Smarter Sustainable Dubuque ProjectMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
DATE:
The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project
June 3, 2010
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project Manager David Lyons is transmitting a memo
responding to questions posed by the City Council at the May 24, 2010 meeting
regarding the Smarter Sustainable Dubuque project, and recommending that a work
session be scheduled for Monday, August 9th to provide an overview and update on the
progress of this project.
concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Michael C. Van Milligen
MCVM /jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project Manager
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: David Lyons, Smarter Sustainable Dubuque Project Manager
SUBJECT: Follow -up to questions posed by City Council May 24, 2010
DATE: 6/1/2010
Introduction
The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to questions posed by City Council at
the May 24, 2010 City Council meeting regarding the Smarter Sustainable Dubuque
project.
Background
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In September 2009 the City of Dubuque announced a unique partnership between the
City of Dubuque and IBM Research to research and develop an integrated sustainability
system capable of giving citizens near real -time information on their utilization of
resources, with the capacity to help them save money, conserve resources and improve
environmental outcomes. This partnership, known as the Smarter Sustainable
Dubuque Initiative, has also enjoyed the technical and financial assistance from a wide
range of public and private supporters ranging from local utility partners (Iowa Power &
Light) to state governmental agencies (Office of Energy Independence) to hundreds of
local volunteers households. The Smarter Water portion of the project is underway and
Smarter Electricity is in the early stage of implementation.
Discussion
At the May 24, 2010 City Council meetings there were a number of questions regarding
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque progress to date. The following is a summary of the
questions and at least a preliminary response for each question.
1. Are these pilot projects for water and electricity confined to specific areas of the
City? Why are they designed as they are?
The first pilot is the Smarter Water pilot, involving up to 350 volunteer households
with series 900 "smart" water meters. The locations of this pilot were determined
by:
a) Where existing telecommunications infrastructure allows for meter data to
be retrieved without significant additional cost to the project.
b) Where there is a good cross - section of homes based on size and age of
home, as well as size and ages of household's members.
c) Where the planned roll -out of the City general water replacement meter
program would coordinate best (cause least confusion) for the public.
d) These criteria drew us to the conclusions that while we would test 900
series devices in various places, we would focus the pilot efforts in the water
routes 6 and 10- Generally located around South Grandview.
The second pilot is the Smarter Electricity pilot, involving up to 1,000 volunteer
households with Iowa Power & Light installed AMI (advanced metering
infrastructure) devices. The locations of this pilot are being determined by:
a) Where there was a strong ability to "over -lap" with Smarter Water
households, allowing us to start seeing data from households with both
types of meters and examining the extent to which this integrated data
provides additional useful information.
b) Where Iowa Power & Light communication infrastructure allows for meter
data to be retrieved without adding significant additional costs to the pilot.
c) Where there is a good cross - section of homes based on size and age of
home, as well as size and ages of household's members.
d) Where the planned roll -out of the City general water replacement meter
program might be able to allow us to coordinate with that outreach effort for
additional electric meter volunteers.
e) Avoiding areas (for now) where existing infrastructure of electric meters
would make the pilot more difficult to conduct (i.e., areas with many older
"in- house" meters, areas where wireless communication capacity can be
troublesome, etc)
f) These criteria drew us to the conclusion that we would focus the pilot on
water routes 6 and 10, with expansions across the community to assure the
best possible validity of the results of the pilot. (We are still researching the
ability to include additional low income homes in the pilot if the planned
recruitment of homes does not yield sufficient numbers in this category).
2. What value will these "pilots" provide to a Dubuque household (whether
participating in the pilot or not ?)
a) There are three levels of value that can be generated by the data from these
pilots:
i) Immediate opportunities that can come with the very first data (such
as leak detection and analysis)
ii) Early opportunities that come when sufficient data exists to provide
a household with comparative analysis (such as inefficient
appliances)
iii) Longer -term opportunities when reliable, customized data exists for
the household (e.g. opportunities available from habit changes
such as varying the time of water or electric usage)
b) Pilot participants will have early, direct analysis of their individual
opportunities.
c) All households will be provided with the results of information and insight
gained from the pilot initiatives (i.e., what are the most common leaks in
certain types of homes, what are the average savings for those types of
fixes, how long before the costs of such repairs are recovered ?). This
should provide significant value to Dubuque households generally as they
consider repairs, upgrades or energy retro -fits for their homes.
d) The City /utility partners will be using the pilot to determine the maximum
extent to which newly discovered values can be incorporated into the
existing /planned infrastructure decisions of the community (for example, we
believe that a significant portion of the leak detection and repair value of the
pilot 900 series households can be adapted and be available for all
households through the planned 450 series for all homes).
3. What happens when the pilots have "run their course "? What is the plan for
making these efforts "sustainable" after the pilots have been completed, results
achieved and final reports have been issued?
This depends significantly on what the data (financial and environmental) tells us
and the input we receive from the pilot households. Has the data been useful
(and used) by pilot households to save money and conserve resources? If so,
how much savings and at what costs? What products /services do residents tell
us they want and how do they want them delivered?
While I will be available to respond to any additional questions that may arise, I would
anticipate that given the number of new activities underway or planned within the
Initiative in the near future that Council may wish to review the entire Smarter
Sustainable Dubuque Initiative in additional detail.
Request
It is too early to tell what services or changes make the most sense and who the
City might work with to provide them. If we have designed Smarter Sustainable
Dubuque correctly, the information from the pilot should provide an important
guide.
Once we have the data, we can begin to develop alternative strategies for City
consideration. These might include the following:
a) Using pilot data to modify existing infrastructure and services in order to
deliver greater value.
b) If new infrastructure or services are the better financial option, developing
them in a way that reflects citizen input from the pilots.
c) Creating alternative means /methods for citizens to access new services,
based upon their own personal value propositions.
It is too early to tell what services or changes make the most sense and who the
City might work with to provide them. If we have designed Smarter Sustainable
Dubuque correctly, the information from the pilot should provide an important
guide.
The requested action is for City Council to set a work session for Monday, August 9,
2010. The purpose of the work session will be to provide an overview and update on the
progress to date on the Smarter Sustainable Dubuque project as well as provide
updates on other companion sustainability efforts underway by city staff and Dubuque
2.0
CC:
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Cori Burbach, Sustainable Coordinator
A Unique Partnership of the
City of Dubuque and
IBM Research
SUSTAINABLE What is it?
A completely unique community
partnership
Community
Federal Foundation of
Agencies Greater Dubuque
State
Agencies
Utility
Providers
Sustainability
Innovations
Consortium
Dubuque Area
Chamber of
Commerce
Greater Dubuque
Development
Corporation
SUSTAINABLE Unique Objectives
Smarter Water
(Sao Paulo) Smarter
Smarter Communications
Transportation (New York)
(Stockholm)
Smarter Smarter
Energy Health
(Paris) Smarter (Toronto)
Education
(Beijing)
SUSTAINABLE What is it?
Reliable
information
S eclf i c ti '90% of Smart Water
p participants think it is
SOMEWHAT TO VERY
IMPORTANT for
Dubuque to be a
leader in
sustainability
people what they
do what they want
• Save money and
resources
• Improve environment
and local economy
•90% of Smart Water
DesicSOMEWHAT
participants think it is
TO VERY
IMPORTANT to
need
decrease their
household's water
bills
Reliable
information
S eclf i c ti '90% of Smart Water
p participants think it is
SOMEWHAT TO VERY
IMPORTANT for
Dubuque to be a
leader in
sustainability
people what they
do what they want
• Save money and
resources
• Improve environment
and local economy
SUSTAINABLE Data Relevance
Which accomplishes its objective by
increasing the availability and usability of
relevant data both as it relates to the
number of resource decisions it can
effect and the level of impact it can have
Eliminate waste
Identify efficiency
Create optimization
BREADTH OF IMPACT
D
E
P
T
H
I
M
P
A
C
T
Water
Electrical
Gas
VMT
Materials
Health &
I
I
I
I
Wellness
I
Help
Identify
Identify
Identify heat
Use mobility
Identify and
Identify
Eliminate
leaks and
energy
loss and
data to
ROI materials
unnecessary
Waste
calculate
vampires
calculate ROI
identify
reuse
utilization
the ROI for
and calculate
for additional
unnecessary
opportunity
(i.e. portion
repair
ROI for
insulation
vehicle trips
(cans /bottles,
size for
responses
Restore)
meals)
Help Identify
Identify
Identify
Identify
Identify and
Identify and
Identify
Efficiencies
equipment
lighting
opportunity
ROI mass
ROI materials
alternative
inefficienci
modification
and ROI for
transit
recovery
actions and
es and
s and
setback
options to
opportunity
ROI (i.e.
recommend
calculate ROI
thermostats
personal
(shingles)
walking VMT
upgrades
(i.e. CFL,
or high-
VMT
vehicle and
(i.e.
LEED,
efficiency
medications)
washer)
Daylighting)
water
heaters.
Help Achieve
Identify and
Identify
Identify ROI
Identify and
Identify and
Identify and
Optimization
suggest
usage
opportunities
ROI VMT
ROI materials
ROI impact to
personal
patterns,
for
alternatives
avoidance
air quality
resource
opportunitie
installation of
such biking
(i.e. not use
through
utilization
s, and ROI
solar hot
(vehicle
in first place.
energy
changes
for Time of
water
savings, tax
Such as
changes
(i.e. delay
Day Rates
credits, and
habit of
(indoor temp
dish
H/W
reusable
and air
washer
outcomes)
grocery
quality data)
until 8 p.m.)
bags)
SUSTAINABLE
Assuring true "sustainability" for the
Smarter Sustainable Dubuque initiative by
adding a third dimension of suaport
(coordination of
infrastructure)
outreach and
Identification and removal of barriers to action
(normally infrastructure barriers such as physical,
technological, financial, human, or governmental
infrastructure)
Ongoing public /private
partnership creating a
sustainable platform for
engagement of the community
in a consistent and universal
manner
Providing a model other communities can
follow
Financial
infrastructure — city
repair support
program
Human
infrastructure -free
home audits
Technological
infrastructure -
GPS sensing
for PDAs
Financial
infrastructure -
lowertipping
fees
Water
Electric iI
Gas
VMT
Materia s
Health &
I
Wellness
Help Eliminate Identify
Identify
Identify heat
Use mobil ty
Identify 7i d
Identify
Waste leaks and
energy
loss and
data to
ROI mate ials
unnecessary
calculate
vampires i id
calculate ROI
identify
reuse
utilization
the ROI for
calculate F DI
for additional
unnecessary
opportur ity
(i.e. portion
repair
for
insulation
vehicle trips
(cans /bc ties,
size for
responses
Identify
Identify and
Restore'
Identify ind
meals)
Help Identify
Identify
Identify
Identify
Efficiencies
equipment
lighting
I
opportunity
ROI mass
ROI matarials
alternative
inefficienci
modification
and ROI for
transit
recovery
actions and
es and
s and
setback
options to
opportunity
ROI (i.e.
recommen
calculate ROI
thermostats
personal
(shingles)
walking VMT
d upgrades
(i.e. CFL,
or high-
VMT
vehicle and
(i.e.
LEED,
efficiency
medications)
washer)
Daylighting)
water
heaters.
Help Achieve
Identify and
Identify
Identify ROI
Identify and
Identify and
Identify and
Optimization
suggest
usage
opportunities
ROI VMT
ROI materials
ROI impact
personal
patterns,
for
alternatives
avoidance
to air quality
resource
opportunities
installation
such biking
(i.e. not use
through
utilization
, and ROI for
of solar hot
(vehicle
in first place.
energy
changes
Time of Day
water
savings, tax
Such as
changes
(i.e. delay
Rates
credits, and
habit of
(indoortemp
dish
H/W
reusable
and air
washer
outcomes)
grocery
quality data)
until 8 p.m.)
bags)
Governmental Human Governmental
infrastructure- infrastructure- infrastructure -
Time of Day DOL/ NICC green tax credits
rates jobs training
Physical
infrastructur
e- Restore
Physical
infrastructure -
bike paths
Technological
infrastructure -
in -home
monitoring
units
7ti"ti[IIJF
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
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natural gas VMT health & wellness
water electricity