DPR Forms Energy Group to Address Power Concerns of Its Customers

Over a year ago, DPR’s management team asked employees to “travel forward in time” to 2030, the year DPR fulfills its mission to be one of the most admired companies, and to picture the list of initiatives that helped DPR achieve this goal. It was through this brain-storming process that DPR’s new Energy Group was created.

Going far beyond the typical services offered by a contractor/construction manager, the group provides ‘value engineering’ for its customers’ energy bills. By building, financing and managing smaller, on-site power co-generation facilities (200 kilowatt to 5 megawatt plants), a customer can typically achieve energy savings from 7 to 15 percent. A common practice in Europe, on-site co-generation provides a secure source of electricity and heat in an unstable energy market.

DPR’s Energy Group is also providing development assistance, estimating, planning and construction services for large, 5 to 500 megawatt power plants. Targeting independent power producers and large power users, the group is bringing DPR’s “open book” style of construction to what has been a traditionally conservative delivery process.

DPR will be among the first companies to benefit from the Energy Group’s expertise as the Redwood City office initiates its own co-generation plan.

“The concept of co-generation is simply to use the energy you purchase as efficiently as possible,” said DPR’s Bill Helfrich, one of the leaders of the Energy Group. “We have looked at our own power needs and usage and have developed a plan that will spend our energy dollars more efficiently.”

DPR’s plan includes the installation of a natural gas powered engine that will provide electricity and heat for Redwood City’s 54,000-sq.-ft. building. The engine, which produces electricity at a lower cost per kilowatt hour than utilities can provide, will also serve as the back-up power supply for the company’s central computer. According to the Energy Group’s research, DPR’s co-generation plan should reduce the amount of electricity purchased from the local utility, run more cleanly than a home furnace and replace the need for redundant power back-up supplies such as diesel generators. The resulting savings can normally pay for the system in less than five years.

“DPR is preparing itself for the future,” adds Helfrich. “As energy prices rise, co-generation plants will be a part of almost every construction project.”