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In an attempt to further its goals of environmental stewardship, Boulder Housing Partners,
the public housing authority for Boulder, CO, has made a public commitment to reduce
the electricity consumption of its public housing portfolio enough to attain net-zero
electricity consumption, or have all consumption offset by the on-site generation
of renewable power. Furthermore, Boulder Housing Partners strives to surpass the
City of Boulder’s stringent energy efficiency standards, which far exceed state and
federal efficiency requirements for rental housing. As a result, Boulder Housing
Partners recently decided to invest heavily in energy efficiency measures via an Energy
Performance Contract (EPC) executed by Johnson Controls, Inc. in fiscal year (FY)
2010. Initial results suggest that properties in the treatment group— those which
received the EPC work—experienced an overall decline in electricity consumption.
Average monthly electricity consumption for the treatment group declined by 17.44%
from FY 2009 to FY 2011, while average monthly electricity consumption increased by
7.96% for the control group. However, a series of simple t-tests suggests the absence
of any statistically significant change. This is confirmed by a difference-in-difference
analysis. The EPC had an effect on the treatment group to the magnitude of -2701.865
kWh per month and was not statistically significant. In order to verify that outliers
in the treatment group did not substantially affect these results, the difference-in-difference
analysis was repeated after dropping the outliers from the dataset. This resulted
in an increase in the effect of the EPC on the treatment group to -4284.125 kWh per
month and an increase in statistical significance from 0.88 to 0.122. Although this
is a substantial change, 0.122 remains well past the standard 0.05 threshold for statistical
significance. Consequently, it does not change the conclusions or interpretation
of the results. In order to further organization progress toward the net-zero electricity
consumption goal, it is recommended that BHP pursue a combination of the installation
of sub-meters, the provision of monthly notice to residents detailing their previous
month's usage and performance compared to other property residents, the institution
of a monthly or annual savings sharing program, and solicitation of written commitments
to achieving conservation goals from residents. If the organization so chose and
resources permitted, they also could pursue information sessions and the dissemination
of written materials. The recommended incentive- and information-based interventions,
as well as additional building upgrades, should allow Boulder Housing Partners to
capture substantive additional increases in energy savings, while decreasing greenhouse
gas emissions.
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