The city of Avon Lake is looking to go a little greener, and not necessarily as in the buzzwords of sustainability, but rather to save some money on energy costs.
And this, in turn, could save taxpayers a significant amount of money and allow some city-owned properties to keep the lights on longer.
Avon Like is one of only six cities in Ohio selected to participate in the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council Sustainable Technical Assistance Resources pilot program, which provides technical assistance and funding to local governments and is part of NOPEC’s Education Pillar working to educate communities and residents about energy conservation, sustainability and resilience.
NOPEC is an Ohio state energy aggregator that negotiates lower electricity and natural gas rates for its member communities, and Avon Lake City Councilwoman Amy Gentry led the effort to get the Sustainable Technical Assistance Resources program implemented.
In her role as chair of the Buildings and Energy Committee, Gentry said she was excited about the prospect of finding energy waste throughout Avon Lake.
“My goal is to help Avon Lake become a more sustainable city, so part of my role is working with NOPEC and they’re definitely interested in helping to make sure cities don’t waste energy,” Gentry explained. “They want cities to be more efficient with their energy use and figure out where we can waste energy, where can we install solar to have some battery backup power, where do we need better insulation.
“How much savings would we get by taking a holistic view of all our buildings and finding out what is the status of all of them from an energy use and loss point of view?”
The program is provided through a federal grant that allows NOPEC to walk through city buildings and provide an in-depth assessment of things like energy loss, and provide real-world solutions to combat it, such as extra insulation, more efficient windows and doors, better heating and air conditioning units, tinting of windows, lighting and more.
The city will also provide NOPEC with the past 12 months of utility bills from city-owned properties for comparison purposes and see if they are paying comparable amounts for comparable buildings, or if there is something causing an increase in utility bills outside of the normal range.
The grant will allow NOPEC to take a look at all city-owned properties and will do what Gentry called a “deep dive” into two buildings they believe need the most attention.
All of this is at no cost to the city, but if officials would like to implement these recommendations, the city would be on the hook for these updates.
However, those funds would be part of normal updates and maintenance for the properties, anyway, Gentry said.
There is also a solar assessment where the potential for installing solar panels on city properties will be explored, as well as the potential savings from eliminating the city’s fleet and replacing it with electric vehicles.
“If we can save taxpayers some money on energy bills, why wouldn’t we take advantage of that opportunity?” Gentry said. “Let’s see if there are savings to be made. If we can keep lights on in the library or the town hall without using gas generators, let’s see what the options are.
“When we have storms and the power is out, and we need to keep some buildings running, solar-powered battery backup can be a great solution.”
The motion to participate was overwhelmingly supported by the committee, and the council voted to approve Mayor Mark Spaetzel sending the letter of intent to participate to NOPEC.
Gentry said she expects to have some type of kick-off to mark the beginning of the year-long process with NOPEC where more discussion will take place.
In the meantime, the city is collecting data to submit and expects the program to be ready with recommendations by December of next year.
The city is not obligated to carry out the recommendations.
