Energy Savings Strategies for Transit Agencies (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 8-17
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8 Selecting and prioritizing actions to save energy is a challenge for transit agencies. These agencies must balance a number of considerations, including short-term and long-term cost implications, impacts on operations, and -- for all but the smallest agencies -- achieving buy-in across multiple operating units.
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9 Goal Targets (long-term) Performance Measures Save Energy All fleets deploy the most fuel-efficient, clean, and cost-effective vehicles that optimize the use of proven technology.
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10 Systems (ESMS) , are increasingly used at transit agencies as strategic frameworks for implementing sustainability and energy-saving practices.
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11 of an energy audit and help pay for energy efficiency retrofits generally has few drawbacks for a transit agency. Absent any special funding opportunities, identifying a transit agency's best strategies to save energy requires some research and analysis.
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12 Payback Periods Payback periods are defined as the amount of time it takes for money saved from reduced energy use to completely offset the upfront investment required to implement an energy-saving technology or strategy. Payback periods can be estimated prior to an investment based on an understanding of expected savings; however, actual payback periods vary depending on the performance of the project and fluctuations in energy prices.
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13 Energy Savings as a Co-Benefit Some strategies undertaken primarily to improve service or reduce costs can generate energy savings as a co-benefit. For example, an agency may improve travel times on its routes by respacing stops and giving buses priority at traffic signals in order to improve customers' experience.
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14 strategy is considerably longer than that for other strategies owing in part to the large upfront investment required (15)
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15 buildings. FTA also allocates funds to transit agencies through the Federal Clean Fuels Grant Program.
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16 BARRIERS TO STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Transit agencies confront a variety of challenges to implementing energy-saving strategies. Analyzing, selecting, and implementing strategies requires staff time and sometimes support from consultants.
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17 agencies analyzing multiple strategies have used support from consultants to evaluate their options. Almost half of survey respondents cited a lack of internal expertise or available staff time as a barrier to implementing energy-saving strategies.
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