Stephentown Seeks Energy Efficiency
by David Flint
This week’s Time Magazine cover story on rebuilding America’s infrastructure notes that, “While politicians have been arguing about the relative merits of coal, gas and nuclear, in the real world the energy story is suddenly about efficiency.” [private]The story goes on to cite Energy Department statistics indicating that sales of electricity have not grown but actually fell slightly in the period 2007 to 2015, despite a 10% growth in the economy in the same period. “In other words, without much fanfare, the U.S is figuring out how to produce economic growth without consuming more energy.”
The Stephentown Town Board has taken a significant step in joining that movement. At their meeting on March 20, the Board adopted a Policy on Energy Use Benchmarking.
The Board has in recent years found it not feasible at budget time to keep tax increases below the State’s so-called 2% cap, which actually is a lot lower than that. Doing so year after year, they have concluded, would require imprudently raiding the Town’s reserves. So they have been seeking ways to cut costs without cutting services. Efficiency improvements at the Transfer Station have produced some significant cost savings in that area. Now they are focused on seeing if some money can be saved by reducing energy use in Town buildings. Grant money up to $50,000 is available from the NYS Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) that would enable some significant upgrades to the Town Hall and the Town Garage. To be eligible for that money the Town must receive designation as a Clean Energy Community which in turn requires that the Town complete four “high impact” clean energy actions. First on the list is energy use benchmarking. Anita Henry of Capital Green Building, a building performance consulting firm, will be acting as consultant and guiding the Town Board with benchmarking and their application for the Clean Energy Community designation.
According to NYSERDA, buildings account for more than 60% of the energy used in New York State. Energy use benchmarking is basically a system for measuring a building’s energy use over time and comparing that usage with many other similar buildings. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a tool for doing this called Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Stephentown will be entering into this database the basic building characteristics of Town buildings and their monthly energy use and then updating the data on an annual basis. The benchmarking information will be made available on the internet. Councilman Bill Jennings said that the Town already collects this information anyway as it is required as part of the State Comptroller’s annual audit of Town finances.
Energy use benchmarking has already become operational best practice of the commercial real estate industry. The EPA estimates that more than 40% of commercial buildings in the US are already being benchmarked. The public sector has more recently begun to catch on.
There are other benefits of Energy Use Benchmarking besides getting Clean Energy Community designation and enabling grant eligibility. By collecting the data the building’s owners or managers develop a better understanding of the building’s energy use. They can see how their buildings compare with many others in energy performance and they are better able to make smarter decisions on energy efficiency investments in the face of budgetary restraints. The benchmarking also becomes the basis of the organization’s energy management plan.
Guidance and assistance in benchmarking will be available through NYSERDA. The Authority offers 50 hours of free on-demand technical assistance from a Clean Energy Community Coordinator, as well as a tool kit on guidance, model ordinances and other tools and resources. [/private]