Think about this: Together, five New York cities – Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers – have a population of 908,000. If they were one city, it would be the 11th most populous city in the U.S.
Given their combined energy, environmental and economic impact, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) has launched the Five Cities Energy Master Plans project, an initiative to develop Energy Master Plans for each of the five cities as part of the Build Smart NY program. The goals of this initiative include reducing the cities’ energy consumption, strengthening reliability of each city’s energy infrastructure, creating jobs in local clean energy industries, and contributing to a cleaner environment, all while looking to reduce the cities’ costs, thereby enabling them to redeploy those resources to higher priority services.
As part of this unique planning process, NYPA and the cities are seeking innovative, forward-thinking ideas from the public on measures to improve energy efficiency in four principal areas:
Energy Planning & Coordination will focus on improving collaborative efforts between governmental departments, non-governmental agencies & utility companies, and work to identify efficiency and cost-saving opportunities in energy procurement and management processes.
Energy Distribution and Supply will look at changes in energy infrastructure, alternative energy generation, and energy monitoring strategies, and explore ways to make the cities’ energy delivery infrastructure more resilient and sustainable.
Energy Efficiency in Buildings will focus on ways to improve the bottom line with better buildings, both new and existing, including an analysis of historic energy use, review of zoning ordinance and building code changes, benchmarking of municipal building energy performance and energy costs, as well as audits of the lowest ranked energy performers and highest energy consumption buildings.
Transportation will include a review of alternative energy vehicles, street & traffic lighting upgrades, and fleet vehicle changes in public and private sectors, with a focus on the transportation improvements that are most likely to increase mobility, foster economic development, and contribute to a healthier environment.
Have something to say? Submit your ideas here (http://www.nypa.gov/
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is the nation’s largest state public power organization, serving government, not-for-profit and business customers.
Our mission is to provide clean, low-cost and reliable energy consistent with our commitment to the environment and safety, while promoting economic development and job development, energy efficiency, renewables and innovation, for the benefit of our customers and all New Yorkers.
