The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is located in leased space at 180 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio. The PUCO occupies eight floors or approximately 130,680 square feet of a 707,500 square foot building. In order to meet the first year goal of 5% energy savings required by Executive Order 2007-02, and because we are in leased space, our focus has been on behavioral change and no-cost programs. Our long-term goals, commensurate with the Executive Order, may involve low-cost initiatives in cooperation with the building management.
The PUCO initiated our energy saving program with the development of an Energy Savings Team. The team’s purpose is the implementation of an energy savings program to achieve a 15% reduction in our energy consumption over the next four year period. The members of our core team include staff with experience and expertise in energy efficiency and energy conservation programs, the PUCO Communications Director, a representative from the Human Resources Department, a representative from our Information Technology Division, the PUCO facilities liaison, and a representative from the Finance Department. Other members of the core team include representation from every agency department and representatives from each floor that the PUCO occupies in our building space.
In order to comply with the requirement that we establish a baseline of energy consumption for the agency for tracking consumption in Portfolio Manager, we developed a methodology for estimating energy use. None of the PUCO’s space in our building is metered; electricity, natural gas and water are not metered. The methodology we have adopted uses a simple ratio of occupied space to the total building space with some adjustments to account for unoccupied space in the building, as well as space that is heated or cooled in a manner that is not characteristic of typical commercial space (space that includes telecommunications equipment and servers). Our building management people have provided us with two years of monthly electricity consumption data to develop an electricity baseline. We are in the process of completing a similar calculation to establish a natural gas consumption baseline. This baseline data will be entered into Portfolio Manager. We are also working on a process to track our current consumption of electricity and natural gas for the first year of the energy saving program, 2007-2008. We are working with and depend on the building management to provide us with monthly consumption data for the building.
As our consumption data represents rough estimates of electricity and natural gas consumption, we are working to develop additional methods for determining and tracking energy consumption and energy reductions. As we work to implement various conservation or energy efficiency programs, we are attempting to quantify the specific energy reductions that result from each of these activities or programs.
Prior to the announcement of the Governor’s Executive Order, the PUCO signed a new lease agreement with the building management. This agreement included substantial remodeling of a significant portion of our space in the building. An important aspect of this remodeling effort involved upgrading to more energy efficient lighting. There were also changes made to the roof structure and to the heating and cooling system. As a number of these improvements were recently made, these measures will be described and quantified for our report of activities to meet the Executive Order requirements.
The Information Technology representative to our energy team has been very creative in developing strategies to effectuate energy savings. Since the initiation of our program, the IT staff have begun to shut down all computers and monitors in our training areas between training classes. All PUCO computers are networked and managed by our IT staff; all files are stored on centralized servers, operating system and security system upgrades are pushed, and much of the hardware is maintained by IT staff. The IT staff have initiated a program that places all monitors and hard drives into sleep mode after a period of time. This means that all monitors and computer hard drives are automatically programmed into sleep mode periodically during the day, every night and throughout the weekends. Finally, the IT Division is involved in a CRT to energy star rated flat panel replacement program. A similar copier replacement program is in place. The energy savings from each of these activities will be specifically quantified to determine energy savings (as the results may or may not be reflected in the total building electricity consumption).
The PUCO Energy Team initiated a survey program in October 2007. The purpose of the survey project was to raise awareness of the Governor’s Executive Order and the PUCO’s energy saving program, to begin the education of staff about energy savings opportunities, to identify the opportunities for behavioral change; and to solicit new ideas and approaches for energy savings from staff. The PUCO has 341 staff working in the building full time (there are 54 field staff) and there were 265 staff that completed the survey. The survey was distributed to staff with a cover letter from the PUCO Chief of Staff encouraging and explaining the importance of participation. The results from the survey are being analyzed using SAS and content analysis of open-ended questions. When the results from this analysis are available, the PUCO energy saving team will develop an education program to encourage behavioral change. Staff also offered excellent new ideas for saving energy. More than 100 staff provided a response to the last question on the survey which asked for their ideas about how we could save energy in our workplace. Many of the responses to this open-ended question were quite creative and comprehensive. Another interesting outcome from the survey administration process has been the stimulation of interest in energy conservation. After completing the survey, there has been more discussion among staff about energy savings activities, and there has been an entirely voluntary and noticeable change in behavior in a positive direction; i.e., lights are being shut off in common areas (meeting rooms, kitchens, bathrooms); hallway lights are often shut off, less office lighting.
The PUCO Communications Director has developed a broad communications plan for raising awareness about our energy savings program. This communications plan will become an integral part of our staff education program designed to create voluntary behavioral change. The Insider, the PUCO internal staff newsletter, ran an article introducing the Executive Order and PUCO energy savings program, and two articles were run promoting the survey and encouraging responses.
In addition to the specific activities relating to energy conservation and energy efficiency, the PUCO Energy Saving Program has motivated discussions about broader issues relating to energy use and improving the environment. For instance, numerous suggestions made by Staff in the survey involved reducing consumption of gasoline in personal vehicles. There has also been a renewed discussion of enhancing our recycling program in our building. All of these ideas will be explored and considered for implementation.
For more information about PUCO, go to http://www.puco.ohio.gov.