One Agency's Approach to Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Fleet Electrification

Presentation Description: Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) recently completed an evaluation of over 50 energy-saving, energy-generation, greenhouse gas (GHG)-reduction, and fleet-electrification opportunities as part of their Energy Facilities Master Plan. This was a comprehensive master plan encompassing all facilities managed by DSRSD, including their Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), collection system, water distribution system, administrative buildings, and vehicle fleet. This 50-minute interactive technical session will focus on the GHG and fleet electrification analyses performed as part of this master plan.

The session will start with an introduction by a representative from DSRSD about the key sustainability goals and regulatory drivers that drove this master plan. Then, representatives from the consulting team will present an introduction about GHG emissions, DSRSD’s baseline inventory, and the long list of GHG reduction opportunities evaluated. In addition, recent California fleet electrification regulations will be reviewed.
After the introduction, participants will be guided through a series of interactive exercises that build on each other. Participants will first be asked to brainstorm in groups about which of the energy saving/generation opportunities they expect to have the largest GHG impact. Everything from secondary treatment process optimizations, FOG and food waste co-digestion, cogeneration improvements, to solar and wind energy facilities, battery storage, and fleet electrification will be considered.

Participants will then get to check their assumptions by calculating the GHG emissions of various energy saving and generation opportunities using standard emission factors and actual energy savings/generation estimates from DSRSD. Most GHG emission calculations are relatively straightforward, based on simple multiplication of energy inputs by emission factors, and lend themselves well to this kind of live interactive exercise. With the results of these calculations, participants will confirm whether their initial guesses were accurate.

Finally, participants will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the most impactful GHG reduction opportunities by using planning-level cost estimates developed for DSRSD along with the previously calculated GHG impacts to assess which GHG reduction opportunities provide the best bang for the buck (or, in GHG terms, the lowest $/ton of CO2 equivalents reduced).