Energy Sector Investment Strategy
The Alliance, in cooperation with Battelle Memorial Institute, has developed a Regional Energy Sector Investment Strategy (see the MUNEE Papers section of our Library Documents) as a method of identifying projects with significant emissions reduction potential. The conceptual basis for the energy sector investment strategy is that emission-reducing investments should be made in a rational manner based on a comprehensive least-cost review of alternative investment opportunities. The strategy:
- Examines the pollution reductions from already-completed district heating efficiency projects. Which investments in heating infrastructure (e.g.: improvements in substations, heat generation units, end-use, etc.) have the greatest pollution reduction benefits per unit of investment?
- Estimates the emission reduction potential of restructuring district heating companies. Battelle identified cities that have restructured or privatized their heating companies and estimated the emissions reductions that resulted from improvements in operational efficiency and other changes brought on by the restructuring process.
- Assesses heating strategies in terms of prioritizing district heating rehabilitation vs. alternative sources (specifically decentralized, gas boilers). Battelle assessed whether, from an environmental and pollution-mitigation point of view, maintaining district heating infrastructure makes sense within certain contexts. Battelle also assessed the experience of the World Bank and others in determining priorities in energy-sector investment on the municipal level and developed recommendations for how cities can develop their own investment priorities (e.g.: shutdown portions of the heating system and install autonomous boilers or modernize existing heating stations and improving the efficiency to the point that the other boilers could be shutdown).