New energy law looms over cities

By Chuck McCollough

San Antonio Express-News

Starting this year, suburban cities and most other political subdivisions have to cut their electrical use by state law.

The requirement to reduce power use 5 percent per year for five years in municipally owned buildings and facilities is contained in Senate Bill (SB) 5, also known as the Texas Emissions Reduction Act. It was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2001. Public school districts are exempt.

Suburban cities and other entities that must meet the energy goals have resources to help, said Linda Stone, executive director of the Metropolitan Partnership for Energy, or MPE, a nonprofit group formed a year ago by local entities to meet SB5 goals and promote the idea of energy-efficient building practices.

Those entities include San Antonio, Bexar County, the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG), San Antonio Water System (SAWS), VIA Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Greater Bexar County Council of Cities, which includes most local suburban cities.

Stone recently gave an update on the energy reduction law to the Northeast Partnership, a coalition of suburban cities along Interstate 35 North.

"We wanted to let suburban cities know that MPE is here to help, to clarify the SB5 requirements and to let them know what resources are available to help them meet the law's goals," she said.

"After talking with some suburbs, we learned that most of the small cities don't know all they need to know about SB5," she added.

Another MPE goal is to show suburban cities and other entities that energy savings usually more than pay for new, more energy-efficient equipment.

Stone said her organization also is working on another idea to help small cities meet SB5 goals.

"MPE is trying to get a grant where we develop a pilot program and become an energy manager for several small cities, to help them save energy," she said.

Technical help for local suburban cities to get in compliance with SB5 could come from the Brooks Energy and Sustainability Laboratory, said lab manager Dean Schneider, who also spoke to the partnership.

"Linda Stone and MPE have a broad charter to promote energy efficiency in buildings and other places. What she doesn't have is the engineering resources to provide in-depth technical help to suburban cities, metropolitan cities and others," he said. That help could come from the laboratory, located at Brooks City Base, he said.

Stone and Schneider agreed that pumping water is a major electrical use for municipalities. They also singled out Converse and Schertz among local suburbs as having the highest per-capita energy use at their municipal facilities.

Converse Mayor Craig Martin said there is a simple reason those cities have higher energy use: "Converse and Schertz each have a large high school (for which) they must supply water, and pumping all that water takes a lot of electricity."

Converse supplies water for Judson High School, the area's largest, while Schertz supplies water for Clemens High School.

"Pumping water from our three wells makes up more than 80 percent of Converse's municipal electrical use. We have replaced lights and made other energy-efficient moves at City Hall and other municipal facilities, but there is no way we can cut back pumping 25 percent in five years," Martin said.

Converse already has replaced one of its water well pumps with a new, more energy-efficient pump, he noted.

"The other two pumps are several years old, but we are told they are still energy-efficient. To replace those two with brand-new pumps would use money we need for other things right now, such as health and safety issues like homeland security," he said.

Martin said Converse is doing everything it can to comply with SB5 because "it is the law and we want to obey. But I feel our state legislators will understand the Catch-22 situation we are in. We are doing what we can. SB5 has no penalty at this time, but we are not ignoring it, just prioritizing our city's needs against our resources."

Stone said suburbs face a big electrical reduction challenge.

"Water pumping is a big part of a municipality's power use, especially small cities," she said, adding that finding the most efficient way to do that pumping is a major goal.

For more information, call the Metropolitan Partnership for Energy at (210) 224-7278, or log on to www.mp4e.info. E-mails also can be sent to the organization at alrocha@mp4e.info.