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Institute for Sustainable Energy Board of Advisors
Board Meeting: April 9, 2007 Members present: Arthur Diedrick, Board Chairman Bob Wall, Director, Energy Market Initiatives, Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Dana Kubachka, for Donald Downes, DPUC John Mengacci, Undersecretary, Policy Development & Planning Division, OPM
Staff: William Leahy, Director of Operations, ISE Laurel Kohl, ISE, Acting Secretary
The meeting was called to order by Arthur Diedrick at 10:10 a.m.
Arthur Diedrick requested that Advisory Board members consider the minutes of the February 5, 2007 meeting. A motion was made by John Mengacci to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Dana Kubachka. The motion carried.
2007 Work plan ISE has received approval from ECMB for a budget of $425,000, an increase from the first offer of $296,000. Bill Leahy went over the budget projections for 2007. With current grant funding ISE annual funding is at $513,000. The 2007 budget was anticipated to be $625,000 in order to complete projected projects and maintain staffing. There are a number of grants pending including Biofuel Legislation that lists ISE to provide educational outreach at $330,000. the DPUC is discussing additional funding for ISE to support the www.ctenergyinfo.org website with the possibility of ISE staffing the WISE-USE phone line as well. High Performance Schools legislation also has the potential for educational outreach, and regulations development funding for ISE. These additional funding sources should be resolved by mid-June. Other opportunities exist with grant writing, including a direct request to the Tremaine Foundation for projects that have climate change impacts. Leahy also asked that board members keep an eye open for other possible funding opportunities.
Progress on ECMB Initiatives Multifamily Project: The draft of the Multifamily Demonstration Project report was presented to the board. ECMB identified this customer sector as poorly represented in energy efficiency programs. ISE performed a national search of best practices, and had a workshop with ECMB members and the multifamily program staff from NYSERDA. Five distinct sub-sectors of multifamily housing have been identified; each with very different needs and penetration strategies. The report lists several approaches that would provide more program involvement to the sector, including: a whole building approach, and not just addressing the lighting systems. Our hope is that ECMB and the utilities will adopt the recommendations. ISE has been working with CHFA and they have included high performance energy requirements in their application process and created a ”Road Map” to receiving construction and renovation funding. Once ECMB has signed off on the report, the document will be published. The comment period will be complete by May 1. ISE has scheduled a series of building operator certification training classes in Stamford through a DOE grant. HUD would also like ISE to do a workshop on aggregated purchasing for energy and efficiency services.
High School Education Program: The numbers of users of the www.ctenergyeducation.com website has been increasing each month, with an high of 606 in March. Workshops have been held through the spring with 105 teachers attending so far. Five additional workshops are planned to July. A summer institutes for teacher are also in the planning stages.
Green Campus: The 2007 initiative will include the Connecticut Community Colleges. ISE is working with the staff of Gateway Community College to expand their programs into energy applications, starting a renewable energy technology program and will propose a center called the Center for Sustainable Technology. CSUS and the Community Colleges signed an agreement to facilitate transfers from 2 year to 4 year programs. This program at Gateway will be a natural Segway into Eastern Sustainable Energy Studies program.
Building Code Training: Four training sessions on the energy portion of the State Building Code are planned for this fall 2007. The Department of Safety has asked ISE to host training in ComCheck, the computer program that helps inspectors to verify energy compliance in building projects. They are also interested in a session on high performance building standards for interested local code officials
Biofuel: Bill Leahy co-chaired a legislative workgroup on Biofuels at the legislature this past fall. The report from this task force resulted in one of the two pieces of legislation currently pending on Biofuel. Representatives from industry, marketing, and academic research identified opportunities to support a biodiesel initiative in Connecticut, using agricultural fuel stocks, such as soy, willow, and waste grease from the food industry. The suggested plan would utilize 15% of CT farmland for stock, and use all of our waste oil. DEP has accepted the proposal if the fuel is used in stationary heating applications rather than in transportation. Higher NOx emissions and warrantee issues on equipment are problematic in transportation uses of the fuel. RB 1260 is now File No. 183 in the legislative process. The bill supports research, support for farmers, and subsidies for new production industry and tax incentives for consumers. .
Green Schools: Bill Leahy has presented to several boards of education, including Waterbury, Trumbull, Bridgeport, Windham and Cromwell. Discussions included using of high performance building standards, energy efficiency and using the schools as distributed generation sites and renewable energy sites. CHP has good possibilities in schools, as they could be used for CHP in winter and peak electric generation in summer. ISE has completed the CT Schools Energy Efficiency report. The report identified the poor energy performance of Connecticut existing schools and the need for financing energy efficiency in renovations as well as in new construction. Pending legislation includes support for new construction and renovations greater than $2 million in the funding, which would include most CT school renovation projects.
Distributed Generation: ISE has recently made a number of presentation on Distributed Generation to business organizations. Leahy has also make presentations to a number of large energy users. Bill Leahy recently spoke with the developers of Harbor View in Stamford, 68 acre development utilizing a partial brownfield site. The development will have 2500 residential units, a business park, retail space and a marina.
Bill Leahy told the board that ISE and Eastern is hosting a meeting April 27 for the Regional EPA’s strategic workgroup on energy efficiency. The New England states are working on a prototype for a model plan. Representatives from Washington DC, New York and Eastern Canadian are also expected to attend.
ISE will be hosting the Annual Conference of DOE’s Northeast Combined Heat and Power Initiative Association on June 21 at UCONN. Two hundred energy professionals and equipment distributors are expected to attend.
Next meeting of the ISE Board will be held on Monday, June 4.
A motion was made by John Mengacci, seconded by Dana Kubachka, to adjourn at 11:07 am. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted, Laurel Kohl Acting Secretary
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