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<br />New Brighton Energy Action Plan 5 <br />premises, it accounts for over half of total energy consumption (Appendix A: Baseline Energy Analysis). <br />Commercial and industrial premises use significantly more energy on average per premise than <br />residential ones, a pattern typical of cities like New Brighton. <br /> <br />Total energy consumption was calculated using both electricity and natural gas consumption converted <br />into British thermal units, a unit of measure that allows electricity and natural gas to be compared based <br />on a common measure of energy potential. <br />During the three-year baseline period, New Brighton’s overall electricity consumption decreased slightly <br />by 1.5%. Electricity consumption in the residential sector increased by 8.2% during the three-year <br />baseline while commercial consumption decreased by 6.5%, leading to the small overall change. The <br />growth in residential electricity consumption could be due to progressively hotter summers over the <br />three-year baseline, driving higher use of air conditioning. New Brighton’s natural gas consumption <br />decreased across all sectors during the baseline period, with a total decrease from 2019 of 12.4% (Figure <br />5). This correlates with the decrease in heating degree days each successive year, indicating milder <br />winters and a decreased demand for natural gas for space heating. This data crossed pandemic years, <br />which had little impact on the overall usage data. <br />Figure 3. Average annual energy consumption by sector, 2019–2021. <br />