LEWISTON – Cool Communities volunteers will study energy use at City Hall as part of a summer-long project.

Cool Communities volunteer Alex Hernandez said he is building an inventory of Lewiston’s municipal energy use as part of an effort paid for by Maine Partners for Cool Communities, the Sierra Club and Efficiency Maine.

The inventory will look at municipal operations, including the size and number of city vehicles, to determine how much energy the city uses.

“At that point, the city can begin figuring out how to decrease energy use,” he said. “That translates to saving money.”

Cool Communities Maine is an effort to get Maine municipalities to reduce their overall energy use to pre-1990 levels by 2012. The initiative urges communities to do business in more economical ways, cutting down on engine idling, using more durable and energy efficient appliances and encouraging recycling.

So far, 15 Maine municipalities have joined the effort, including Auburn. Lewiston city councilors created their own Energy Savings Committee to work with the Cool Communities group but stopped short of joining the effort.

City Councilor Betty Dube, the council’s representative to the energy committee, said the inventory will help her group. Hernandez said he plans to finish this work by the end of the summer, and expects it will be expanded to look at local businesses and other groups next year.

“It’s much easier to look at the city because everything is there and it’s public,” he said. “But once we have this work, we can begin looking at the same issues for the entire community. “