Counties often operate in older, landmark buildings that can be long on charm but lack modern, efficient systems for lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating. High energy costs can eat into budgets in ways that impact the valuable services counties offer their communities.
The good news is there are many cost-effective ways to reduce energy-related operating costs. Energy Trust of Oregon helps customers invest in energy-saving upgrades and renewable energy systems that improve energy efficiency and provide additional benefits to the county. Cash incentives reduce your upfront costs so you can achieve savings sooner, and technical assistance gives you valuable expert guidance.
Counties throughout Oregon that are served by our partner utilities rely on Energy Trust to provide the expertise and resources you need—whether it’s upgrading equipment (such as lighting or Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) in your county facilities, installing solar to provide resilience for county operations, designing a new, net-zero county building, or investing in biopower to generate clean, local energy at a wastewater or water resource recovery facility.
Energy Trust can provide a comprehensive energy walk-through to determine the most cost-effective energy upgrades for your facilities. Many energy-efficiency projects recover their investment through energy savings in just two to three years—some even sooner.
Incentives are available for lighting, custom capital projects, operations and maintenance improvements, standard equipment replacements or retrofits, as well as renewable energy systems including solar, biopower, and hydroelectric.
Several Oregon counties have taken advantage of Energy Trust’s Strategic Energy Management (SEM) offering that provides the tools and education to start saving energy now and continue saving over time. As an SEM participant, county facility teams learn how county facilities are consuming energy and identify where waste is happening. Energy teams share best practices with a cohort of peers from other organizations, learn to increase employee engagement, and monitor the progress of their energy savings work.
SEM is a year-long training program led by Energy Trust experts who share the knowledge and guidance needed for facility personnel to become leaders in energy management. Implementing the skills gained through SEM will build resiliency to help counties withstand and recover from unexpected challenges.
Energy Trust serves customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural, Cascade Natural Gas, and Avista. Information about all of Energy Trust’s offerings can be found at www.energytrust.org.
Contributed by: Energy Trust of Oregon