy use per square foot and in energy cost per square foot.

The energy savings figures shown in the AHSRAE Level 1 report indicate that the Low-Cost / No-Cost measures could reduce the electric use by 10.5%.  Approximately 50% of that energy savings would result in setting back the HVAC systems at night.  Currently all of the equipment operates all of the time with the exception of a couple of systems.  The Capital Improvement Measures listed have the potential of reducing the energy use by about 11

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