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City-Level Energy Decision Making: Data Use in Energy Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation in U.S. Cities

City-Level Energy Decision Making: Data Use in Energy Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation in U.S. Cities

Full Title: City-Level Energy Decision Making: Data Use in Energy Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation in U.S. Cities
Author(s): Alexandra Aznar, Megan Day, Elizabeth Doris, and Shivani Mathur
Publisher(s): National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Publication Date: May 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

Cities in the United States are increasingly taking action to improve the sustainability of their jurisdictions. Clean energy and energy efficiency must be a central component of these efforts. This analysis uses a sample of 20 U.S. cities to explore how cities incorporate data in energy decision-making in terms of planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Many programs and tools related to city energy needs are available to decision makers (Appendix A, Figure A-1). This work identified over 30 government, foundation, non-profit, and private programs and frameworks for cities to use in energy planning. These programs provide a myriad of case studies, best practices, frameworks, and support for clean energy programs, but few align metrics with GHG reduction goals or identify clear methodologies for plan implementation and measurement of programmatic impacts.

In addition to these external resources, cities are creating sustainability, energy, and climate plans that vary in scope (e.g., city operations or community-wide), specificity, timeframe, data collection, and reporting. City staff interviewed for this research indicated that a lack of standardization in measuring impact and prioritizing actions can impede effective energy decision making.

Developing and implementing plans helps communities address their specific energy and climate priorities. The heterogeneity of plans creates a barrier, however, to understanding the plans’ impacts on climate and energy goals and the broader impacts of the plans and actions on national energy use. To address this, a nomenclature system (Figure ES-1) was designed to compare climate, sustainability, and energy plans across cities

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