South Strabane, W&J partner on energy study

Washington & Jefferson College is going to take a look at South Strabane Township’s utility bills to try to save money and energy as part of a new partnership between the township and the school’s Center for Energy, Policy and Management.
During their April meeting, the township supervisors approved an agreement with the college for the center to conduct a utility audit of the township’s municipal facilities and provide recommendations for cost and energy savings, at no cost to the township.
“They’ll be reviewing our gas and electricity bills for the facilities,” said township Manager Brandon Stanick.
Stanick said he’s unaware of a study like this being done within the township. He said they’ll be looking at utility bills at the police department, public works facility and the municipal building.
“We hope to learn more about our energy consumption,” he said.
Corey Young, the director of the college’s Center for Energy, Policy and Management (CEPM), said this is the first utilities study the center has conducted on behalf of a municipality. The group, which is made up of students and faculty, has over the past four years partnered with groups such as the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Local Government Academy in Pittsburgh, Young said. Most of the work they’ve done so far has been with natural gas development, research and data analysis projects.
CEPM also recently conducted an internal study of W&J’s campuswide utilities. They collected data and numbers dating to 2015, and provided the college with strategies to save energy and money on utilities.
“We said, ‘Well, if we were able to do that with the college, we could do that with a municipality,'” Young said. “We feel confident we could reach out to municipalities to do this type of work, as well.”
Young said CEPM benefits from the agreement since they are 100 percent funded through grants and will have to present “need and the ability to do this kind of work” when writing future grants.
“It also benefits us in making relationships in the area and forming partnerships to pivot us in this new direction,” Young said.
South Strabane will turn over about two years’ worth of utility data to CEPM, which will conduct “cursory statistical analysis,” identifying strengths and weaknesses, Young said. CEPM will use data from the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Star to set up a benchmark with which to compare South Strabane’s data, he said.
Over the summer, they’ll work to collect and transcribe data from the township and its utility bills to “figure out some trends,” Young said.
They’ll create a “menu of options at all price points,” from HVAC systems and window replacements to simpler solutions such as light timers and LED bulbs.
“The decision will be theirs, if they decide to follow any strategies we recommend,” Young said. “We just want to crunch the numbers, so they can feel informed about any future decisions.”