Energy Benchmarking In The Capitol Revealed Red Flags

The District of Columbia recently became one of the first government institutions to publicly display its relative level of efficiency. They invested in solutions to help them understand how energy was used throughout their facilities. Energy benchmarking across 200 public buildings was installed with the aim of cutting back on the use of gas, electricity and other fuels, together with carbon emissions.

Energy benchmarking has become one of the hot topics of conversation in the boardroom of today. The measures taken by the District of Columbia are in tune with other programs put forward by the city of New York and the city of San Francisco. Each public body is seeking to better understand how it uses energy and how it can become far more fiscally responsible by setting standards and initiating efficiency projects.

According to the public information now available, many facilities owned by the District of Columbia - including some of the larger schools, office buildings, police and fire stations - actually consume far more energy than what is deemed to be the "national average" for similar buildings across the United States. These so-called "red flags" were only revealed as a consequence of the District's energy benchmarking initiative.

It's interesting to note that the District of Columbia plans to use federal stimulus funds throughout the next few years to deliver energy efficiency improvements as a consequence of their energy benchmarking efforts. In Washington, the District Council passed the Clean and Affordable Energy Act which mandates that the government reveals its energy efficiency and that larger commercial entities in that area do so as well.

The District of Columbia's energy benchmarking plan has caught the attention of many a commercial organization across the country. They are now beginning to realize how valuable a benchmarking initiative could be in this situation.

To be truly energy-efficient, you need to look at asset level performance. You need to gather and maintain granular information and use it to establish energy benchmarking. Now you can easily see where inefficiencies live and initiate energy efficiency projects, accordingly. You can see what projects work and what don't and capitalize on the best opportunities.

Many organizations treat a relationship with a utility provider as a pure business to business transaction. It needs to be more of a partnership than this however and the utility companies themselves need to make sure that their game is elevated. A greater selection of different tariffs and projects will be attractive to organizations as they seek to curtail usage. Energy needs to be fine-tuned by energy benchmarking.

Energy will undoubtedly remain one of the largest costs associated with any business operation. Consequently it's not surprising to see that energy benchmarking solutions represented by commercially available software products today are quickly becoming some of the most important tools under consideration.

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