PES a shining light in city's environmental action plan.

Since Mayor Bloomberg's recent call to reduce city carbon emissions in the next 1,000 days, environmental protection has become a top priority in New York City in response to reasonable concern over climate change.

Public Energy Solutions (PES), a regionally recognized lighting and energy services management company that helps New York and New Jersey building owners achieve energy cost savings by upgrading their electrical and lighting systems for greater energy-efficiency, reports that it has officially saved an annual 122,500,000 kilowatt hours in the New York/New Jersey region in the last five years, according to company data released in celebration of Earth Day on April 22.

Nearly 25 percent of the total energy saved was in New York City in the past year, totaling 28,350,000 annual kilowatt hours. As a result, city businesses retained over $5 million in energy costs annually--an excess of $60 million saved over the life of the measures.

The total amount of energy saved is the equivalent of 185,347,826 pounds of CO2 emission removed--showing an overall improvement in becoming more environmentally responsible over a relatively short amount of time. This energy can also be converted into 16,751 passenger cars taken off of the road for one year and is equal to 634 acres of forest preserved from deforestation.

In New York City in 2006, the annual kilowatt hours saved is the equivalent to 42,894,783 pounds of CO2 emission removed. According to the findings of CO2 emissions mentioned in Mayor Bloomberg's first comprehensive inventory of greenhouse gas emissions announced on April 10, PES helped save four percent of annual CO2 emissions in New York City.

"Earth Day has always been an important time to think about what we can do to help the environment. Now more than ever, it is important to highlight the environmental benefits of decreasing energy consumption as well as the cost-savings," said Keith Hartman, President of Public Energy Solutions. "Area residents can now better enjoy their surroundings because of the amount of energy consumption we have permanently eliminated from the system over the past several years, and can rest assured they are more protected against potential blackouts and brownouts this summer."

Since 2001, the company has helped thousands of companies, institutions and residential facilities maximize facility performance by managing energy costs and creating efficiencies. Public Energy Solutions specializes in the reduction of indoor and outdoor facility energy costs through lighting efficiencies and upgrades as well as through lighting and HVAC controls.

In 2005, PES began an initiative called Operation Kill-A-Watt after being contracted by Con Edison to reduce energy usage in targeted areas all over New York City. Buildings in designated zip codes of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Westchester County that are currently using 25 or more incandescent light bulbs in their buildings can sign up to receive free Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) through Operation Kill-A-Watt (table lamps are excluded). Compared to incandescent light bulbs, CFLs consume 80% less energy and last 10 times longer. PES also helps building owners save energy with cutting-edge HVAC and mechanical load reduction technologies.