City of Rochester

At a Glance

Industry

Government/Public Administration

Project Types

Commercial Energy Efficiency, Data Analysis, Financial Evaluation and Planning

Year

2017

Location

Rochester, MN

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Net Present Value:

$90,500

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Annual kWh Savings:

4,000,000 kWh

Reductions icon

Annual CO2 Reductions:

2,800 metric tons

Summary

Siddarth Walia evaluated the feasibility of an LED upgrade and standardization for the City of Rochester’s public lighting.

Goals 

The City of Rochester had a goal of becoming a green and sustainable city. This meant focus would have to be put on improving the energy efficiency of street lighting and lighting of other public areas, which makes up a significant portion of municipal energy use and costs. Building off the work of two previous EDF Climate Corps fellows, the City of Rochester enlisted Siddarth Walia to baseline the city’s sustainability activities and prioritize areas of opportunity to be included in a work plan for their sustainability office. 

Solutions

To gather data, Walia conducted interviews and sought recommendations from multiple stakeholders. The data, combined with the qualitative inputs, was used to create informed decisions for making the financial and environmental case for several energy efficiency and GHG reduction projects. 

Walia recommended focusing on three projects:

  • A life cycle cost analysis of converting street lights to LEDs
  • A life cycle cost analysis of LED retrofit for City Hall and two fire stations
  • Research on feasibility study for a bike share program 

Potential Impact

Over their lifetimes, Walia’s projects could save the City of Rochester $8.6 million in net operational costs. Annually, they could save 3.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 2,740 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

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