SEI is partnering with 7 local cities in the SF Bay Area - Albany, Benicia, El Cerrito, Moraga, Orinda, Piedmont, and San Pablo to focus on increasing energy management activity in small city governments in California.
Small communities often face significant barriers to action in energy management as they frequently lack dedicated environmental staffing and economies of scale to deploy the resources necessary to plan for climate protection. Small cities have disproportionately large energy and greenhouse gas emissions burdens associated with the residential sector, as they often have smaller commercial and industrial sectors.
The program is backed by an innovative technical support team composed of three AmeriCorps volunteers and a retired energy professional serving as an Encore Fellow. This team will provide support for partner local governments to implement energy management systems practices that have been challenging for small cities to set up and maintain. The partnership is working to create a collaborative, scalable, and replicable model which will:
- Establish procedures and policies to implement energy management
- Establish energy management software and reporting procedures
- Identify energy saving opportunities and act on them to realize energy and cost savings
- Provide partner governments with training on energy management practices
- Develop a long-term support plan to assist partner governments to continue energy management practices
SEI received the grant in August 2011. The program kicked off with the seven cities in September and Frank Di Massa, retired energy consultant, came on board as the Encore fellow to complete the Innovator Pilot support team. SEI will work with the cities to evaluate energy use and to establish long-term energy action plans by mid 2012.
