In 2008 Cincinnati City Council undertook a public climate protection process, calling up City Administration to establish goals for significantly reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions while preserving both economic development and transportation options throughout the region. A Climate Protection Action Plan (now referred to as the Green Cincinnati Plan) was approved by Cincinnati City Council in 2008. In that process, it was determined that Cincinnati city government produced 432,179 tons (392,000 metric tonnes) of greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Cincinnati Plan commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2% per year.
State of Ohio enabling legislation introduced in 1994 allows municipalities to fund capital improvements with energy and operational savings through a performance-based approach. the installation of energy saving measures can be financed by Ohio municipalities over a term up to the average useful life of the equipment, typically 15 years, and is not included in the calculation of the municipality's net indebtedness. Cincinnati entered into contracts with two energy services performance contractors in June 2008 and energy efficiency building audits have been completed at approximately 39 buildings to date, including City Hall and the Convention Center. Additional building audits at several facilities managed by various departments are currently ongoing.
To date, nearly $5.6 million worth of energy efficiency updates have been proposed and contracts are final. The lighting, heating and air conditioning, building automation, and building envelope upgrades proposed to date will reduce energy use by 3,290,539 kWh, generate 45,817 kWh of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3,413 metro tonnes. The majority of the project work will be self-funded with guaranteed energy savings and energy rebates and are expected to be completed by the end of 2009. Only $351,675 of EECBG funds are needed for the gap financing to make these first-round projects happen. The City owns and operates more than 400 facilities. the remaining EECBG funding will be administered by the City's Energy Management Team and used at additional facilities to fill the gap for additional energy efficiency projects that are not fully self-funded from the energy savings. Additional audits are already underway, city processes to pay down the debt services are in place, and baseline contracts have been negotiated. Future contracts can be finalized quickly once the facility audits are completed and the scope of work is identified. The Energy Management Team will include an EECBG discussion on the regularly scheduled monthly meeting agenda to track the progress of the projects.
Based on the findings from the first projects, we expect that the full $1,139,600 EECBG project budget will create and retain a total of 12 jobs and generate over $18 million of energy efficiency upgrades. This work is expected to result in total energy reduction of 10,062,959 kWh, energy generation of 148,470 kWh, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 11,060 metric tonnes
