Dallas reports energy-efficiency gains, new solar projects and a pilot battery system for city buildings

City of Dallas Facilities and Resource Management staff told the Environmental Commission on a June meeting that the city has completed multiple energy-efficiency upgrades in municipal buildings, is expanding its rooftop solar portfolio and is piloting a combined solar-plus-battery installation at a recreation center.

FRM staff described completed projects including a City Hall boiler replacement finished in December 2024 and a high-efficiency lighting retrofit completed in April 2023 at three city facilities. “The total project cost [for the City Hall boiler] was approximately about $3,200,000,” FRM staff said, adding the boiler swap moved the building from an old steam system to a high-efficiency hot-water system and produces “an estimated annual savings in gas usage [of] approximately about 30%,” along with lower operations-and-maintenance and chemical-treatment costs.

The lighting retrofit across three facilities cost about $1,000,000 and is expected to reduce lighting energy use by roughly 35% while lowering replacement and disposal costs for lamps, the staff presentation said. FRM also reported that the city has completed energy benchmarking for about 195 buildings using the EPA Portfolio Manager and that energy audits have been completed for roughly 45 city buildings in collaboration with a state energy-conservation provider.

On solar, staff said the city completed three rooftop solar projects in 2023 at municipal locations and that the three installations combined have about 432 kilowatts of capacity and an estimated 37% annual energy reduction for those baseline buildings; the presentation said the city now has solar PV installed at 11 municipal buildings with a combined installed capacity of about 930 kilowatts.

FRM staff described two ongoing solar projects: a pilot solar-plus-battery system at Bachman Recreation Center with a total project budget of about $1,600,000 (approximately $900,000 allocated to solar and batteries and roughly $7,000 for electrical switchgear) and an installation at a “Factory Center” recreation site that is currently out for solicitation with an estimated budget of about $500,000 and a projected 2026 completion.

Staff also said the city received a Department of Energy energy-efficiency grant of about $1,100,000 to replace fluorescent lighting with LEDs and lighting controls in five city buildings (the presentation listed the specific facilities under solicitation). The presenter said the city signed a municipal energy supply contract with TXU in 2019 to source 100% wind-generated energy for city operations, and that the city was ranked by the EPA Green Power Partnership as a top local government user of green power in 2024.

Commissioners asked about measurement and verification and public reporting. The presenter said the city maintains a baseline and performs annual comparisons (the presentation described using Portfolio Manager baseline year comparisons) and that vendors perform pre- and post‑installation measurement and verification for lighting retrofits.

Commissioners also raised questions about resilience and whether batteries could substitute for natural‑gas generators during multi‑day outages. The presenter described the Bachman pilot as deliberately sized to support critical spaces in the building rather than powering the entire building, and said the pilot will help staff understand operational characteristics of coupled solar-plus-battery systems at municipal scale. “We don’t anticipate you power up the entire building,” the presenter said, describing how the pilot will support predominant emergency-use areas and provide receptacles for portable equipment.

Commissioners and staff discussed payback and economics. The presenter said the municipality’s low wholesale contract rate (described in the presentation as about 7¢ per kilowatt-hour under the city contract) lengthens simple payback on solar projects compared with higher commercial rates, and that rising utility rates and a contract renewal in 2029 could change that calculation.

Staff also answered technical questions about solar thermal and said the department had reviewed solar thermal technologies but that solar thermal’s larger footprint and higher first cost made it a poor fit across much of the city’s building portfolio. The presenter said earlier solar‑thermal analysis was performed “about five years ago” and that the department has not recently re‑evaluated that technology in detail.

Next steps listed in the presentation included continued energy-efficiency retrofits, coordination with other departments for signing and siting (for example, carport solar or parking-lot considerations), pursuing grant funding and completing the Bachman solar-plus-storage pilot to inform future projects.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff to report back on monitoring metrics and on whether solar installations include visible public education (signage or kiosks). Staff said they will work with sister departments on signage and noted city kiosks exist at some locations but that past cybersecurity incidents have delayed broader kiosk integration. No formal commission action or vote was taken on the items presented at this meeting.