Kilowatt Crackdown

Start planning now for the 2018 competition!

What is the Kilowatt Crackdown?

The Louisville Energy Alliance challenges building owners and operators in Jefferson County to realize the benefits of energy efficiency by participating in the Louisville Kilowatt Crackdown. It’s easy — all you have to do is benchmark your facility’s energy use with Portfolio Manager (for buildings) or Energy Tracking Tool (for industrial plants), EPA’s free online benchmarking tools; make improvements over the contest period; and submit your final benchmarking score. Top honors will go to the most efficient buildings and the buildings making the greatest energy improvements, but all buildings will be recognized for participating and striving to improve Louisville’s environment.

Award Categories
Winners will be selected based on data from the final Energy Performance rating or Energy Use Intensity (EUI) metric generated by Portfolio Manager. All participants that complete the competition will be awarded certificates of participation. Award categories are:

Best Performer (based on 2018 data only) - awarded to the building or plant with the highest energy performance rating for 2017
Most Improved - awarded to the building or plant making the greatest percentage gain in energy reduction from 2017 to 2018

These categories will be awarded for each building type entered into the competition. All buildings will automatically be entered for both categories unless the building's energy use data is insufficient.

Kilowatt Crackdown Rules of Engagement

All participants must benchmark their building’s energy use in Portfolio Manager, ENERGY STAR’s free software monitoring tool.
Best Performer entries - Energy should be tracked for 12 consecutive months, beginning with a building’s January 2018 billing cycle and ending in December 2018. Energy use data must be entered each month as bills are received.
Most Improved entries - Energy should be tracked for 24 consecutive months, beginning with a building’s January 2017 billing cycle and ending in December 2018. Energy use data must be entered each month as bills are received.
All meters for a building must be entered into Portfolio Manager.
Participants must benchmark all fuels used in the operation of their building.. Participants will be required to submit energy performance results generated by Portfolio Manager to verify their final “Improvement Over Time”.
Building owners and operators may enter multiple buildings, but each building must be entered as a separate facility within your Portfolio Manager account. Please contact us (louisivilleenergyalliance@gmail.com) to submit more than five buildings at once.
Participating industrial plants must benchmark energy use in EPA’s Energy Tracking Tool and report savings using the tool’s Statement of Energy Improvement. Eligible plants must also report their 1-100 Energy Performance Indicator Score, also available in EPA’s Energy Tracking Tool.

Eligible Buildings
Any building that can be entered into Portfolio Manager is eligible to participate, regardless of whether it is eligible to earn ENERGY STAR Certification. Participation is limited to buildings located in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Buildings that have won an award through this competition within the past three years are not eligible to win again.

Deadlines
The deadline for the competition is typically at the end of January. This information will be announced as we get closer to the end of this year's competition.

All energy data must be entered into Portfolio Manager and shared with the Louisville Energy Alliance by the deadline. Instructions on how to share data through Portfolio Manager will be emailed upon registration. Kilowatt Crackdown winners will be honored in Spring 2019.

Why Participate?

Improve your bottom line: Increased energy efficiency in commercial real estate can reduce operating expenses and increase property asset value. For example, a 10% decrease in energy use can lead to a 1.5% increase in net operating income. Further, an increase in energy efficiency contributes to increased employee productivity and health, and enhances the comfort of the tenants.
Do your part to protect the climate: In 2006, commercial buildings and industrial facilities generated 41% of Louisville Metro’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Be recognized for your achievements: Your building / business will receive free promotion and recognition of your participation in the challenge.
Receive special recognition: Receive special recognition from Mayor Greg Fischer if your building earns the ENERGY STAR Label!
Free Technical Assistance and Resource Sessions: The Louisville Energy Alliance offers free in-person Portfolio Manager training sessions for all participants.

*The number of buildings recognized will be determined by the number and space types of the final pool of entrants, as determined by ENERGY STAR space type definitions in effect at the close of the Kilowatt Crackdown competition year.

2017 Winners

Kilowatt Cup Winner
Norton Audubon Hospital

Best Performer
K-12 School

JCPS Tully Elementary School

College/University

JCTC Shelby Campus

Church/Worship Facility

First Unitarian Church

Large Church/Worship Facility

Southeast Christian Church

Healthcare Facility

Norton Women's and Children's Hospital

Manufacturing Facility

Sealed Air

Office Facility

The Presbyterian Center

past winners 2009-2016

"Through the Kilowatt Crackdown, the Louisville Energy Alliance is leveraging the ENERGY STAR platform to help building owners achieve greater energy performance with measurable results, as part of the Mayor of Louisville's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions community-wide. The Louisville Kilowatt Crackdown is a model program for any community that is looking to promote improvements in commercial building energy performance to lower energy costs and protect the climate."
Leslie Cook
ENERGY STAR Public Sector Manager
Climate Protection Partnerships Division
U.S. EPA