Hall County, GA: Energy performance

Better Buildings Challenge Partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline. Hall County's portfolio consists of 38 buildings and one million square feet. Energy consumption during 2020 was significantly lower than a typical year since COVID-19 disruptions resulted in temporary building closures and reduced occupancy for much of the year.  With over 18% growth since 2010, Hall County has become one of the top growing counties in northern Georgia. As a result, the County is continuing to prioritize energy efficiency projects at its facilities and evaluating essential systems that can be enhanced with energy efficient technologies. The continuing HVAC upgrades, improved controls, and on-going lighting retrofit initiatives have allowed Hall County to balance sustainable energy usage with growth. *Hall County has improved energy performance by 12% from a 2010 baseline.

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all properties can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy.  Hall County has achieved energy performance improvement of greater than 10% at 16 of its properties. There are 13 properties that have experienced an increase in Source EUI. These properties have been targeted for future energy efficiency improvements.

Property-level energy performance metrics, including EUI and percent improvement to date, are critical to track progress over time and identify opportunities for additional energy savings. Hall County's portfolio consists of properties with a wide range of baseline EUI values, most of which are from 100 to 400 kBtu/sq. ft. The majority of properties have shown energy improvement since 2010. The properties located near or below the 0% axis may present good opportunities for further savings. Other areas to be addressed include analysis of the top ten properties that exhibit either the highest energy use or greatest energy cost.