Because the town has applied to become a Green Community – and thus eligible for certain grant money – it has to reduce its energy use by 20 percent in the next five years.
GRANBY – Marcos Marrero, land use and environment planner at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, appeared before the Granby Selectboard and the School Committee Monday to present a preliminary report on how much energy the town uses and how that energy use can be reduced.
Because Granby has applied to become a Green Community – and thus eligible for certain grant money – it has to reduce its energy use by 20 percent in the next five years.
The report offered a kind of map for achieving that goal.
The process starts with a “baseline” – that is, it measures how much energy is being consumed at the moment by such municipal facilities and utilities as town buildings, school buildings, vehicles, water pumps and municipal streetlights.
The report also included advice on how to eliminating waste in those areas to save energy and money. This part is called an ERP, or energy reduction plan, an acronym that will appear increasingly in years to come.
Contributors to the two-part report were Jerry Drummond, of the Building Technologies Division of Siemens Industry Inc.; Chris Martin, town administrator for Granby; and Marrero and Catherine Ratte, both of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
Among the ways to achieve energy efficiency, according to the report, are conservation measures and replacement of fossil fuels and inefficient equipment – in plain English, good conservation habits, fuel-efficient cars and new gadgets.
Some of those new gadgets are a revelation. By now everyone knows about Energy Star-rated washing machines and refrigerators, but there is also a VendingMiser energy management controller for vending machines.
In Granby, the study found that the greatest waste of energy was in the schools – the deteriorating East Meadow Elementary School in particular – and in historic municipal buildings, such as Town Hall and Aldrich Hall.
Marrero said the baseline also sheds light on some individual items that may not be worth the trouble of updating.
A dramatic example is the Pleasant Street pump station. Only $19 a year would be saved if $1,000 worth of conservation measures were put into place. That’s a lot of time before payback kicks in.
Marrero said the report is a first step, but can lead to big savings.
“It’s hard for you to get more bang for your buck by not doing anything,” he said.
Siemens will have more information to present to the Selectboard in upcoming weeks, said Marrero.
Both the Selectboard and the School Committee approved the report.