Connecticut Green Bank – Divya Srinivasan – 2016

Goals

The City of Hartford’s Department of Public Works, with support from the Connecticut Green Bank and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environment (DEEP), enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Divya Srinivasan to conduct a GHG inventory and management plan in an effort to identify actionable clean energy and energy efficiency opportunities. The City was also interested in fulfilling requirements associated with its participation in the Clean Energy Communities pledge. This included a commitment to tracking, managing and reducing energy use 20% by 2018. 

Solutions

Divya collected municipal energy data by consolidating all the accounts and meters in buildings, libraries, parks, street lights, etc. Working with the local utility companies, she organized the data and created a comprehensive list of all accounts and meters owned by the city. Once she had the data use history associated with each account, Divya used the EPA Local Greenhouse Gas Inventory Tool for government operations to build the GHG inventory. She also created an Inventory Management plan, which will allow Hartford’s employees, or volunteers, to easily recreate and update the inventory in the future. 

Divya used this same data to set up the City of Hartford on the Energy Star Portfolio Manager as part of the Clean Energy Communities program, and organized a city wide free light bulb swap for Hartford’s residents.

Potential Impact

The GHG inventory provides a baseline of Hartford’s inventories, which can be compared against other cities, and the management plan allows the City to track and manage future emissions in a more informed manner. Divya’s work on fulfilling the Clean Energy Communities pledge will earn the City program points that can be redeemed for grants. The City of Hartford is already using its second grant to organize a free light bulb swap for its residents. The Green Bank recently announced that it was retiring the renewable track of the program; however, Hartford has a balance of $7,092.41 remaining under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with which Hartford is installing one or more Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. Previously, the city received $107,388.59 in rewards from the Green Bank with which it installed solar PV systems at Goodwin Library and the Academy of Engineering and Green Technology and the first installment of the EV charging station project.