Potential Energy, Cost, and CO2 Savings from Energy-Efficient Government Purchasing

The public sector — including federal, state, and local agencies — purchases at least 10% of all energy-using products in the US. The federal government alone is the largest buyer in the world for many products. Channeling this enormous buying power toward energy-efficient products can stimulate market transformation throughout the economy. Government initiatives in the U.S. also offer a promising model for other countries with industrial, developing, or transition economies, where government leadership in energyefficient purchasing is an important but largely overlooked policy option. Within the federal sector, the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) promotes energy-efficient purchasing by helping federal agencies comply with requirements of the 1992 Energy Policy Act and a 1999 Executive Order. The order directs agencies to buy ENERGY STAR® labeled products or those in the upper quartile (25t1~ percentile) of the market, with respect to energy efficiency. The EPA/DOE Energy Star Purchasing Program encourages similar policies and practices in state and local purchasing. This paper estimates the potential energy, cost, and CO2 savings from federal and non-federal government purchasing of energy-efficient products. For the federal sector, we present detailed results for the first 21 products analyzed by FEMP (including many ENERGY STAR® labeled products), based on an equipment stock turnover model and a series of four scenarios of federal agency compliance with energy-efficient purchasing policies. This detailed analysis covers residential appliances and equipment, office equipment, some lighting technologies, and water-saving products. A less detailed analysis of savings covers federal purchases of larger, non-residential heating and cooling equipment; this adds about 30% to the initial savings estimate. Within the federal sector, combined savings in 2010 for the two groups of products range from 11 to 42 TBtu/year (site energy3) for the four scenarios. This represents about $160-620 million/year in reduced federal energy costs. These savings also equal 3-12 % of current energy use in federal buildings, and a major contribution (7-28%) to the federal goal of reducing building energy intensity by 35% (from 1985 levels) as of 2010. 1 This work was supported in part by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Federal Energy Management Program, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-ACO376SF0098, and by the Stockholm Environment Institute. Portions of this paper are based on Johnson and Harris 2000 (LBNL Report 42179). 2 Formerly of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Unless otherwise noted, for consistency with current practice by FEMP and other US government agencies, energy consumption is reported in this paper in English rather than SI units (1 Btu = 1055 j.) and electricity is reported as end-use (site) energy at 3413 Btu/kWh, not including systemlosses of about 60-70%. Commercial Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation 4.147 Outside the federal sector, we also projected savings in 2010 from energy-efficient purchasing by states, local governments, and schools, as a result of the Energy Star Purchasing program and related initiatives now getting started. For all products, annual savings in 2010 range from 40 to 150 TBtu (site) forthe same four scenarios. Taken together, potential energy savings from energy-efficient purchasing by at all levels of government translate into a reduction in annual greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions of about 2.4 to 8.6 million metric tons of carbon (MMT~) as of 2010. Background — Energy-Efficient Purchasing in the U.S. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) and Executive Order 13123 (Clinton 1999) establish federal policies on buying energy-efficient products. The Executive Order directs federal agencies to buy ENERGY STAR® labeled products or, where there is no label available, to buy products in the upper quartile ( 25 th percentile) of the market with respect to energy efficiency. The Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) assists federal agencies in complying with these requirements by publishing Energy Efficiency Recommendations4 for those energy-using product commonly purchased by the government (DOE/FEMP 1999, on-line at www.eren.doe.gov/femp/procurement). FEMP’s purchasing recommendations also contribute to the federal government’s goal of reducing building energy intensity by 35% in 2010, compared to 1985 levels. A further goal ofEPAct and the Executive Order is to use the buying power of the federal government to help “pull” the overall commercial market towards greater efficiency, and to serve as a model to encourage energy-efficient purchasing practices by other governmental and corporate buyers (McKane & Harris 1996). To date, FEMP has issued energy-efficient purchasing recommendations for more than 30 product categories, ranging from exit signs and fluorescent ballasts to large chillers and boilers. Where a product category is also covered by the DOE/EPA ENERGY STAR® labeling program (www.energystar.gov), the FEMP purchasing criteria have been chosen to match the ENERGY STAR® label requirements. To increase market impact, FEMP also makes an effort to assure that its purchasing recommendations match those of other energy efficiency programs, including the utilityand state-sponsored market transformation activities coordinated by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE). However, merely publishing efficiency recommendations does not assure that federal buyers will use them. FEMIP also conducts interagency outreach and training to raise awareness and help buyers incorporate these efficiency criteria, not only in their day-to-day purchasing but also in federal specifications for construction projects and other contracts (e.g., maintenance and operation, energy-saving performance contracts, etc.). Both the FEMP efficiency recommendations and criteria for a product to receive the ENERGY STAR® label have been incorporated in an Energy Star Purchasing Toolkit prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with help from DOE. This publication and an accompanying Web site (www.energystar.gov) are targeted mainly to state and local For details on how these efficiency levels are set, within the overall framework of the Executive Order on federal energy-efficient purchasing, see Ware2000 and Johnson et a!. 1996.