Sustainable Jersey

At a Glance

Industry

Nonprofit

Project Type

Data Analysis

Year

2022

Location

Ewing, NJ

Summary

Rebeca Rodriguez tracked and managed energy usage and analyzed incentive programs at municipalities and a school district through Sustainable Jersey.

Goals

Municipalities and school districts in New Jersey are challenged with becoming energy efficient, tracking and managing energy use, and finding the optimum incentive programs. In efforts to lead communities towards a sustainable path, Sustainable Jersey enlisted Rebeca Rodriguez to provide support for evaluation of energy usage and incentive programs to Chatham Borough, Helmetta Borough, Tewksbury Township, and Summit Board of Education.

Solutions

Rodriguez approached the challenge using a four-part process: 

  • Creation of building inventory that identified all buildings using energy within the municipality or school district along with the utility accounts associated with each including electricity, natural gas, and oil.

  • Tracking of energy usage for each building was done through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The use of 14 months of consecutive utility bills allowed for trends to be identified and analyzed.  

  • Analysis of incentive programs provided by New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program (NJCEP) and the utilities was completed through the lens of the community including their energy efficiency goals, priorities, budget, and implementation timeline. 

  • Recommendations involved matching communities to incentive programs providing energy assessments, one for one energy efficient equipment upgrades, installation, and verification.

Potential Impact

Taking into consideration energy use data and energy goals, the impact is as follows:

Tewksbury Township: completion of energy audit with upcoming scope of work report identifying equipment upgrades and kilowatt and cost savings. 

Chatham Borough: application submission for Direct Install program and identification of the gut rehabilitation program from NJCEP.

Helmetta Borough: application submission for Direct Install program.

Summit Board of Education: preparation of the Local Government Energy Audit application and workbook.

As a result, future equipment upgrades will span 27 facilities, in three municipalities and a school district.

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