2. Common Area Measures
The second bullet of your query asks for a breakdown of efficiency measures in the common areas presented. Program activity thus far has predominantly been on lighting with much lesser attention to efficient windows, skylights, and doors that cut cooling and heating demand. In terms of kWh savings, our past common-area efforts have been about 90% lighting related. And within this arena, the focus has been on the replacement of incandescent lamps with efficient compact fluorescent lamps plus hard-wired measures such as the replacement of tubular T-12 fluorescents with T-8 lamps, electronic ballasts, and lighting controls. In one community in Irvine we addressed exterior street lighting.
In the 2002-2003 program years, and as the REEI moves east into hotter climate zones, we expect that common-area retrofits will concentrate more on measures that mitigate cooling, specifically the promotion of high-efficiency air conditioners coupled with insulation, window shades and films, and efficient doors and windows. These more complex retrofit measures will complement lighting measures that tend to have a shorter lifetime and less formidable barriers to their implementation.
3. The Mentorship Program
The Mentorship Program presented in our proposal is highly unique and is perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the potential for the program model's expansion in the State. It is a powerful testament to the REE/Energy District approach in that it grew quite organically from the pilot REEI program in Irvine and Santa Monica. Each of these cities has been so supportive of the REEI that they proposed to mentor nearby cities in terms of community-based energy management.
That said, this is perhaps your most difficult data request. Frankly, we are not sure what energy measures will be realized during the project period. As described in the proposal, we expect that the initial focus of the program in these cities will be related to community organizing. Nevertheless, I present a projection of measures for each the City of Brea and the City of West Hollywood through the Mentorship Program.
Municipal Facility Energy Management: In each of the four "new" cities to the REEI - Moreno Valley, Palm Desert, Brea, and West Hollywood - the REEI will help develop an energy management plan for the city that will define the energy efficiency approach for both municipal facilities and homes and businesses. Our experiences in Irvine and Santa Monica, as well as draft agreements in principle that we have discussed with each of the Mentorship Program cities, support our expectation that each city will begin the REEI process with mapping out a strategy to "gets its own house in order." Brea, for example, is hoping to launch a campaign similar to the Irvine Saves! campaign in which Irvine sought to raise awareness throughout the city by setting the example by first focusing attention and resources on the effective energy management in its municipal facilities.
Santa Monica will no doubt urge West Hollywood to "get its house in order" through its successful deployment of Energy Advisors that promoted energy savings through simple behavioral changes throughout City departments. Each city established energy conservation guidelines for its municipal facilities and stepped up its efforts with efficiency retrofits as well as behavior modification of building occupants to cut electricity and peak demand. We expect these kinds of programs to be launched through the Mentorship Program in the 2002-2003 REEI program and that municipal facility "housekeeping activities" will set the stage for community-wide efficiency efforts.
Raising Awareness through Kick-Off Activities: We also anticipate that the Mentorship Program cities will follow the REEI/Energy District Approach by raising awareness through highly visible and publicized kick-off events. While each city will be privy to a large number of program options, we expect that at least one of the Mentorship Program cities will host a Halogen Torchiere Exchange event that has the tremendous benefit of linking fire safety with energy efficiency and dollar savings. The attached spreadsheets incorporate this projection in the West Hollywood programmatic budget.
The City of Brea has expressed an interest to raise awareness of the REEI program through a highly visible low-income rehabilitation project. This, like the rehabilitation of the 20th Street Apartments in Santa Monica, will likely encompass new and highly efficient lighting, refrigerators, windows, doors, and skylights. Both communities might also "raise the flag" of the REEI through discounted sales of compact fluorescent lamps to city employees, or at city and/or public works energy fairs and community events. These anticipated activities are also incorporated into the spreadsheets attached.
In addition to Municipal Facility Energy Management and Kick-Off programs for the Mentorship Program cities, the power of the REEI approach is such that through community information and education, the galvanizing effects of the model, the cities themselves as well as their residential and business communities, become aware of their program options for efficiency through ongoing (statewide) electric utility, gas utility, and other state and federal efficiency program funding options. By raising awareness, and catalyzing responsible efficiency action within communities, the REEI serves to stimulate activity that would simply not happen in its absence. As such, the spreadsheets present considerable energy efficiency retrofit activity in owner-occupied apartments for the Mentorship Program cities.
