FROM EQUIPMENT TO INFRASTRUCTURE - COMMUNITY ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSION REDUCTION

Community energy management (GEM) (also called community energy planni ng) combines planning concepts - neo-traditional design, complete comm unities, green cities - with energy management concepts - energy casca ding, demand-side management, integrated resource planning. It can be applied at the level of neighborhoods, cities and even small regions i n order to exploit the synergies between urban design objectives for l ivable cities and energy management objectives of minimizing energy us e and its associated environmental effects for a given standard of liv ing. CER I encompasses (i) land use planning, (ii) transportation mana gement, (iii) site design, and (iv) local energy supply and delivery p lanning. While traditional energy management focuses on energy using e quipment and buildings, CEM also considers the urban land use and infr astructure level. This study applies CEM to four representative commun ities in British Columbia, Canada, over the period 1995 to 2010, and c ompares the results to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. The aggrega te effect is a decrease in energy service costs and energy consumption of 15-30%, and in air emissions (CO2 and NOx) of 30-45%. The methodol ogy and results, with respect to one aspect of CEM - land use planning - are extrapolated to the provincial level in order to estimate total CO2 emission reduction potential. CO2 emissions are reduced by 17% fr om BAU. Additional approximate calculations (restricted to land use pl anning) suggest that on a global scale CEM can be an important element in the greenhouse gas emission reduction strategy, especially given t he dramatic urban growth anticipated in developing countries in the co ming decades. Implementation of CEM requires an array of policy initia tives from governments at all levels, as the following examples illust rate. National and provincial (state) governments can (i) change the l egislation governing regional and municipal land use planning, (ii) ti e infrastructure grants to CEM type municipal investments, and (iii) p rovide information support and fiscal incentives for developers. Regio nal and municipal governments can (i) change zoning objectives, (ii) e ncourage specific types of developments through development charges an d tax incentives to developers, and (iii) work with energy and other u tilities to encourage particular energy forms and delivery systems. (C ) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.