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Institute for Sustainable Energy Board of Advisors
Board Meeting: February 5, 2007 Members present: Arthur Diedrick, Board Chairman Bob Wall, Director, Energy Market Initiatives, Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Dana Kubachka, for Donald Downes, DPUC
Staff: William Leahy, Director of Operations, ISE Laurel Kohl, ISE, Acting Secretary
Guests: Michael Pernal, Vice President, Eastern Connecticut State University
The meeting was called to order by Arthur Diedrick at 10:15 a.m.
Arthur Diedrick requested that Advisory Board members consider the minutes of the December 11, 2006 meeting. A motion was made by Arthur Diedrick to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Dana Kubachka. The motion carried.
2007 Calendar William Leahy requested the Advisory Board reschedule the April 2 meeting to a later date because of a personnel conflict with the meeting date. Bill Leahy will send the members alternative dates for their consideration.
CCEF Board Member Vacancy Bryan Garcia has moved on to Yale School of Forestry to develop International Enviro Businesses. Bob Wall, formerly with Smart Power, has taken Bryan’s position in Energy Market Initiatives, as well has his seat on ISE’s board. The members welcomed Bob Wall. A motion was made by Arthur Diedrick, seconded by Dana Kubachka, to send a letter of thanks and congratulations to Bryan. Motion carried.
2007 Work Plan Leahy presented the 2007 Work Plan between the Energy Conservation Management Board (ECMB) and the Institute. The plan includes goals for the Green Campus Initiative, Energy Education, the Multifamily Demonstration Project, and Building Inspector Training. ECMB is recommending a budget for ISE of $425,000 in anticipation of the Legislature restoring the CEEF to the full funding level. The Energy Education goal has been expanding to reach into the State VoTech schools this year. The Green Campus Initiative will include the Community College System. The Multifamily Demonstration project should conclude by
Other 2007 funding includes; $15,000 from OPM for Benchmarking, a grant from DOE for Multifamily BOC training and payment for work on the 2007 CT Energy Plan from CEAB. Leahy will approach the Tremaine Foundation for funding a Climate Change activity.
This new portal site has been design and launched by ISE. The site links to 59 different energy information websites. ISE is in the process of moving the site to a new server, updating the accessibility of the site and adding new tools. The energy assistance links are active and include a Calculator and index of available programs. The Calculator asks the user a number of questions and provides a list possible assistance programs that an individual might qualify for. ISE is working with the Low Income Energy Advisory Board to complete this section of the site. Possible connections to get the site visibility in appropriate populations include DSS, Department of Labor, CCM, food banks, landlords, libraries, and bill stuffers. There is also discussion about ISE supporting the 877-WISEUSE energy info phone line. A link to CHFA was also suggested by the board. Gary King is the suggested contact. It was also suggested that CTEneryInfo would be a good clearinghouse for calendar events, and should be linked to CT Climate Change and SmartPower’s calendars.
Distributed Generation: Bill Leahy has been called on to make a number of presentations on this subject over the last 6 months. ISE will be hosting the NECHP Initiative Annual CHP Conference at UConn in June. The DOE CHP application center at Pace University has a grant to do a hospital CHP conference and would like to partner with ISE and hold the event in Connecticut this summer.
CTEnergyEducation Laurel Kohl shared the web stats and updates to the Energy Educational program. Workshops for high school teachers are planned through spring. About 400 users are visiting the site each month.
Multifamily Demonstration Program The report on the multifamily project will be released soon. We have built good relationships with CHFA through the development of this project. CHFA has upgraded their loan application process to require loan applicants to adhere to Energy Star standards. A roadmap of the loan process has been developed to define points of intercession, identifying the best times for administrators of the CCEF and CEEF programs to make contact. A good example of this is at the 40% design stage of a project, when letters of commitment are required from both the developer and project funders.
Green Campus The Green Campus Initiative was featured in the CSU magazine, with Eastern’s efforts highlighted. Three recently completed residence halls and the new science building are all LEED designed buildings. There was a February 1 Green Building Conference held at Old Judiciary, sponsored by the CT Fund for the Environment. Greg Kats presented his new report of the financial implications and benefit of green buildings. Bill will get the board copies of this report. Other speakers at the conference included Bill Leahy and Steven Winters.
2007 CT Energy Plan The final draft has been delivered to the CEAB this week. It will be released to the legislature shortly.
Legislative Review Fuel Diversity Taskforce: Bill Leahy has been serving on the CT Legislature’s fuel diversity task force to determine the feasibility of establishing a biofuels industry in the state. Recommendations have been made by the task force which is now part of pending legislation. Tolland’s representative Brian Hurlburt has proposed a bill (RB1260) this session that includes support for farming energy producing agriculture in state, supporting DEP’s efforts in waste oil conversion, Economic Development’s loans and incentives for new industry, and tax incentives for both a distribution network and biofuel users. It was suggested that ISE work with CCEF’s Keith Frame concerning support of biofuels research for in state sources in CT, such as wood sources. It was stated that the current study is concentrated on oil sources for biofuels. DEP does have concerns about NOx with use of biodiesel in buses and transportation, especially in summer. There is no problem with heating applications. ISE would be well positioned for doing the educational outreach if the bill passes. Bill Leahy has been active on this workgroup. The report has been delivered to the Speaker of the House. New legislation is expected this session.
Green Schools: Sections 11 and 12, relating to requiring LEED Silver in Municipal projects is included in the “Big Energy Bill” RB345 and may possibly be broken out into one of two smaller bills. Bill Leahy will attend a February 13 Public Hearing to testify to Energy and Technology on the bill.
Distributed Generation: Requests have been filed with the DPUC for incentives to support 200MW of DG and CHP projects. Future avoided FMCC funds are being used to support this initiative. Emergency Generation are included in this program.
Dana Kubachka told the board that CT will host the New England Commissioners NEC-PUC group in Mystic June 24-26. 350 energy regulators are expected to attend.
Bill Leahy told the board that Eastern will host the Regional EPA Climate Change planning group on April 27 on Eastern’s campus. EPA Region 1 is sponsoring the meeting.
Dr. Pernal told the board that the matter of ISE’s rent will be discussed at the Eastern Foundation meeting to be held this week. He expects that the Foundation will reduce the rent payment. ISE expects to move up to campus in 2008 with the completion of the new science building.
A motion was made to send a note to John Mengacci in congratulations for his new position as chair of CEAB.
The next meeting of the ISE Board will be in April on a date to be decided.
A motion was made by Dana Kubachka, seconded by Arthur Diedrick to adjourn at 11:34 am. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted, Laurel Kohl Acting Secretary
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