by S Pincetl, R Graham, S Murphy, D Sivaraman

Journal of Industrial Ecology 20(1): 166-178

2016

This paper gives a structure to comprehend resource flows into cities and waste streams out. The major hurdle in this effort is the lack of data from each sector. In this study, the authors selected energy-use findings for the residential sector for the city of Los Angeles by census-block level and address level of electricity use. The authors used the town or county billing data for each customer class over an extended period to measure and track the efficiency of energy conservation and efficiency program investments. Moreover, they overlay the census information and county tax assessor data about building age, size, and type to generate relevant information for rate settings. Results on median electricity demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions and expenditure were presented at three geographical levels of aggregation: city council district (15 in total), neighborhood (114 in total), and census block group (2,538 in total). The average annual demand ratio between the highest- and the lowest tier users was 26 at the census block level, 5.6 by neighborhood, but only 2.2 at the city council district level. There is thus evidence that spatial aggregation substantially masks the existing degree of variation. Understanding the energy use of a city is crucial to efforts to reduce energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Region: Los Angeles, California
Publication Type: Journal article
Keywords: energy conservation, greenhouse gases, and urban planning