Strategic Planning
Local governments have a significant role in implementing elements of the California’s Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan (CEESP). In support of this comprehensive plan that sets the framework of goals and strategies for saving energy, Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance (VCREA) has engaged in several long-term planning efforts to help local jurisdictions develop strategies and opportunities for achieving deeper energy savings.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) allocated funding to each investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to support these efforts. VCREA has applied for funding from Southern California Edison (SCE) and Southern California Gas (SCG) to complete such activities.
2016 Strategic Plan
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” – Peter Drucker
Benchmarking is an easy and cost‐effective tool to assess the relative energy needs of buildings. Benchmarking allows for monitoring energy use as well as reporting, assessing, and recommending changes and improvements in daily practices and long term equipment repair and replacement. Benchmarking also provides a way to measure success from implementing energy efficiency measures and practices, and forecast future energy needs and savings.
VCREA will be working with county and city energy managers to benchmark selected municipal buildings, set goals, and propose potential energy efficiency project to meets those goals.
2017 Strategic Plan
“Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.”- Cornelius Fitcher
Developing Energy Action Plans (EAPs) enables jurisdictions to commit to reducing energy consumption within their communities. EAPs establish an overall realistic energy reduction target and identify and scope projects and programs to achieve the target over time. EAPs build upon existing energy efficiency efforts and identify energy efficiency projects and programs consistent with each jurisdictions’ goals and policies, utility company programs, and State and Federal legislation and initiatives.
VCREA and the cities of Ventura and Thousand Oaks are working together to develop customized Community Energy Action Plans (EAPs) for each city. These plans will provide a template, details, and lessons learned that can be utilized by other cities when they are ready to develop EAPs.