On March 25, 2019 the Village adopted the Building Energy Benchmarking Policy, which commits the Village to monitor and make yearly reports of energy use for all Village buildings over 1,000 sqft. The purpose is to track energy use over time and compare performance of similar buildings to make smarter, more cost-effective operation and capital investment decisions, reward efficiency, and drive widespread, continuous improvement. Below is the first report of 2018 and the narrative that explains the data. You’ll notice that some Weather Normalized metrics are not available for some of the properties as the EPA Portfolio Manager requires monthly data and some meters are read less frequently.
This report only discusses the portfolio of the 7 Village buildings that are over 1,000 sqft. The Village Government’s benchmarked building portfolio consumed 1,158 Mwh and 14,429 therms of gas in 2018. The Village’s water treatment and distribution system, like many other municipalities, is the Village government’s largest electricity consumer. The three water filtration plants, Black Rock Forest, Catskill Filtration Plant and the Jackson Avenue Chemical Plant and Wellheads make up 84% of the Village government’s 2018 electricity consumption and are responsible for over half of the Village government’s GHG emissions. Of the three facilities, the Jackson Avenue Chemical Plant is approximately 40% of the Village government’s electricity use. The next largest electricity user is the DPW and Building Department Building. The DPW and Building Department is also the largest of the Village’s buildings and the largest gas consumer in the Village’s building portfolio. Comparing the Village government’s energy use to the total energy consumed in the Village becomes a little more complicated as all the water facilities are not within the Village’s boundaries. According to the Utility Energy Registry (link: www.utilityregistry.org) 11,778 Mwh of electricity was used in the Village in 2018. If all the electricity consumed by the Village government was within the Village then it would account for a little less than 10% of all electricity consumed in the Village.
Of seven buildings included in the Village Portfolio in both 2018 and 2019, energy use decreased in six. The water department garage, which uses the least energy of the seven buildings, was the only building in the portfolio whose total energy use increased; its site energy use intensity (EUI) increased by 302% in 2019 compared with 2018. The largest energy use reductions were by the three water treatment and distribution facilities: Black Rock Forest Water Filtration Plant -53%, Catskill Water Filtration Plant (-14%) and Jackson Ave Chemical Plant -5%. None of the water treatment and distribution facilities use gas so the energy reductions are all from a decline in electricity use. Of the three buildings using gas, the Storm King Firehouse reduced gas use the most with an 8% reduction but its electricity use increased 5%: it was the only building besides the water department garage whose electricity use increased.
Overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been reduced by 37.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCDE) or 15% portfolio wide. While the total GHG emissions intensity declined portfolio-wide by 6%, the three water distribution and treatment facilities reduced their EUI by 8%. The decreases in energy use can be attributed to decrease in water withdraws and both the Catskill Water Filtration Plant and Black Rock Forest Water Filtration Plant being taken offline. By fixing leaks the Water Department was able to withdraw 47 million fewer gallons than in 2018. That is an almost 15% reduction in water use! The three water treatment and distribution facilities were able to reduce their total GHG emissions by 35.1 MTCDE which is equivalent to almost 4,000 gallons of gasoline and almost 6 houses’ annual electricity use. The 37.4 MTCDE portfolio-wide GHG emissions reductions primarily came from electricity reduction as only 3.6 MTCDE can be attributed to the 679.6 fewer therms used in 2019.
Village Hall increased its EPA Energy Start score from 64 in 2018 to 65 in 2019.
If we use the eGRID 2018 non-baseload output emissions rates for the NY upstate grid, which is 934 lb/MWh, then the Village mitigated 76 MTCDE. A 31.4% GHG emissions reduction. This is how we would show emissions reductions to NYSERDA to get credit under the Clean Energy Communities program. The NY upstate grid grid is much cleaner than the the U.S. grid. If we were to use 2018 U.S. national weighted average CO2 marginal emission rate or our calculation, our estimated GHG emission reduction would be 127 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
EUI stands for energy use intensity. It is the energy use per square foot at a property (energy divided by square foot). EUI enables you to compare different sized buildings.
KBtu stands for kilo, or thousands of british thermal units.
Therms is a standard measure of gas based on its energy content.
MTCDE stands for metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
NA stands for “not available” in this table as not all buildings have monthly energy data or use gas.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions are the carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases released into the atmosphere as a result of energy consumption at the property. GHG emissions are expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), a universal unit of measure that combines the quantity and global warming potential of each greenhouse gas. Emissions are reported in four categories, each is available as a total amount in metric tons or as an intensity value in kilograms per square foot (kgCO2e/ft2):
MTCDE stands for Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent and is also written as Metric Tons CO2e.
The National Median is an extremely useful benchmark: 50% of properties perform below the median, and 50% perform above the median. It represents the middle of the national population. Most property types in Portfolio Manager get their National Median from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). There are 5 exceptions where the National Median is not based on CBECS data: Data Centers, Hospitals, Multifamily, Senior Care Facilities, and Wastewater Treatment Plants. CBECS does not have a National Median for these 5 property types. Their Medians are based on their survey data. National Median Site and Source EUI values can be found in the Table of National Median values.
Weather Normalized Source Energy –The source energy use your property would have consumed during 30-year average weather conditions. For example, if 2012 was a very hot year, then your Weather Normalized Source Energy may be lower than your Source Energy Use, because you would have used less energy if it had not been so hot. It can helpful to use this weather normalized value to understand changes in energy when accounting for changes in weather. Weather Normalized Source EUI is also available (i.e. Weather Normalized Source Energy divided by property size or by flow through a water/wastewater treatment plant).
CORNWALL NATURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY:
· Cornwall NRI- Text & Maps- 2019: This file contains the complete report with the narrative and maps.
· Cornwall NRI- Text Only- 2019: This file contains only the narrative portion of the report.
· Cornwall NRI- Maps Only- 2019: This file contains the maps portion of the report.
CORNWALL SCENIC RESOURCES INVENTORY:
· Cornwall Final SRI Report- 2019-4-23
OPEN SPACE INVENTORY – National Heritage Report:
· Cornwall FINAL OSI Report- 11-18-19
· Cornwall OSI Map- 24x36- 11-13-19
· Cornwall OSI- Parcel Descriptions Only-11-19-19