Energy and Cost-Savings Calculators Support Government Procurement of Energy Efficient Products

CLASP – in partnership with the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative and the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) – is leading the development of a series of analytical tools to assist in government procurement of energy efficient products.

The tools cover energy-using products commonly purchased by local, state and provincial governments. Product categories were selected with a particular focus on public purchasing trends in developing countries. The energy and cost-savings calculators are unique in their ability to provide a quick and effective way for government procurement officials to evaluate energy consumption and calculate energy savings potential of alternative product or technology choices such as LED street lights.

The Street Lighting Evaluation Toolkit – an energy savings calculator for government procurement of advanced municipal street lighting— is the first tool available for public use. Additional energy and cost-savings calculators for interior lighting, computers and monitors, and room air-conditioners will be available for free download on the SEAD website, superefficient.org, in late 2011.

Energy and Cost-Savings Calculators: How do they work?

The newly developed energy and cost-savings calculators are designed to be informative and easy for procurement officials and policy makers to operate. Descriptions built into the tool provide users with explanations of the information required for calculating energy savings potential. The tool allows procurement practitioners to compare an energy efficient scenario with their unique baseline scenario. This comparison provides an estimate of annual energy savings and lifetime electricity cost savings available by switching to energy efficient products.

Impact of Energy and Cost-Savings Calculator

The dissemination of standardized energy and cost-savings calculators will help procurement officials worldwide identify the energy-consumption impact of their purchasing decisions. This assistance is important because governments worldwide are the largest sector of product purchasers and energy consumers. For example, government procurement generally accounts for 10 to 15 percent of national GDP and a large fraction of these purchases are for energy-consuming products. By making informed decisions, government purchasers have great potential to contribute significant energy and cost savings and help transform the market for energy efficient products.

U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate Policy Rick Duke emphasized, “The better the procurement tools officials have at their disposal for energy efficiency, the better procurement decisions they’ll make – and the more widespread the adoption of efficient appliances and equipment will be.”

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