what we do :: COMMUNITIES
Energy Independent Communities Tool
This tool is designed to assist a community in assessing its current energy usage and developing a plan to have renewable energy account for 25% of its projected energy consumption by 2025.
You might be pondering these questions:
- How much energy is my community currently using?
- How much of this is attributable to municipal buildings, water pumping and processing, exterior lighting, and municipal fleet?
- What is the percentage breakdown of our energy usage in terms of electricity, natural gas, and other fuel sources?
- What impact will a particular energy efficiency or renewable energy measure have on our overall energy usage?
- Does a particular energy efficiency or renewable energy measure make sense financially?
How to download
You must have Microsoft Excel to use this tool.
Because of the large filesize (4MB), it's best to save a copy on your computer.
To do this on a PC, right-click the download icon above and choose "save target as" (or the comparable selection if using a browser other than Internet Explorer).
- Navigate to the saved file on your computer and double-click it to open (it might take a moment). As Excel opens the file, "enable macros" when prompted.
- Use the tool by entering the required information on each tab.
How to use
- Buildings tab: enter the energy usage by building, year, and energy source
- Buildings pivot tab: Right-click on the Pivot table and select "Refresh"
- Repeat for Water, Lights, and Fleet
- Growth rate tab: Enter a growth rate at which your community's energy usage will increase between now and the year 2025.
- Review your community's energy usage on the Baseline + Goals, Energy Analysis 1, and Energy Analysis 2 tabs.
- Adjust any of the assumptions with respect to energy costs and existing renewable energy generation on the Assumptions tab.
- Measures tab: enter efficiency and renewable measures and their corresponding cost and energy saved/generated.
- Use the Alt Fuels tab to generate transportation fuels measures to by "Copy and Pasted" into the Measures tab.
- View your results on the Results tab. Turn measures on and off to see how they impact your overall goal.
- Chart_Summary and Chart_Fleet tabs contain useful charts for illustration.
- Summary, Scratch, and PV tabs contain behind-the-scenes calculations.
It is highly recommended to never use "Cut and Paste" or "Insert Rows and Columns" in the tool as this may disrupt various cell references. Instead, please "Copy and Paste" information you wish to move.
