Missoula City Council gives green light to $1 million in energy conservation work

Let there be light - new light bulbs along Missoula trails.

Let there also be an estimated $2.6 million saved in city power bills, operations and capital expenses in the future and over the course of 15 years.

The Missoula City Council this week unanimously gave a green light to 19 energy conservation upgrades worth some $1.37 million. Vehicle maintenance superintendent Jack Stucky said he plans to present a related financial contract to the council in the next few weeks and expects the installations to be complete in roughly one year.

"Coming into this project, there were some really exciting things," Stucky said Tuesday. "The stuff that we expected to have huge paybacks on didn't happen. And the stuff that we didn't even dream about had really good paybacks."

Last year, the city of Missoula contracted with Johnson Controls to conduct an energy audit and recommend conservation upgrades. The company identified 43 possible projects costing $7.8 million, according to a city memo.

Stucky said city officials reviewed the report and selected 19 ideas. The average payback time is nine years and the total annual savings is $108,538. Ideas that had payback times of 100 years or so - or cost too much money - got eliminated or postponed for a second possible phase.

Read the whole story in The Missoulian