Water & Power Infrastructure
Most municipalities provide water and many provide power. Both functions require large facilities and specialized equipment.

• Water purification facilities upgrades and expansion
• Water storage facilities such as reservoirs, water tanks, or water towers
• Water pressurizing components such as pumping stations (for example, upgrade your 55kW filtered water pump from soft starter to variable speed drive (VSD) control)
• Pipe networks - new, expansion, retrofit
• Smaller pump stations designed for water removal from schools , larger municipal complexes, or sporting grounds

MLC can help you to modernize or expand any of the following components of an existing municipal power system:

• The power station
• Transformers that raise the generated power to high transmission voltages
• Transmission lines
• Substations at which the power is stepped down to the voltage on the distribution lines
• Distribution lines
• Transformers that lower the distribution voltage to lower consumer level voltages
  

Waste Management
Many towns and cities have historically their solid waste to neighborhoods outside the City for burial in landfills. Closure of nearby landfills in the past few decades has led to a realization that this solution is no longer viable.

MLC can help upgrade your waste management facility, including a number of capital-intensive projects.

• Tipping hall - improvements and expansion, lease front-end loaders, improved air management
• Furnace - higher efficiency upgrade, increase capacity
• Dry-scrubber - higher efficiency upgrade
• Baghouse - improvements and expansion
• Ash conveyor- higher efficiency and capacity upgrade
• Generator- adding a new generator or higher efficiency upgrade

Many waste water treatment plants use anaerobic digestion to stabilize sludge generated during the treatment process. Microorganisms break down organic material, releasing biogas, a mixture composed of methane and carbon dioxide, trace gases, and water. Typically, the plants flare biogas to dispose of it, but this renewable fuel can be used in fuel cells to generate heat and electricity. Using biogas in this way reduces emissions that otherwise would be generated by flaring and eliminates emissions that would be generated by using traditional power sources.

Closed landfills are also excellent candidates for solar energy systems. Consider a system to recover methane gas from the landfill, then install a solar array over the top.

Convert your recycling or solid waste trucks to a diesel-electric hybrid technology:

• Uses an in-line (series) technology or a plug-in parallel hybrid system
• With plug-in system, can to change to all electric operation at will
• Reduces GHG emissions from managing its solid waste
• Runs more quietly and requires less maintenance
  

Manufacturers / Products / Links

Ovivo will become the only global business dedicated solely to water. Following the merger of Eimco Water Technologies, Enviroquip and Christ Water Technology, September 2010 sees the emergence of a new global force in the water sector, dedicated to bringing the latest thinking, proven technologies and the most advanced application knowledge to the municipal and industrial clean water, process water and wastewater markets around the globe.

A hybrid electric truck for collecting solid waste and recyclables proclaims the intent of the City of New Rochelle, a New York State Climate Smart Community, to reduce GHG emissions from managing its solid waste.

Municipal Maintenance Services
All municipalities want to maintain their city buildings, streets, and parks at the highest possible standard and for the least possible cost to the taxpayers.

• Improve lighting efficiency and controls
• Increase lifetimes of street light lamp, traffic control lights, pedestrian lights, and municipal building lights
• Upgrade fleets and equipment to energy efficient technologies
• Upgrade security technology to include wireless, remote functions, and integration with standard security equipment such as cameras

Each municipal department can take advantage of energy upgrades suited to their needs. Municipal fleets, schools, public works, police, fire, and city services such as transit, parking, courts, parks and recreation, and libraries all can benefit from newer, more efficient products.

Municipal Administration Fleets
Municipalities across the nation are modernizing their municipal fleets. Manufacturers are providing electric, hybrid, natural gas, and propane vehicles that are attractive in price and durability.

• Buses
• Police
• Cars
• Staff cars
• Sanitation vehicles
• Construction equipment
• Maintenance and repair vehicles

MLC can help you upgrade or purchase the vehicles for your fleet, and we can also help with the purchase and installation of fueling stations,maintenance yards, and smaller transit related energy projects, like converting your bus stop lighting to solar.

Schools

• Upgrade school buses to hybrid or CNG.
• Switch over the school district fleet of passenger cars to hydrids or all-electric cars.
• School maintenance departments can include hybrid light trucks and all-electric all-purpose vehicles for the school grounds.
• Campus polices departments could upgrade to hybrid SUV's and electric vehicles.
• Upgrade your existing university and college power plants to higher efficiency components.
• Upgrade interior and exterior lighting to enhance learning environments, reduce energy consumption, and increase lamp lifetime to save on maintenance.
• Install a prefabricated pumping stations designed for removing and collecting drain water, surface water, and wastewater from schools and sport grounds.

Public Works
Public works, maintenance, and waste management.

• Upgrade the equipment and vehicles to all electric or hybrid technologies, where possible.
• Install maintenance yard and warehouse lighting with controls to minimize energy use and extend the life of the lamps.
• Expand and enhance structures used in waste management.
• Modernize machinery at the waste management facility, including the furnace, scrubbers, conveyors, and air handlers.
• Add or improve your waste management facility generator.
• Develop your closed landfill to include methane collection and solar. Install a flexible solar cap or install a standard solar array on top of your landfill.
• Use the gases from anaerobic digestion to drive a fuel cell. Capture the excess heat from the operation, and you can achieve high efficiency!

Public Safety and City Services
Energy efficient upgrades can be made to department fleets and buildings to improve energy consumption, improve service, and reduce maintenance. Let MLC help you make it possible.

Police Departments

• Police administrations have fleet cars, patrol units, emergency response, command center, and SWAT vehicles that can be hybrid, clean diesel, or all-electric. They can be medium-duty hybrid trucks, heavy-duty hybrid trucks, clean diesel buses, or hybrid electric buses.
• Lighting for security can be enhanced for functionality, such as improved exterior and remote outdoor induction lights.
• Interior lighting can be improved by upgrading to CFL and adding controls and sensors.
• Remote alarms can be made wireless and tied into the camera and lighting systems.

Fire Departments

• Fire apparatus and mobile command centers can include hybrid, clean-diesel, and CNG vehicles
• Mobile Command Centers can be medium-duty hybrid trucks, heavy-duty hybrid trucks, or hybrid buses similar to the E-ONE Hybrid Energy Command Center (HE-ONE).
• Ambulances, medium-duty trucks, and emergency response vehicles for the chiefs can be upgraded to hybrids or converted to CNG.
• All electric Mini Emergency Response Vehicles can work in off road conditions or in maintenance yard operations.

Parking & Traffic

• Lighting lamps can be modernized to fluorescent or metal halide HID lamps.
• Garage lighting can be automated for remote operation to enhance security.
• All electric slow-speed NEV's, hybrid vehicles, or propane vehicles for meter reading and parking enforcement.

Transit Departments

• Hybrid buses for municipal transit
• CNG large vans and hybrid buses for shuttles
• Light-duty trucks for mobile repair and maintenance
• Medium-duty hybrid truck - towing, repair, and maintenance
• Hybrid passenger cars, SUV's, or NEV's for staff

Public Libraries

• Retrofit lighting with modern, energy-efficient lamps and fixtures.
• Install intelligent monitors and controls to reduce your overall usage.

Parks & Recreation

• Lighting - replace old High Pressure Sodium (HPS) with Induction Lighting.
• Upgrade remote safety call boxes to wireless and solar.
• Install interior lighting retrofit in athletic facilities.
• Upgrade the maintenance fleet to all electric vehicles.

Lighting & Energy Production

• Upgrade your municipal lighting to reduce your maintenance costs and energy consumption.
• Improve energy production efficiency and reduce usage with modern technology, equipment, and control technologies.
• The cost savings that are often realized immediately or in the very short-term can be used for other capital expenditures that are important or necessary to your community.

These tips can help you select the right equipment for your municipal department.

All departments can benefit from upgraded networking technology. Improve economic development and your public safety and public works responsiveness, safety, and efficiency in the field.

• Free wireless town-wide internet access is a cost-effective, user friendly communications solution, attracting more residents, visitors, and businesses
• A phone system that provides 311 and 411 access to town services and status helps with real productivity and with community relations.

Schools, courts, cafeterias, and other interior municipal spaces can all benefit from updated lighting.

• When planning full-building upgrades, a lighting upgrade should come early in the process, because it can affect heating and cooling loads and power quality, which can make a significant difference in the specifications for other building systems.

• Design the system to get the appropriate amount of light for the tasks to be performed in the space in question. Distribute that light to prevent glare with diffusers and reflectors.

• Use daylight whenever possible but avoid direct sunlight, and install lighting monitors and controls to reduce the use of electric lights in response to daylight.

• Use the most efficient light source for the application: high-performance fluorescent systems as the primary light source for most commercial spaces; compact fluorescent lamps in place of incandescent bulbs in most cases; and high-intensity discharge lamps where appropriate. New lighting technologies are many times more efficient than traditional technologies such as incandescent bulbs.

• Switch from incandescent bulbs to Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), fluorescent tubes, and light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. CFLs use 75 percent less energy and LEDs use 75 to 80 percent less energy.

Public works and transit departments can benefit from upgrades to cleaner, energy efficient technology.

• Water System: make sure you have a regular energy efficiency review. In an Ovivo client example, they changed a 55kW filtered water pump from soft starter to variable speed drive (VSD) control. The energy savings were about 668.16 kWh of electricity each day, which translates to a saving of about 12.15kWh per day per kW consumed. That translates to $391,109.72 per year.
• Vehicles: all electric, slow-speed vehicles have the advantage of being able to work indoors and out, so a tailored maintenance vehicle, for example, can move about the yard and the warehouse.
• Vehicles: The benefits of a plug-in hybrid operation include significant fuel savings and a 50% reduction in emissions of particulates and hydrocarbons.

The parks and recreation department can benefit from improved outdoor lighting and controls.

• Remote call boxes and alarms can be made wireless and solar powered.
• Use automatic controls to turn lights off or dim lights as appropriate.
• Consider adding solar panels for all area lighting, path lighting, and signage.