Longmont’s city staff will present to City Council an “energy benchmarking strategy” for measuring energy current energy use by privately owned commercial and industrial buildings as well as municipal buildings.
“Benchmarking is a tool used to create awareness of how much energy a building consumes and then encourages building owners to take action to reduce their energy use,” staff said in a memo for Tuesday night’s Council study-session agenda item.
The staff’s report is to include results from a 2020 benchmarking demonstration project and show actions that Longmont plans to take next year, including a voluntary program for commercial buildings larger than 20,000 square feet. The building benchmarking program is also coordinating with other city efforts to track and improve energy efficiency in municipal buildings.
“Developing an energy benchmarking strategy for commercial buildings supports a resolution passed by the City Council in January 2018 with a goal to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030,” staff wrote. “The less energy that is consumed, the easier it is to reach a 100% renewable objective.”
The initial phases of Longmont’s benchmarking program involve benchmarking energy use for large commercial buildings, staff said, “as a means for inspiring actions to reduce energy consumed by our building infrastructure.”
In the benchmarking program Longmont is developing, a building owner self-reports data into a no-cost, secure U.S. Environmental Protection Agency software program. The building receives output from the software model, an “Energy Star Score,” for energy consumption in a building benchmarked against similar-use buildings in the same climate region.
Staff said main factors that affect a building’s score are windows, insulation, heating and air conditioning equipment, major equipment, and number of occupants and computers.
Longmont Power and Communications spokesperson Scott Rochat said in a Monday email that the score measures a building’s electrical energy and natural gas usage, compared to other buildings of a similar type.
“That comparison is important, since, for example, an office and a school would have different energy profiles and be measured against different baselines. This is calculated based on 12 months of utility consumption data along with data about the building and how it’s used, such as the square footage, how many workers are in the building at one time, how many computers are in use, and other details,” Rochat said.
Actions taken as a result of benchmarking have been shown to reduce energy and related carbon emissions, staff said. These actions can include “modifying occupant behaviors, changing building controls, or implementing follow-up projects such as lighting and HVAC upgrades.”
Staff wrote Council that “benefits from benchmarking include utility savings; cost savings; marketing for building owners, business owners, and community; operational improvements; ability to prioritize energy efficiency projects; tracking of energy use year over year; and emissions reductions.”
Rochat said, “Building-energy benchmarking is a way to help businesses become more aware of the energy their buildings use, and how that compares to a typical building of that type. Armed with that information, the business can then take steps to improve their energy efficiency – in other cities using benchmarking, participants on average have been able to lower their annual energy costs by 2.4%. If a building earns a high benchmarking score, the business can also use that information to promote their outstanding performance.”
This year, the city conducted a demonstration project involving commercial and industrial buildings greater than 20,000 square feet. Ten buildings in the community were benchmarked by the building’s owner or property manager and ten municipal buildings were benchmarked by city staff.
Rochat said that because of Colorado confidentiality laws about utility customers, the presentation on Tuesday will identify most of the commercial participants in general terms, although “some have given us written permission to identify them,” including Circle Graphics, FirstBank, the Honda North American Data Center, UCHealth and the St. Vrain Valley School District.
Rochat said municipal buildings in the demonstration project included the Longmont Civic Center, the Longmont Service Center, and the Development Services Center. He said evaluations were also performed on seven other city buildings, “which provided useful information, but an EPA benchmark to calculate an Energy Star score for those building types is not currently available.”
Next year, the city plans to make a voluntary program for benchmarking available to all commercial buildings greater than 20,000 square feet in Longmont.
“The EPA software is intended as a tool so building owners can gain information about their energy consumption and take additional measures to improve the energy score, thereby reducing energy use,” staff wrote.
Staff said there now are 280 commercial and industrial buildings in Longmont larger than 20,000 square feet eligible to participate. Staff will provide education and training about benchmarking and how to use the EPA software.
Additional city initiatives could guide energy efficiency projects for Longmont’s municipal buildings.
If you watch
What: Longmont City Council study session
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Council and city staff members will participate from remote locations. Residents can watch the meeting by clicking “play” on the video link within the interactive agenda window. The mayor will announce when people can call in to comment on general issues during the portion of the meeting when the public is invited to be heard.
Agenda: tinyurl.com/yxlmuocb
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Longmont City Council to hear report on ‘building benchmark’ energy-use program - Longmont Times-Call
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