In the design of policies and programs to address energy efficiency equity, municipal electrical systems have very limited and non-specific data to use in analysis and programming efforts. Often data is anonymized or provided at the zip code level, which does not provide sufficient granularity to meaningfully inform program design and implementation. Can the City of Westerville partner with an energy efficiency firm to conduct a thorough residential data analysis at the meter and neighborhood levels so that the utility can develop purposeful, equitable, and targeted residential efficiency programs?
The City of Westerville - Electric Division is a leader in utilizing technology in the rapidly evolving electric industry. With a team of talented staff that is dedicated to process improvement and equity amid programming, the Division requested DEED funding for data analysis that will assist in understanding Westerville customer’s residential energy burden; with a greater understanding of residential consumption at the meter- and customer-level combined with other publicly accessible data, the Utility can implement incentive and efficiency programs for customers with a high energy burden which helps to support the community’s goal of attainable housing. The programs will ultimately decrease residential utility bills, the City’s environmental impact, and the Utility’s peak load while improving customer equity and engagement.
Through this project, Division staff plans to work with Go Sustainable Energy (Go), an energy solution company to perform advanced data analytics on residential energy consumption based on information collected from meters, billing, county auditor sites, Census statistics, community surveys, and more. Go is an unbiased, third-party energy consultant for clients throughout the State of Ohio. Current clients include the City of Westerville, Dayton Power and Light, the City of Columbus, and many universities, zoos, warehouses, campuses, libraries, and school systems. Go provides accurate, unbiased information on energy-efficiency and energy to clients. Go helps utilities investigate ways to enhance and optimize programs, provide high-quality measurement and verification, and supports technical documentation needs.
Go engineers have provided exceptional service to the businesses of Westerville since 2012 through the City’s BusinessWISE efficiency incentive program. For more than eight years, Go’s engineers have worked closely with Westerville’s commercial and industrial customers and with City staff on the development, implementation, maintenance, and facilitation of the BusinessWISE program.
The City of Westerville - Electric Division’s advanced metering system will provide 15-minute interval readings for analysis; Go has proprietary software and data analytic expertise that will provide the City of Westerville with meter-level information. Together, this information will allow the utility to draw conclusions and make program recommendations. Staff also intends to research and report on community and household statistics such as owner- versus tenant-occupancy, multi-family dwellings, household incomes, residential energy consumption per meter and per square foot, and percentage of utility burden on household incomes to possibly create GIS mapping layers to further staff’s data analysis.
As a result of DEED's investment and the hours of analysis and deduction, the City of Westerville - Electric Division through the generosity of the DEED Board will be able to offer all Public Power Utilities (1) a recommendation for similar analysis within each community, (2) reported findings regarding residential consumption and the identification of any inequities within the community, and (3) program recommendations to meet the need of the residential electric customer.
See Q2 report attached.
