The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE)  is a decision-support tool designed to help cities quickly identify under-performing sectors, evaluate improvement and cost-saving potential, and prioritize sectors and actions for energy efficiency intervention.

It covers six municipal sectors:

• passenger transport,
• municipal buildings,
• water and waste water,
• public lighting,
• solid waste, and
• power and heat.

 TRACE consists of three modules:

energy benchmarking which compares key performance indicators (KPIs) among peer cities,
sector prioritization which identifies sectors that offer the greatest potential with respect to energy-cost savings, intervention selection which functions like a ‘playbook’ of tried-and-tested energy efficiency measures and helps select locally appropriate energy efficiency interventions.

TRACE is designed with the intention to involve city decision makers in the deployment process. It starts with benchmark data collection, goes through an on-location assessment involving experts and decision makers, and ends with a final report to city authorities with recommendations of energy efficiency interventions tailored to the city’s individual context.

Key questions addressed:

• Which energy efficiency measures should my city prioritize?

Sample data inputs:

• Population
• Climate
• Energy consumption
• Information on transport, waste, water, power & heat, lighting, and buildings

Sample quantitative outputs:

• Recommended energy efficiency measures based on (i) energy savings potential, (ii) initial implementation cost, and (iii) speed of implementation

For more information, and to download the tool, visit the TRACE website.

Resources:

TRACE brochure

e-learning course

Case studies.