This year the Phoenix Convention Center completed work on an ambitious project to update the lighting controls and fixtures across the one million square foot facility to bolster the center’s long-term sustainability efforts.
The $7.5 million project is expected to generate approximately $12 million in energy savings over the course of the next two decades.
“It was a great opportunity to become more energy efficient and sustainable,” said Bob Fingerman, deputy director of the Phoenix Convention Center & Venues. “It was an opportunity to transition the lighting in our buildings to LED lighting technologies and update the control system to a centralized platform, which is the most important part in this.”
The project was completed in January 2023 by McKinstry, a national construction and energy services company, and involved the replacement of more than 15,000 existing lighting fixtures. McKinstry identified significant energy-saving opportunities, which were achieved through replacing the building lighting controls, fixtures and lamps throughout the exhibit halls, ballrooms, meeting rooms and general areas with light-emitting diodes (LED) advanced technologies.
The new lighting control system consists of a customized platform which allows Phoenix Convention Center staff to operate centralized controls and the ability to accommodate advanced scheduling, various lighting configurations, dimming capabilities, individual lamp control, and the ability to monitor energy usage.
“What this all results in is less maintenance for us and the ability to provide even better customer service to our clients,” Fingerman said. “These new light fixtures have a much longer lifespan, so we no longer have to allocate resources as frequently to change it out, in most cases these new fixtures will last beyond 11 years before having to replace it.”
In addition to the lights themselves, the lighting control system is incredibly impactful on both sustainability solutions and a reduction in maintenance time, Fingerman said. The Convention Center previously had three lighting control systems that are now folded into just one.
“It’s critical,” Fingerman said of the new lighting upgrades. “We have more time to turnover and prepare the exhibit hall for a new or existing customer now. And the future energy savings can now be repurposed for something much more meaningful for our campus. We are seeing a big spike in sustainability as a core requirement from meeting and event planners, and for us this energy management project is a huge piece of our sustainability program.”
Fingerman said the idea of the project had been in the works since 2017, when the Convention Center began working with the City of Phoenix Office of Sustainability in search for someone to provide the energy-savings solutions necessary. It is anticipated this project will generate an electrical usage savings of 30% and an annual energy reduction of 3,546,931kWh/24,374kW. This is an annual equivalency of 542 cars off the road or providing electricity to 489 homes.
“It was a big effort and one I think is pretty unique to convention centers,” Fingerman said.