Orange County NC Website
13 <br />C. Orange County Energy, Water, and Fuel Use Summary <br />County facilities use electricity, natural gas, propane, and fuel oil to heat, cool <br />and provide power for County owned and leased buildings. This report includes <br />energy used by all County buildings in the graphs and charts below, excluding <br />Animal Services Centers. The unique qualities of the Animal Services' facility <br />and the services they provide require energy well beyond a typical County <br />building. AMS -staff is working with the Animal Services design team and <br />departmental staff on a thorough analysis comparing the modeled energy usage <br />of this facility with the actual energy use and will report on the results of this <br />analysis in Fall of 2011. <br />Reporting on the County's total energy usage is easy; reporting on the County's <br />total energy usage in a way that clearly communicates the County's energy <br />performance from one year to the next, given changes in weather conditions and <br />the changing inventory and composition of maintained facilities, is more difficult. <br />Explaining the necessary steps and reasoning behind going from reporting raw <br />total energy usage to weather normalized usage by square foot provides the <br />reader with an understanding of the direct impact that weather conditions and <br />occupied square footage play in affecting energy usage. <br />Energy Usage <br />In order to show the combined energy used by all County facilities, each energy <br />source (electricity, natural gas, propane, fuel oil) has been converted into <br />MMBTUs in the graphs and charts of this report9. As Figure 1 shows, total <br />energy used by the County has grown significantly over the last 6 fiscal years, <br />from 39,021 MMBTUs in FY 05 to 56,084 in FY 10, a 43.7% increase. <br />Figure 1: County Wide Energy Usage (MMBTU) <br />70,000 <br />60, 000 <br />50,000 <br />m 40,000 <br />~ 30,000 <br />20, 000 <br />10, 000 <br />39,021- 37,590 38,493 <br />FY OS (Base FY 06 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 <br />Year) <br />Fiscal Years <br />$ This report includes energy used by County buildings that are managed by AMS. DEAPR manages parks facilities and <br />the Solid Waste Department, as an enterprise fund, manages solid waste and recycling related facilities. <br />s MMBTU stands for one million BTUs. Since the conversion of energy to BTUs is such a large multiplier, (eg 1 KW = <br />3,412 BTUs) BTUS are typically displayed in units of a million. See Aappendix 'A' for a more detailed explanation. <br />10 <br />