White House Climate Action Champion Technical Assistance Request Copyright 2014
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 5.
ITEM TITLE: White House Climate Action Champion Technical Assistance Request
SUMMARY: City Manager recommending approval of a technical assistance
application with the Department of Energy as a White House Climate
Action Champion.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION: Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
❑ White House Climate Action Champion Technical Assistance Request- City Manager Memo
MVM Memo
❑ Staff Memo Staff Memo
❑ Technical Assistance Application Supporting Documentation
THE CITY OF Dubuque
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012-2013
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: White House Climate Action Champion Technical Assistance Request
DATE: July 28, 2015
Sustainable Community Coordinator Cori Burbach recommends City Council approval
of a technical assistance application with the Department of Energy as a White House
Climate Action Champion.
The application seeks Department of Energy assistance in establishing a municipal
revolving fund that would capture savings from energy efficiency projects in order to
fund future energy efficiency and renewable energy work. Department of Energy staff
would assist City staff in analyzing and ranking priority projects as part of the annual
budget process, and creating a workflow to identify and capture utility savings related to
the project that could be invested in future energy efficiency projects.
Should the City of Dubuque be awarded this technical assistance, there are no funds
related to the award and no required local cash or in-kind match.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Cori Burbach, Sustainable Community Coordinator
THE CITY OF Dubuque
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erica .i
Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012-2013
TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Cori Burbach, Sustainable Community Coordinator
SUBJECT: White House Climate Action Champion Technical Assistance Request
DATE: July 24, 2015
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memo is to request Council approval of the attached request for
technical assistance to the Department of Energy (DOE) as a White House Climate
Action Champion.
BACKGROUND
The City of Dubuque was recently recognized as one of 16 White House Climate Action
Champions (CAC), in part for our adoption of the 50% by 2030 Community Climate
Action & Resiliency Plan. CAC's are offered unique access to technical assistance from
federal agencies for the two-year designation term. In early 2015, the Department of
Energy offered a technical assistance opportunity to help CAC's reach their energy
efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
DISCUSSION
The attached application seeks DOE assistance in establishing a municipal revolving
fund that would capture savings from energy efficiency projects in order to fund future
energy efficiency and renewable energy work. If awarded, DOE staff would assist City
staff in analyzing and ranking priority projects as part of the annual budget process, and
creating a workflow to identify and capture utility savings related to the project that could
be invested in future energy efficiency projects. Seed funding for the fund would
currently only exist in energy-related capital or maintenance projects in existing
department budgets. Should additional funding be requested to support the
development of this program, it would be brought to Council as an improvement
package in the FY2017 budget process.
Should we be awarded this technical assistance, there are no funds related to the
award. There is no required local cash or in-kind match.
REQUESTED ACTION
I respectfully request City Council approval of the attached technical assistance
application to the Department of Energy.
Cc: Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Dave Lyons, Greater Dubuque Development Corporation
Dubuque, Iowa
Control # 1315-1528
DE-FOA-0001315 NOTA for Climate Action Champions
Project Name: Dubuque, Iowa Municipal Revolving Energy Fund Development
Champion Name: Dubuque, Iowa
Organization: City of Dubuque, Iowa
PI Contact Information: Cori Burbach, Sustainable Community Coordinator
Email: cburbach(a)cityofdubugue.org
Phone: 563.690.6038
Project Description:
The City of Dubuque, Iowa is pleased to submit this request for technical assistance for
the development of a municipal revolving energy fund. The City seeks assistance from
a Department of Energy (DOE) team with expertise in finance, project management,
and energy efficiency implementation. The core deliverables of this technical
assistance would include:
a) Assistance in establishing a Municipal Revolving Energy Fund (MREF) that
would capture financial savings from energy efficiency and/or renewable
energy projects in municipal facilities and fleets in order to seed a sustainable
funding source for similar projects in the future;
b) Assistance in establishing best practices and a review process in order to
identify and prioritize energy efficiency and/or renewable energy projects
during the annual budget process;
c) Training of department managers and other facilities managers to quantify
potential economic and environmental benefits of identified projects; and
d) Assistance in reviewing existing facilities energy audits, renewable energy
feasibility assessments, and other available documents in order to identify the
first projects that would be supported with this fund.
The City of Dubuque operates under a decentralized facilities management model,
meaning that each department is responsible for the management of their own facility.
While in some instances this responsibility is directly related to professional expertise,
such as the responsibilities of the Water Department Manager, in other instances,
department managers with little or no facilities and energy management experience are
tasked with identifying opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, as was the
case recently when the Library Director managed a large-scale building renovation.
While fleet management is more centralized than this, department managers still play a
direct role in fleet procurement and management.
Because of this decentralized approach, facility and fleet maintenance and
improvements are requested by individual departments as part of their annual budget
proposal. This makes it challengine to 1) identify a coordinated effort to make energy
efficiency improvements in municipal facilities in order to meet our greenhouse gas
reduction targets, 2) objectively score the merits of various facilities improvements
against each other, and 3) quantify and capture the savings experienced due to energy
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efficiency and/or renewable energy projects in order to invest in future improvements of
the same nature.
There are several energy efficiency improvements planned in City facilities in the
FY2016 budget. Minimally, in addition to helping us meet our GHG reduction goals, the
savings from these projects could be captured and used to establish a fund available to
all departments to invest in future energy-saving projects. During the FY2016 budget
process, a non-profit partner recommended to the City Council providing additional
funding to seed this fund, and to work to identify municipal projects with a high ROI to
ensure that savings replenished the fund in as quick a timeframe as possible. City staff
intend to pursue the feasibility of such a fund as part of the FY2017 budget process
request.
The City of Dubuque is well positioned to take on this project in partnership with DOE
staff at this time. As stated above, some energy efficiency projects have already been
identified for FY2016, and the savings from these projects could catalyze the creation of
a MREF. Additionally, the Sustainability Coordinator has lead Dubuque's participation
in the Georgetown University Energy Prize and the Iowa Community Energy
Management Program (CEMP). Through both of these initiatives, City staff have been
arranging facilities energy audits and partnering with electricity provider Alliant Energy
and natural gas provider Black Hills Energy to better understand our own energy use
and identify opportunities for savings. As a result, staff have compiled a list of
recommended energy efficiency improvements for approximately 20 facilities (see Table
1 below for example).
FIRE HEADQUARTERS
It
POTENTIAL SAVINGS/ PROJECT PROJECTED p
PROJECT DESCRIPTION SAVINGS kWh Therm ESTIMATE INCENTIVE ROI a
REPLACE T12 LIGHTING WITH LED $ 700.00 9,859 $ 11,000.00 $ 1,280.00 13.9 2
REPLACE INCANDESCENT WITH LEDS $ 60.00 845 $ 300.00 $ 200.00 1.7 1
RETROFIT HALOGEN TRACKS WITH LEDS $ 100.00 1,408 $ 400.00 $ 200.00 2.0 1
REPLACE HID WALL PACKS WITH LEDS $ 200.00 2,817 $ 1,500.00 $ 150.00 6.8 2
REPLACE HALOGEN FLOOD LIGHTS WITH LEDS $ 400.00 5,634 $ 1,000.00 $ 500.00 1.3 1
REPLACE RELIEF FANS WITH TWO-SPEED FANS $ 1,700.00 23,944 $ 12,000.00 _ 7.1 2
UPGRADE TO DIGITAL HVAC CONTROLS $ 3,600.00 5,070 $ 33,000.00 $ - 9.2 4
ADJUST THERMOSTATS TO ELIMINATE
SIMULTANEOUS HEATING AND COOLING $ 1,200.00 1,690 $ - $ - 0.0 1
INSTALL NEW CONDENSING BOILER $ 1,100.00 1,549 $ 7,200.00 $ 2,000.00 4.7 4
OPERATE DEHUMIDIFIER IN AUTOMATIC MODE $ 300.00 4,225 $ - $ - 0.0 1
REPLACE UNIT HEATERS WITH RADIANT HEATIN $ 300.00 423 $ 4,000.00 13.3 4
INSTALL VENDING MISER $ 90.00 1,268 $ 200.00 $ 50.00 1.7 1
Table 1. Fire Headquarters Energy Improvements, as identified through the Iowa CEMP.
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Control # 1315-1528
Sample Timeline
Date Action Item Dubuque involvement, in
artnershi with DOE TA
Aug 2015 (kickoff Identify best practices and Sustainability Coordinator,
to planning for workflows in order to identify and Finance, Budget, and IT
FY2017 budget) capture energy savings within Departments,
existing finance/budgeting systems
Develop review process for energy- Sustainability Coordinator,
related projects that will be Budget Department, City
proposed by departments in their Managers Office
FY2017 budgets, which are due in
Oct 2015
Sept-Dec 2015 Prepare budget proposal for Sustainability Coordinator
additional seed funding to be
resented to City Council
Host webinar to assist department Sustainability Coordinator
managers in preparing energy-
related budget requests
Test proposed review process, City Managers Office,
reviewing existing audits and Sustainability Coordinator,
renewable energy analysis to Budget Department,
identify projects with highest Department Heads
likelihood for ROI in FY2017 budget
proposal
March-June 2015 Implement required workflows to Sustainability Coordinator,
identify and capture energy-related Finance, IT Departments,
savings as energy improvements Department managers
are made
Project's Impact on the 50% by 2030 Plan & CAC Commitments:
The most notable commitment the City of Dubuque has made as a Climate Action
Champion is to make progress towards the City Council-adopted goal to reduce
community GHG emissions 50% below 2003 levels by 2030. The 50% by 2030 plan is
divided into five major categories of which Energy, Built Environment, and Resource
Management are significant components. The City is committed to help achieve the
community target through work in our own facilities, and establishing a MERF will help
achieve the financial stability needed to make continued energy-related improvements
in our own facilities and fleets.
Project's Innovation & Contribution to Sustainable Energy Systems:
Though many of the identified energy efficiency improvements are not considered
innovations individually, local governments face increasingly shrinking resources to
implement maintenance and capital projects such as those identified. The opportunity
for innovation lies in embedding greenhouse gas and energy reduction prioritization into
the annual goal-setting and budget-development process. This forward-thinking
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Control # 1315-1528
process and the resulting sustainable funding source ensure that these types of projects
will be able to be funded into the future.
Additionally, establishing a process to capture savings will result in larger impacts as we
move beyond low-hanging fruit and invest in truly innovative facility and fleet
improvements. In 2013, the City completed the conversion of its Water & Resource
Recovery Center to anaerobic digestion. This $67 million project uses waste water
effluent for geothermal heating and cooling, and captures methane which we are
pursuing beneficial uses for at this time. Previously the City's largest energy user, the
project is intended to be net zero in the near future, and reduce GHG emissions by
approximately 12.4 metric tons per day. If, in the future, we are able to capture energy
savings from projects like this, in addition to the simple realized savings of changing out
lightbulbs and other low-cost projects, we will have the opportunity to create a
significant, sustainable funding source for municipal improvements.
Expected Impacts from the Project:
The 50% by 2030 plan identifies projected environmental impacts of various municipal
improvements that could be implemented with the establishment of a fund such as this:
• Public building efficiency standards: City adoption of a policy that requires all new
or significantly reconstructed municipal facilities meet LEED Silver certification
standards. Estimated GHG reduction: 100-1 ,000 mt CO2e/year.
• Muncipal lighting and energy efficiency: Municipal facilities improvements,
including LED lighting upgrades in streetlights and municipal buildings, Energy
Star equipment preference, water treatment facility improvements, etc. Estimated
GHG reduction: 1 ,000-5,000 mt CO2e/year.
• Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency methane gas capture: Capture
and use methane gas for beneficial use. Estimated GHG reduction: 61 ,000 mt
CO2e
While energy efficiency improvements identified through the Iowa CEMP continue to
evolve, those projects identified to date have been ranked based on a prioritization of 1
(funding in place/ ROI less than one year) — 4 (significant funding and/or additional
research needed).
The benefit of establishing a mechanism to capture economic savings is that the
numbers above will not be one-time savings; the reinvestment of funds will ensure
ongoing economic and environmental savings for municipal operations.
Expected Replicability & Project Showcase Efforts:
As in all of its efforts, Dubuque intends to partner with DOE representatives on this
project to create a replicable model for all communities, particularly those of small to
medium size. As state and federal policies and multiple pressures on existing funding
mechanisms often force local governments to invest fewer resources into their own
facilities, the creation of a MERF creates a sustainable funding source for a local
government regardless of the source (general funds, grant, utility rebate, etc) used to
seed the fund. Paired with a cross-department process that incorporates environmental
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and economic considerations into the annual analysis of budget proposals, this project
will provide a replicable model for any local government to move towards their
environmental goals in a financially responsible way. The City is committed to
participating in DOE case studies, webinars, peer exchanges, or other forums to help
other communities identify mitigation solutions and reduce or eliminate their GHG
emissions.
In October, Dubuque will host the eighth annual Growing Sustainable Communities
Conference. In 2014, the conference attracted over 400 attendees from over 20 states.
This conference is a unique opportunity to bring together elected officials, local
government staff, and private sector energy efforts. We look forward to using this
venue, in addition to other state association conferences which our staff play a key role
in planning and facilitating, to share our model via in-depth work sessions in addition to
the more broad case study approach stated above, and sharing any tools developed
through the process.
Federal Funding Received:
No federal funding has been received for this project or projects similar to it.
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