Evaluation of standard municipal energy benchmarking tools

Over the spring and summer 2015 semesters, two undergraduate students completed a full energy audit of two local municipalities in order to provide recommendations for usage reduction. This audit was done as part of a community partnership initiative with Emerald Cities Collaborative, a community development collective focused on promoting sustainable communities through environmental energy education. Utilizing the data provided by a local utility company; students were able to analyze current EPA and DOE online tools for energy benchmarking. These tools are freely available for small local governments. The results of this study suggest that improvements can be made to the existing tools that increase their usefulness to municipalities. Further analysis capabilities beyond what these tools provide were shown to enhance the tools' utility.