Developing an Energy Efficiency Program for the City of Encinitas

This paper offers insight on the development of an Energy Efficiency Program for the City of Encinitas, which is located in the County of San Diego. The purpose of the program is to help the City implement its Climate Action Plan (CAP) in order to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. The residential sector alone is responsible for 22% of U.S. primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions annually, stressing the importance of building energy efficiency (Ketchman, Khanna, Riley, & Bilec, 2016). One of the strategies in the CAP is the reduction of building energy consumption by requiring existing residential units seeking building permits to perform an energy assessment. However, the City’s CAP did not address how energy assessments would be implemented. Therefore, the development of a program was necessary.
The program establishes how energy assessments would be submitted, tracked and evaluated to ensure the City is meeting its GHG reduction targets. Specific strategies have been developed to address cost impacts, public outreach, other options for consideration, and how to effectively communicate the benefits of the program. The objective in the development of the Energy Efficiency Program is to help the City meet their GHG reduction targets, while balancing the needs and expectations of all stakeholders involved, in order to gain the City Council’s support in adoption of the program. Once established, the program will serve as a model for other jurisdictions.