Ten-by-ten gains momentum

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-In 2007, town and county officials agreed to reduce government energy consumption by 10 percent by the year 2010, and energy affairs coordinator Wendy Koelfgen said now is a “pivotal point” in reaching that goal.

She said major steps have been taken in the “physical” component of the reductions, and the stage is set for the “cultural” components to follow.

A contract signed earlier this month with Honeywell Energy Solutions will give the company roughly 1.9 million to begin energy efficient retrofits on county buildings. The modifications are expected to save about $100,000 annually in electric and natural gas bills. New aerators and motors at the wastewater treatment plant, which could save as much as two million kilowatts a year, should bring in another cost savings of about $100,000 annually. Officials hope to recoup the projects costs within about 15 years, or earlier if energy costs continue to rise.

But in addition to the millions spent retrofitting old facilities, and shooting for LEED silver standards in new construction, the difficult part will be changing about 450 government workers’ daily habits – the “cultural” component of energy reductions.
“We’re not going to be able to buy our way out of this entirely, we have to change our behavior,” Koelfgen said.

That includes turning lights off, not letting cars idle and orchestrating the most efficient routes when running multiple deliveries or inspections around the county. Taking the time to save a watt of energy or an ounce of fuel might not seem like a major reduction, but, Koelfgen said, “when 450 people are making those decisions, it makes a significant contribution. That’s where this (energy coordinator) position was really needed, getting people to change their behavior.”
But though hundreds of workers are trying to change their habits, some employees think the town is expecting too much too soon.

“We’re getting so much flack and doing everything we can and shutting off the truck all the time and turning off lights every where we go,” one Town Employee said, asking that his name not be used. “I think they just took their expectations a little too high.”

The initiative hopes to reduce energy consumption 10 percent below the 2006 baseline energy consumption, but as the town and county grow, new buildings will be added. Energy consumption will need to be reduced by an estimated 16 percent to 18 percent to account for those new buildings. For instance, the fifth most energy consumptive building in the county, the new parking garage, added in 2007, accounts for about 3 percent of the town’s electric use.

But despite all the new electrical consumption, town engineer Shawn O’Malley, said he thinks fuel use will be the most difficult hurdle to overcome, because physical changes in fuel efficiency would require an impractical financial investment.
“It’s not like were going out to buy 32 new hybrids, and its not like they make a hybrid plow truck, or a hybrid front-end loader,” O’Malley said. “It’s going to take new habits, and figuring out how we can be more efficient with what we have, without dropping our level of service, and that’s not going to be easy.”

O’Malley is currently entering the compendium of town energy data into software that will provide monthly score sheets for each department’s energy usage from 2006 to the present. O’Malley thinks that once the monthly data is available, it will give each “green team” – an action group of two leaders each from buildings, fleet and communications departments – the tools to watch energy scores through the months, and to gauge how physical and behavioral changes affect energy-use totals.

“I think it will be difficult, but right now we’re still positive,” O’Malley said. “If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it."

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Ten-by-ten gains momentum | Planet JH News Article: Development

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