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Benchmarking report: Kingston wastewater plant accounts for majority of municipal electricity use; commission to refine emissions accounting
Summary
City staff presented the municipal energy benchmarking report showing the wastewater treatment plant is the largest municipal electricity consumer and identified accounting choices that affect greenhouse-gas totals.
City staff presented the City of Kingston—s 2022–2024 municipal energy benchmarking and a companion electricity-source report to the Climate Smart Commission on April 23, showing the wastewater treatment plant as the single largest electricity user among municipal accounts.
The benchmarking slides compared electricity and natural-gas use across municipal buildings and plotted heating-degree days against natural-gas consumption to explain variation year to year. Staff pointed to a number of anomalies the commission asked them to investigate further — for example, a large and unexplained increase in electricity use at the DPW (Wilbur Avenue) account beginning in late 2024, and consistently high natural-gas consumption at the Midtown Neighborhood Center because of large interior volumes and heating needs.
Staff also highlighted that many municipal accounts purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) or participate in community solar subscriptions. The commission discussed how to portray emissions: on-paper REC purchases reduce attributable emissions in a municipal inventory, but community solar and on-site generation are not identically accounted for in all reporting methods. Members asked staff to publish two views: one that assumes grid-mix emissions and a second adjusted view that accounts for purchased RECs and community solar subscriptions so stakeholders can see both local system impacts and contractual offsets.
The staff presentation included an initial greenhouse-gas conversion to metric tons of CO2e using standard benchmarking conversion factors. Commissioners asked staff to annotate the benchmark tables with operational notes (for example, when a building changed occupancy or the city added a tenant) so future reviewers can match energy changes to real-world events.
Staff said they will revise the emissions accounting to show alternate assumptions side-by-side, investigate the DPW account spike, and post the finalized benchmarking and electricity-source reports on the Climate Smart web page.
