Title
Quarterly Conservation Program Update
Recommended Action
None
Staff Recommendation
None
Body
The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) conservation program accomplishments for the second quarter of 2016 are summarized below. These activities were coordinated and staffed by personnel from PEEC, under contract with the DPU.
April 8 & 15, 2016 - The second annual DPU Water Festival was held at UNM Los Alamos Campus. In conjunction with LANL, the City of Santa Fe, Office of the State Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others, the festival was held for all of the fourth graders in the Los Alamos Public Schools and local home schooled students. Interactive models, games and demonstrations were used to teach various aspects of water resources with an emphasis on water conservation.
April 23, 2016 - The DPU sponsored an educational booth at the Earth Day activities held at PEEC. The booth consisted of interactive models demonstrating solar power generation, hydroelectric power generation and thermo-electric power generation. The demonstrations were representative of the DPU's actual resources that power -up the community. Approximately 500 people visited the booth and participated in the well-received demonstrations.
June 11, 2016 - The DPU sponsored an educational booth at Los Alamos Chamber Fest 2016. In addition to the electric power generation demonstrations, DPU sponsored a 30 minute educational seminar with the Master Gardeners club on water conserving irrigation practices. Water conservations kits were distributed and a number of educational flyers.
July 16, 2016 - DPU sponsored an educational booth at the Los Alamos Science Fest 2016. The booth was extremely popular with a constant crowd taking advantage of the demonstrations, displays and educational materials. Well over 500 community members of all ages stopped by the booth.
Through-out the spring while school was in session, PEEC performed numerous age-specific educational presentations on water and energy conservation to LAPS students in the classroom and to school clubs. These outreach efforts with the schools and participation in community events have resulted in an estimated 2,271 student and adult educational contacts. A contact being present and/or participating in classroom or booth presentations.
Upcoming events include the Home Energy Expo on September 24, 2016 and resuming classroom presentations when school resumes in August.
Since the initiation of the tiered water rate we have gone through almost two irrigation seasons. We have assembled consumption data for this period and updated our 2014 baselines to produce up to date graphs of water use to evaluate any impact from the tiered rate and other trends that may reflect water conservation influences to the community's water use. Three graphs are attached that show consumption patterns for the various retail customers and LANL. Some of the notable trends are as follows, details provided in discussion.
- 2015 low consumption in retail due to precipitation.
- Trend reduced consumption for both LANL and Retail. LANL and DPU conservation efforts attributable in some part.
- Dramatic reduction in consumption for LANL 2015. Begin using effluent for cooling water for super-computing center.
Alternatives
None
Fiscal and Staff Impact
None
Attachments
A - Graph 2006 - 2016 Consumption by Customer Class
B - Graph 2006 - 2015 Total Annual Consumption (no LANL)
C - Graph 2012 - 2016 LANL/Retail/Total Consumption