In 2022 the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) piloted the Facility Equipment Inventory (FEI) program to catalog energy-using equipment at city buildings. Since then, SBCCOG staff have compiled information and made upgrade recommendations for more than 45 municipal buildings.

From left: Talia Perluss, SBCCOG project coordinator, Leah Myre, SoCalREN project manager, and Eleanor Murphy, SBCCOG CivicSpark fellow, with the poster highlighting the SBCCOG’s Facility Equipment Inventory project.

This knowledge helps agencies identify financial incentives to make needed upgrades at no cost to cities. For example, upgrades were made to seven water heater units in the City of El Segundo, with 100% of costs covered by SBCCOG partner the Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN).

The SBCCOG’s energy-efficiency team recently showcased this work among contemporary energy stewards at the 15th annual California Climate and Energy Collaborative (CCEC) forum in Palm Springs.

CCEC is an initiative implemented by CivicWell and funded in part by the SoCalREN. The event was geared toward local governments and featured discussions on energy equity, appliance rebates, gas decommissioning, hydrogen power and decarbonization to help agencies meet federal, state, and local energy and climate goals.

The SBCCOG team and the SoCalREN presented a poster of the South Bay FEI program at the forum’s poster symposium. The poster outlined potential future projects:

  • 102 heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units overdue for replacement
  • 92 HVAC units with banned refrigerants
  • more than 897,000 kilowatt-hours of energy savings to be gained by upgrading fluorescent bulbs to LED bulbs across all facilities

The SBCCOG is exploring funding sources to enable South Bay cities to complete these upgrades. The CCEC forum provided the SBCCOG energy-efficiency team with a good opportunity to advocate for the FEI program and learn from other agencies, thus advancing its implementation.

The SBCCOG also created a 40-page handbook for agencies to use to complete their own audits. •