Cities and towns can assess their buildings, streetlights, and vehicles, to determine energy efficiency measures they can take to reduce energy usage, improve comfort, functionality, and performance in those assets.
Identify Efficiency Measures
Municipalities often find themselves with a confusing array of choices when trying to identify projects to make their buildings more efficient. The first step is often to obtain a professional energy audit or assessment of some or all municipal buildings.
Recommendations to make an energy assessment as successful as possible include:
- Specify the scope and payback criteria
- Require a site visit by the energy auditor
- Provide the energy auditor with accurate and complete energy usage and energy cost information for each building to be audited.
- Require the energy auditor to identify the anticipated amount of all utility incentives for measures with a payback of 10 years or less
- Ask the energy auditor to include all recommended measures for each audited facility in a single table that includes facility, measure, annual cost savings, measure cost, utility incentives, net measure cost and measure life.
- Plan for how the city or town will fund and implement recommendations it decides to pursue.
Cities and towns using MassEnergyInsight, a free Web-based tool, are able to identify buildings to target for assessments and track energy usage.
Many municipalities and other public entities find that using the services available through the Mass Save program is the simplest and least costly path to implementing some efficiency measures in their buildings. Contact your community’s electric and gas account representative(s) or visit the Mass Save website. Note that energy conservation projects of $100K or less can typically be pursued directly with utility-contracted vendors (see Guidance).
Municipalities may contract for energy audits or assessments directly with an energy auditor. DOER provides a document with recommendations for selecting an energy assessment that includes an overview of the types or levels of energy audits.
Municipalities may use the statewide contract PRF62 to select an energy auditor qualified through the state’s competitive procurement process. Follow the instructions in the PRF62 Contract User Guide. If using these independent energy evaluation services, municipalities need to consult with Mass Save to determine if energy efficiency measures identified are eligible for financial incentives.
The Green Communities Division is available to help facilitate energy evaluation services and to act as a technical resource to answer efficiency-related questions. Please contact your Regional Coordinator.