At its regular meeting at 4 p.m. Monday, Danville’s utility commission will hear a presentation on summer initiatives to help customers enhance energy efficiency in their homes.
Throughout the summer, the utility department has been doing customer outreach, identifying high summer users of energy and gathering feedback, according to the presentation, which is included in the meeting’s agenda packet.
High summer users were classified based on the following criteria: high consumption of energy in June and July, significant growth in energy use over the past three years in those months and efficiency, which compared usage to the square footage of a property.
High consumption was defined as usage exceeding 2,500 kilowatt hours. The average household used about 899 kWh per month in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The presentation also includes information about efforts to add smart thermostats to certain homes, offer free HVAC tune-ups and replace HVAC systems to include an energy-efficient heat pump where needed.
A new utilities website is coming soon that will include online resources for customers, according to the presentation, which will be presented by Janet Davis, key accounts manager for the city’s utility department, and data scientist Mauricio Rodriguez.
Danville is the only municipality in the state that offers all four essential utility services: electricity, water, wastewater and natural gas.
The city has been in the utility business since 1876 and serves Danville, most Pittsylvania County households and also portions of Henry and Halifax counties. This includes almost 38,000 residential customers, just over 5,000 commercial customers, about 30 industrial customers and over 14,000 streetlighting customers.
In recent months, the city has been considering initiatives to improve energy efficiency and lower utility costs for residents.
Identifying high summer users, doing community outreach and gathering feedback will help this process.
Also during the meeting, Amy Chandler, the city’s assistant director of finance, will present the utility department’s June financial report.
There are two other meetings in Danville this week. The city’s community policy and management team will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday and the commission of architectural review will meet at 3:30 p.m.Thursday.
In Pittsylvania County, the county community policy and management team will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday.
