Boise Cascade’s Veneer Mill in Willamina, OR operates around the clock — making visibility, safety, and reliability non-negotiable. When incoming leadership assessed the lighting infrastructure, they found outdated fluorescent fixtures and underlit areas that couldn’t keep up with the pace of operations.
With Oregon’s fluorescent ban taking effect and LED incentives beginning to phase out, the timing was right to make a long-term investment in safety, efficiency, and compliance.
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Inside Boise Cascade’s Willamina facility, outdated lighting wasn’t just inefficient — it posed risks. Dim, aging fluorescents made it harder for crews to navigate active production zones, especially during swing and night shifts.
Jake Abbott, who had recently joined as Plant Manager, quickly recognized that the facility’s lighting infrastructure wasn’t keeping up with operational demands. With heavy equipment running nearly 24/7, he saw the need to modernize before performance issues escalated into safety risks.
The challenge came with a tight window. Oregon’s ban on fluorescent lighting took effect January 1, 2025, and LED incentives through Energy Trust of Oregon were at risk of being reduced or eliminated. Acting decisively, Boise Cascade locked in over $60,000 in rebates and a 3.8-year ROI on a full-facility LED lighting upgrade.
I recognized some of the incentives were going away… it seemed like the time was right to get those incentives, save energy, and reduce our carbon footprint.”
— Jake Abbott | Plant Manager @ Boise Cascade — Willamina, OR
As Boise Cascade prepared to move forward with a facility-wide lighting upgrade, PEC supported the team through a comprehensive evaluation process — not just identifying the need, but helping shape the solution.
Rather than pushing a one-size-fits-all product, PEC delivered a range of lighting system options with detailed ROI modeling, performance comparisons, and pricing scenarios.
This analysis allowed Boise Cascade to weigh the tradeoffs between lower-cost retrofit packages with shorter lifespans and worse performance capabilities, versus higher-tier systems with stronger controls and performance specs, but longer ROI periods.
The final selection prioritized reliability, energy efficiency, and long-term return.
PEC worked with Abbott to provide this information in a structured, leadership-ready format to help the project gain internal approval quickly. This included projected savings, incentive estimates, carbon impact, and a clear timeline to payback — all tailored to Boise Cascade’s operational and capital planning needs.
PEC provided a case study that looked at what our potential savings were and gave us options on what an installation might look like with various pricing.
It touched on environmental benefits, ROI, and made it easier to get approval from leadership. It’s coming from a company that’s putting its best foot forward.”
Boise Cascade’s Willamina facility employs skilled journeyman electricians capable of completing a lighting installation. From a technical standpoint, the work could have been done in-house.
But for a facility focused on maintaining uptime across 20-hour production cycles — with crews on-site around the clock — diverting internal resources to a large-scale lighting upgrade would have pulled attention from higher-impact maintenance and production support. For Boise Cascade, lighting installation wasn’t the most strategic use of internal labor.
Additionally, while the team had the capability, they weren’t lighting experts. A self-managed installation would have likely taken longer, introduced more complexity, and risked leaving value on the table — both in terms of system performance and long-term energy savings.
By choosing PEC’s turnkey approach, Boise Cascade ensured the project was completed quickly, correctly, and without disruption, while their internal team stayed focused on keeping the mill running at full capacity.
To pull our team off essential mill work for a project this size could have stretched it to six or eight months. With PEC handling it, our electricians stayed focused on production — and the project finished on time.”
Key Wins for Boise Cascade:
The project with PEC was smooth, on time, and on budget. That’s a win in any facility, especially when you’re trying to upgrade without disrupting operations.”
Curious how PEC is helping properties future-proof their communities? Explore more EV charging case studies and see how we deliver turnkey solutions—on time, on budget, and with zero hassle.
