| | Published January 4th, 2012
| How Moraga Monitors Its Energy Cost
| | By Sophie Braccini | | |
The Town of Moraga applied for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) in 2008, viewing the available funding as an opportunity to reduce its operating expenses by increasing the energy efficiency of its municipal buildings. Tied to the grant was a requirement to report energy usage outcomes. The Town elected to use the Environmental Protection Agency's Portfolio Manager as a means to collect energy usage data.
Moraga was the first Contra Costa city to set up the interactive energy management tool that allows users to track and assess energy and water consumption across an entire portfolio of buildings.
To begin the process, Staff Engineer John Sherbert attended an informational workshop offered by Contra Costa County Climate Leaders (4CL) in partnership with PG&E.
"This free workshop provided Moraga and other Contra Costa County cities with the basics to get started with Energy Benchmarking municipal buildings," says 4CL founder Lynda Deschambault.
"With limited staff, there just isn't time to review and track energy usage manually. Energy Star Portfolio Manager is a tool that supports the monitoring process without a lot of support," says Sherbert, adding that he is glad to have completed the process that resulted in a new, streamlined procedure to help track energy use and monitor and report on additional opportunities for reducing energy and saving costs. "For example, we just added in all of our streetlight accounts since we are upgrading to LED lighting and need to track the usage changes," notes Sherbert.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA