PRESS RELEASE (June 6, 2002)
Jamestown
By Terry Frank
Chautauqua Correspondent
JAMESTOWN – A Jamestown manufacturer has received a $57,500 state grant to connect to Jamestown’s municipal heating system.
John “Jay” Churchill, president of Jamestown Electro Plating, was presented the check Wednesday by Peter Sigurdson of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in the company’s 105 Water St. headquarters.
Jamestown Electro Plating will become the first plant in New York to completely convert to Municipal heat. Walter W. Haase, general manager of the city’s Board of Public Utilities, said the money will help convert Jamestown Electro Plating’s steam heat boilers to the BPU’s hot water district heating system, by employing heat exchangers.
Haase said the manufacturer will use the municipal source for its entire heating and electroplating process needs, which include “significant hot water usage in rinsing and heating their tanks for the electroplating process.”
Churchill believes the plant will become an example of how companies can save on operating costs by using municipal, or district, heating. I think (by) being the first electroplating plant to utilize district heat, we may be able teach the rest of our peers in the business something across the state,” he said.
Board of Utilities member Michael Wells, an environmental chemist for Jamestown Electro Plating, said he hopes the company can become a “demonstration site” for local industries. Wells added the yearly cost savings should be significant.
We anticipate that this project should save between $30,000 and $35,000 per year in natural gas and (for) maintenance of the boilers,” he said. “I think it should be noted that most of the cost savings come from efficiency.” According to BPU officials, waste heat from the board’s coal-fired power plant on Steele Street will be used to heat water, which will be piped to Jamestown Electro Plating.
The board’s District Heat Division currently has about 60 customers.