A Philadelphia Case Study

Battery. Conductor. Condenser. Charge.

Those words were coined by the City of Philadelphia’s most famous resident, Benjamin Franklin, as he established himself as the leader in the study of electricity in the mid-1700s. Franklin most likely never imagined that, more than 265 years later, the city he called home would still be an energy management leader.

But, while Franklin sought to understand and harness the power of electricity, the city’s primary focus today is on energy conservation.

Mardi Ditze, Senior Energy Analyst for the City of Philadelphia, recently presented a webinar—“A Philadelphia Case Study”—wherein she discussed the objectives of the city’s energy office and explained how energy management efforts are organized, managed, and evaluated. Tasked with saving energy and money at 800 city facilities, the Philadelphia Energy Office’s efforts are guided by a document titled Greenworks: A Vision for a Sustainable Philadelphia.

EnergyCAP Enterprise is at the core of the city’s energy management program and delivers value on multiple fronts:

Utility Bill Auditing & Analysis. Most of the city’s utility bills are processed through EnergyCAP, Inc.’s (ECI) Bill CAPture℠ service and imported directly into EnergyCAP, greatly reducing manual data entry.The bills are then audited and analyzed within EnergyCAP to identify potential billing issues.

Measurement & Verification (M&V). EnergyCAP’s Cost Avoidance functionality normalizes for weather and other changing conditions to accurately evaluate energy efficiency projects.
Budgeting & Procurement. Tracking detailed energy use and cost data in a centralized database, streamlines the energy budgeting and procurement processes.
Benchmarking Mandates. EnergyCAP’s interface with ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager application makes it easy for the city to meet local reporting requirements and track the progress of benchmarked facilities.

Communication. City energy data is shared openly via publicly-accessible EnergyCAP dashboards.

Benjamin Franklin stated that “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” We are pleased that the City of Philadelphia has teamed with EnergyCAP in its centuries-long effort to manage energy, and we greatly appreciate Mardi’s time and willingness to share her team’s efforts and successes via the webinar.

If you were not able to attend the live webinar, I encourage you to set aside some time to view the recorded version, which can be accessed online at https://www.energycap.com/resources/webinars. I’m confident that you will find the information presented to be valuable to your facilities management operation.