Schenectady Energy Advisory Board Progress Report December 7 th 2009 Dana Swalla, Ph.D.

1. Schenectady Energy Advisory Board Progress Report December 7th 2009 Dana Swalla, Ph.D.

2. Acknowledgements Union College Faculty/students: Jeff Corbin Mark DeChiro Jeff Edwards Heather Meaney Andy Morris Dana Swalla – Chair Michael Tamasi Andy Morris - Faculty Jeff Corbin – Faculty Energy Advisory Board Members: Administration Staff: Sharon Jordan Ismat Alam Carl Olsen Paul Lafond John Coluccio

3. Outline • Review (2008 Carbon Footprint Results) • Accepted recommendations • 2009 Status • Meetings/presentations • Recommendations/work in progress • 2010 Plans

4. City Municipal Operations 3122 tonnes 2725 tonnes 2315 tonnes • Highest individual carbon footprint and Energy cost contributors (see 2008 Report) • Water pumping (2725 Tonnes CO2) • City Vehicle fleet • Police Dept (695 Tonnes CO2) • Waste – SNAP (672 Tonnes CO2)

5. Water Pumping Costs: • Water pumping electricity cost increased 21% from 2006-2007 (6% due to consumption increase). • Solid Waste/Garbage Costs: • Overall costs appear stable this year (increased 0.7%), however, transfer station fees increased 23% from 2008-2009. • City saved about $60-$85K in tipping fees, alone (not counting cost of transport to landfill) and reduced collection by 3% or 1000 tons after switch to garbage fees based on usage. • 2010 Budget: • water 1.9750 million • sewer 0.960 million • golf(water) 0.150 million • Refuse and Trash: 3.024 million Both water and solid waste costs are directly tied to consumption

6. Past Recommendations (2007-2008) General: Initiate and maintain procedures that allow convenient tracking and analysis of carbon emissions across all sectors.  • Buildings Sector • City owned buildings undergoing major renovations or new construction must meet LEED or equivalent standards. • Complete Siemens performance contract building upgrades and continue to document energy savings. • Encourage energy service providers to submit all billing electronically to allow for easier energy usage tracking (i.e. carbon footprint analysis), as well as reduce paper waste and costs associated with paper billing storage. • Work with Union College to calculate and track emissions from buildings annually using electronic data. Progress Water Develop a strategy to conserve water in order to save energy, control infrastructure costs and preserve flexibility for future water supplies and needs.

7. Past Recommendations (2007-2008) • Vehicle Fleet Sector • Initiate vehicle purchase policy for all city departments that encourages use of higher gas mileage/lower emissions vehicles • Install devices to lower particulates on selected vehicles • Encourage vehicle sharing between departments, when feasible • Calculate and track emissions from vehicle fleet annually. • Street lights and Traffic Signals Sector • Work with National Grid to encourage development of more energy efficient street lights. • Complete work on LED Traffic light replacement and work with National Grid, Siemens, and city departments to fully capture energy savings that have resulted from traffic light replacement. Progress • Transportation Recommendation • New road development projects will make provisions for bicycle and pedestrian traffic, including the new Erie Boulevard corridor project. • Planning commission should encourage installation of bike racks in all new developments and major renovation projects • Install bike racks in areas of commerce and recreation. • Work with Union College students to formulate a traffic usage summary to estimate carbon footprint of vehicle traffic in Schenectady.

8. 2009/2010 Plans • Data collection continuing for water recommendation • Meetings with City staff • Experience from other communities (metered and flat rate) • Cost of water treatment, infrastructure, equipment, installation costs and consumption http://www.watermeter.ca/english/about.html • Leak detection costs and technology • Boston, MA saved 3 million gal/day of water due to state-of-the-art leak detection technology http://www.ppic.com/index.shtml • Cost breakdown for City water budget (% of funds used for treatment, repair, fee collection, etc)

9. 2009/2010 Status & Plans • Solid waste/recycling status • Investigated public and private waste hauling practices, both locally and regionally • Commercial waste haulers charge extra fee for recycling services, which tends to reduce recyling. Board is considering incentives to have recycling included in regular trash collection. • Held meeting to discuss Utica’s “pay as you throw” system • Discussed incentives to increase use of cloth shopping bags • Street lights • Discussing next generation LED street lighting pilot program with GE Global Research/C&I. • Vehicle fleet • Met with NYLCV to learn about police hybrid vehicles in White Plains, NY. • Other • Looking to SCCC, Union College, RPI, and Univ of Albany for student help with analysis. • County environmental board accepted EAB recommendations

10. Appendix

11. Recommendations (City Municipal Operations) Street lights and Traffic Signals Sector • Work with National Grid to encourage development of more energy efficient street lights. • Complete work on LED Traffic light replacement and work with National Grid, Siemens, and city departments to fully capture energy savings that have resulted from traffic light replacement. Transportation Recommendation • New road development projects will make provisions for bicycle and pedestrian traffic, including the new Erie Boulevard corridor project. • Planning commission should encourage installation of bike racks in all new developments and major renovation projects • Install bike racks in areas of commerce and recreation. • Work with Union College students to formulate a traffic usage summary to estimate carbon footprint of vehicle traffic in Schenectady. Note: Solid waste/trash collection and recycling not considered in this study… However, City saved about $60-$85K in tipping fees, alone (not counting cost of transport to landfill) and reduced collection by 3% or 1000 tons after switch to garbage fees based on usage

12. City of Schenectady Building Emissions vs Municipal Operations Emissions from non-municipal sources >>> than City operations …. About 6 tons per capita just for heating and cooling homes and businesses! 377,000 tonnes • Community outreach recommendations • Work with the Energy Advisory Board to develop the following: • ·Annual Energy Fair hosting local “green” businesses and teaching best practices. • ·Collaboration with local grade schools (ie school forum, science fairs, information booklets to bring home) • ·Neighborhood Association presentations • ·Development of residential “Eco-Teams” similar to Burlington, VT • Set up EAB website available through a link from the main City website to track progress and inform the public of ongoing initiatives, meetings, and minutes

13. Conclusions & Future Work • Siemens Performance Contract has resulted in improved energy savings. • We have more work to do to reach goal of 7% reduction in emissions by 2012. Major focus areas Water pumping costs and conservation. Develop a strategy to conserve water in order to save energy, control infrastructure costs and preserve flexibility for future water supplies and needs. City Vehicle Fleet Improve mileage or limit use of lowest mileage cars/vehicles whenever possible

14. References Carbon emissions calculation and emissions factors http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html Inventory of New York City Greenhouse Gas Emissions, April 2007 • Global Average Temperature plot • http://www.globalwarmingart.com/ • (dark blue 1000-1991):P.D. Jones, K.R. Briffa, T.P. Barnett, and S.F.B. Tett (1998). , The Holocene, 8: 455-471. • (blue 1000-1980):M.E. Mann, R.S. Bradley, and M.K. Hughes (1999). , Geophysical Research Letters, 26(6: 759-762. • (light blue 1000-1965):Crowley and Lowery (2000). , Ambio, 29: 51-54. Modified as published in Crowley (2000). , Science, 289: 270-277. • (lightest blue 1402-1960):K.R. Briffa, T.J. Osborn, F.H. Schweingruber, I.C. Harris, P.D. Jones, S.G. Shiyatov, S.G. and E.A. Vaganov (2001). , J. Geophys. Res., 106: 2929-2941. • (light green 831-1992):J. Esper, E.R. Cook, and F.H. Schweingruber (2002). , Science, 295(5563: 2250-2253. • (yellow 200-1980):M.E. Mann and P.D. Jones (2003). , Geophysical Research Letters, 30(15: 1820.DOI:10.1029/2003GL017814. • (orange 200-1995):P.D. Jones and M.E. Mann (2004). , Reviews of Geophysics, 42: RG2002.DOI:10.1029/2003RG000143 • (red-orange 1500-1980):S. Huang (2004). , Geophys. Res Lett., 31: L13205.DOI:10.1029/2004GL019781 • (red 1-1979):A. Moberg, D.M. Sonechkin, K. Holmgren, N.M. Datsenko and W. Karlén (2005). , Nature, 443: 613-617.DOI:10.1038/nature03265 • (dark red 1600-1990):J.H. Oerlemans (2005). , Science, 308: 675-677.DOI:10.1126/science.1107046 • (black 1856-2004): Instrumental data was jointly compiled by the w:Climatic Research Unit and the UK Meteorological OfficeHadley Centre. Global Annual Average data set TaveGL2v [2] was used. • Documentation for the most recent update of the CRU/Hadley instrumental data set appears in: P.D. Jones and A. Moberg (2003). , Journal of Climate, 16: 206-223.

15. Background • Industrial processes, burning of fossil fuels, and changes in land use releases gases into the atmosphere that create a “greenhouse” effect at a rate much faster than “natural” processes • Recent increases in global average temperature are much higher than “normal” fluctuations. • …and excess energy use costs $$ Industrial Revolution begins See References at end of presentation

16. Background • Carbon Emissions are reported in units of metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2e). This unit allows comparison between emissions of different greenhouse gases of varying global warming potential to be added together. • Example: 10 kwh * 0.86 lbs CO2e/kwh = 8.6 lbs CO2e 10 therms * 12.32 lbsCO2e/therm = 123.2 CO2e 1 metric tonne = 1.1025 short tons = 2205 lbs  1.1 *  440 * • Recommendations were developed after completing a Carbon Emissions analysis for all City Municipal operations and City residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.

17. Background How much is used (gas, CO2, $$ on 100 mile trip?? 10 mpg 15 mpg vehicle saves 3 gals gas and $15 every 100 miles driven 25 mpg  35 mpg vehicle saves about 1 gal gas and $5 every 100 miles driven.

18. Vehicle Fleet • Vehicle Fleet Sector • Initiate vehicle purchase policy for all city departments that encourages use of higher gas mileage/lower emissions vehicles • Install devices to lower particulates on selected vehicles • Encourage vehicle sharing between departments, when feasible • Calculate and track emissions from vehicle fleet annually.

19. City Municipal Operations 7% reduction @ 11¢/kwh = approx $98,000 in savings (electric) 29 Kwh (electricity) = Heating value of 1 Therm 29 kwh * 0.86 lbs CO2/kwh = 25 lbs CO2 1 Therm * 12.32 lbs CO2/therm = 12.32 lbs CO2 ….Heating a building with Natural Gas is currently more efficient and results in less CO2 than heating with electric. However, this may change as grid electric moves to more renewable energy sources…

20. Results of Siemens Performance Contract Net decrease from 2005: 170 metric tons % decrease from 2005  4% Target by 2012: Net 7% Note: Analyses only for municipal operations & bldgs measured by Siemens