ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Willdan Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WLDN) today announced that its wholly owned
subsidiary Willdan Energy Solutions (Willdan)—a leading national
provider of specialized energy, water and resource management
services—in partnership with AEP Ohio, and Chemical Abstracts Service
(CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society and world's authority
for chemical information, were honored by the Uptime Institute with its
coveted Brill Awards for Efficient IT for the development and deployment
of a new high-density, high-performance compute cluster for CAS.
The CAS/AEP Ohio/Willdan team's entry was evaluated by more than 90
industry professionals and, according to the Uptime Institute, was
recognized as the best submission received from North America in the IT
Systems Efficiency category.
"This award recognizes a great project that comprised industry-leading
technology, strong project planning, and cost effective implementation,"
explained Willdan Energy Solutions vice president Josh Milberg. "It also
shows the tangible customer benefits that can be derived from working
through the AEP Ohio Data Center Energy Efficiency program."
"What made this project particularly exciting was CAS's decision to
pursue the latest technologies and IT strategies in planning for the
growth of the new compute cluster," added AEP Ohio's Program Manager
Michelle Cross. "Through smart planning, they were able to significantly
reduce the space, power, and cooling requirements of the cluster, while
maintaining the required performance and reliability."
The project reduced the data center's physical footprint considerably,
avoided 130 tons of load on the mechanical systems and reserved system
capacity for future growth, without sacrificing performance. In
addition, AEP Ohio provided incentives through its program. The project
features a payback period of 5.1 years with a savings of 2,742,936
kilowatt hours in energy consumption per year.
"Consistent with CAS's philosophy for ongoing reinvestment in our
infrastructure, this valuable partnership with AEP and Willdan ensures
CAS continues to efficiently process rapidly growing publicly disclosed
chemistry from around the world and supports market expansion in
emerging regions, such as Asia," said Scott Painter, CAS Director,
Facilities Operations.
"Through AEP Ohio's energy efficiency program," said Milberg, "we were
able to work closely with CAS to fully evaluate and verify the project's
energy savings. This project serves as an example of what can be
accomplished in a data center, and will serve as a fantastic launching
pad for CAS to continue its energy efficiency program far into the
future."
In a statement released by the Uptime Institute, Brill Awards Program
Director Kevin Heslin credited Brill winners with their significant
achievement. "The Brill Awards attracted more than 100 entries from 19
countries. Honoring the best of these projects will provide incentive
and examples for other companies to continue improving IT efficiency."
About Willdan Energy Solutions
Willdan Energy Solutions is a leading national provider of specialized
energy, water, and resource management services to a growing list of
clients that includes utilities, local and federal governments,
hospitals, schools and private enterprises. Our integrated portfolio of
services comprises marketing and engineering, program management and
implementation of energy efficiency and water conservation programs and
development and implementation of information systems for the energy
industry. Additional areas of expertise include hardware retrofits,
commissioning and retro-commissioning, demonstrations of new
technologies, energy efficiency education/outreach, sustainability
strategy, and local government partnerships.
About Willdan Group, Inc.
Celebrating its 50th year of business, Willdan provides outsourced
professional technical and consulting services to public agencies,
public and private utilities, and commercial and industrial firms
throughout the United States. Willdan benefits from well-established
relationships, industry-leading expertise and a solid reputation for
delivering projects on time and on budget. The company's service
offerings span a broad set of complementary disciplines that include
engineering and planning, energy efficiency and sustainability,
financial and economic consulting, and national
preparedness. Willdan has crafted this set of integrated services so
that, in the face of an evolving environment—whether economic, natural,
or built—Willdan can continue to extend the reach and resources of its
clients. For additional information, visit Willdan's website at www.willdan.com.
About AEP Ohio
AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major
AEP subsidiaries Ohio Power Company in Ohio. AEP Ohio is based in
Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power. News and
information about AEP Ohio can be found at www.AEPOhio.com.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the
United States, delivering electricity to more than five million
customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators
of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in
the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission
system, a 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high
voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems
combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly serves about
10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the
interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central
U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the
electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of
Texas. AEP's utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian
Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in
Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service
Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in
Arkansas, Louisiana and east and north Texas). AEP's headquarters are in
Columbus, Ohio. News releases and other information about AEP can be
found at www.AEP.com.
About CAS
Chemical Abstracts Service (www.cas.org),
a division of the American Chemical Society, is the world's authority
for chemical information. CAS is the only organization in the world
whose objective is to find, collect and organize all publicly disclosed
chemical substance information. A team of scientists worldwide curates
and controls the quality of the databases, which are recognized as the
most comprehensive and authoritative by organizations around the world.
By combining these databases with advanced search and analysis
technologies (SciFinder® and STN®), CAS delivers
the most current, complete, secure and interlinked digital information
environment for scientific discovery.
About Uptime Institute
Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, provides independent
thought leadership, certification, education and professional services
for the global data center industry. Uptime Institute is best known for
its creation and global administration of the Tier Standard for Data
Center Design, Construction and Operational Sustainability. Uptime
Institute has office locations in the U.S., Costa Rica, Brazil, United
Kingdom, Spain, Dubai, Russia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The Brill Awards continue the legacy of Uptime Institute's founder, the
late Kenneth Brill, and promote his vision of sharing best practices and
new ideas to improve IT efficiency. The Brill Awards replace the GEIT
Awards, an Uptime Institute program that recognized accomplishment in
data center efficiency from 2008-2013.
Forward-Looking Statements.
Statements in this press release that are not purely historical,
including statements regarding Willdan's intentions, hopes, beliefs,
expectations, representations, projections, estimates, plans or
predictions of the future are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including,
but not limited to, the risk that Willdan will not be able to improve
its profitability in 2014. It is important to note that Willdan's actual
results could differ materially from those in any such forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
include, but are not limited to, a slowdown in the local and regional
economies of the states where Willdan conducts business and the loss of
or inability to hire additional qualified
professionals. Willdan's business could be affected by a number of other
factors, including the risk factors listed from time to time
in Willdan's SEC reports including, but not limited to, the Annual
Report on Form 10-K filed for the year ended December 27,
2013. Willdan cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the
forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Willdan
disclaims any obligation to, and does not undertake to, update or revise
any forward-looking statements in this press release.
Willdan Group, Inc.
Chief Financial Officer
Stacy
McLaughlin, 714-940-6300
smclaughlin@willdan.com
or
Investor/Media
Contact
Financial Profiles, Inc.
Moira Conlon,
310-478-2700 x220
mconlon@finprofiles.com
Source: Willdan Group, Inc.
News Provided by Acquire Media
