By: Danielle Stogdill
Working in close coordination with the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Division of Energy Management (DEM), CUNY BPL’s Energy Data Lab (EDL) team develops, deploys, and administers a suite of tools that enable DEM and partner agencies to meet emissions reduction targets, streamline project planning and execution, and comply with climate-related local law reporting requirements.
The newest tool, Epsilon, was designed to provide access for DEM and City agency energy personnel to centralized utility and non-utility energy and emissions data. Epsilon provides users with key information needed for performance analysis work and reduces the amount of manual data manipulation needed in Microsoft Excel. The application integrates with DEM’s application ecosystem and complements other DEM tools, while enabling analysis of performance and progress over time.
As an official introduction to Epsilon, CUNY BPL Product Manager Jillian Panagakos led a presentation and demo at DEM’s Summer Energy Forum on July 16 at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Dweck Cultural Center Auditorium – and quite a few CUNY BPL staff showed up to cheer her on. The Energy Forum is a biannual meeting for City agency energy teams, where updates are provided on programs, projects, and progress toward the City’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.
The audience followed along as Jillian demonstrated how users access the Data Export Tool, which provides access to energy data at multiple levels for monthly or annual reporting. There was also a preview of the property dashboard, launching early fall, which will provide visualizations of energy and GHG metrics and additional property metadata. Epsilon already has over 75 users across DEM and its partner agencies, and its user base is expected to grow quickly as additional features are added.