Office of Sustainability
Energy Efficiency

Energy Efficiency Fund

Background

On August 8, 2011 the City Council passed Ordinance 2011-08-18-0657, which established the Energy Efficiency Fund (EEF) to fund energy conservation projects in its facilities that reduce utility expenditures. The fund was designed to receive utility saving dollars from completed utility conservation projects as well as project incentives or rebates received from CPS Energy and SAWS. During the 2013 annual budget and in order to expand the funding available for additional utility conservation projects, City Council adopted a mechanism to return utility savings and incentive or rebate dollars from utility conservation projects funded by the EEF back to the EEF. This action represents a long-term commitment by the City to pursue energy conservation. San Antonio is the only city in the State of Texas with such a fund in place and is one of only a handful in the country to utilize this model.

Energy Efficiency Fund FY 11-19. Projects Completed: 414. Cost Savings: $1.6 million. Energy Reduction: 13.2%. CO2 Emissions: -58K Metric Tons.

How Does the EEF Work?

Seed funding (ARRA) for the Energy Efficiency Fund is used to used to Implement Energy Projects. COSA Realizes Utility Savings and Appropriate Savings and Rebates are returned to Energy Efficiency Fund.

Energy Projects

City Hall Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center Public Safety Headquarters

The Energy Efficiency Fund (EEF) has completed 414 energy projects within 190 municipal facilities from FY11 through FY19, which has resulted in total annual avoided cost savings of $1.6M. On average, the project payback period is approximately 4 years. Total appropriated amount used to implement these projects was $9.1M ($4.0M from EEF & $5.1M from Grants). The EEF has received over $3.0M in CPS Energy rebates and has “recaptured” $6.3M in revenue from various City funding sources.

Completed Projects (FY 11-19)
Project Type No. of Projects
Interior Lighting Retrofit 127
Exterior Lighting Retrofit 135
HVAC Equipment Replacement/Upgrade 39
HVAC Controls Replacement/Upgrade 20
Solar Window Film 37
Retro-commissioning/HVAC Tune-up 34
Pool Pumps Upgrade 22
TOTAL 414
Performance Metrics
  FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 Total (FY11-19)
Projects Completed 24 193 84 31 29 7 4 24 5 414
Facilities Impacted 24 103 81 31 26 6 8 24 3 190
Rebate Amount $133,987 $934,391 $421,891 $378,710 $193,794 $97,653 $776,496 $59,487 $53,675 $3,050,084
Annual Avoided Utility Costs $63,229 $472,493 $210,676 $242,294 $223,506 $84,738 $97,322 $91,656 $74,759 $1,595,280