Institute for Sustainable Energy
Advisory Board
Board Meeting March 29, 2004

Members present:
Arthur Diedrick, Chairman of Development, Office of the Governor
Donald Downes, Chairman, Dept. of Public Utility Control
Shirley Bergert, Public Benefits Taskforce Director, CT Legal Services
John Mengacci, Undersecretary, Strategic Management Division, OPM

Guests:
Dr. David Carter, ECSU
Dana Kubachka, DPUC
Joel Rinebold, Executive Director, ISE
William Leahy, Associate Executive Director, ISE

 

Meeting called to order by Arthur Diedrick at 9:42 AM .

Arthur Diedrick requested Advisory Board members consider the minutes of the March 1, 2004 meeting. A motion was made by John Mengacci to accept the minutes, it was seconded by Donald Downes. The motion carried.

EPA Energy Star Award:
William Leahy shared information about the EPA award earned by the ISE as Energy Star Partner of the Year for Excellence in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Education. An advertisement will be placed by EPA in the NY Times, Newsweek and US News and World Report. ISE was nominated for the award by the Regional EPA office. Good contacts have been made with program administrators at EPA and DOE in Washington as a result of receiving Energy Star recognition, which may result in future funding opportunities.

Distributed Generation Report and Norwalk Study:
Joel Rinebold shared copies of the two reports with the board. The Distributed Generation Report is the update of the previous southwestern Connecticut Distributed Generation report. It identifies the technical and market potentials for DG state wide. The Norwalk Study is a community energy model for bottoms up analysis. Through this report a 12% load savings has been identified for the municipality. The Norwalk Report is part of the unfunded Executive Order No. 26. The report took 4 to 5 months to complete and be accepted by the community, the mayor and his staff. John Mengacci asked about the cost and effort of creating the report. OPM has been asked by other municipalities to do similar reports. The cost of the study included approximately $120,000 for consultants and $120,000 for ISE in-kind costs. Joel Rinebold stated, going forward, it would cost $20-30,000 to create a typical model energy plan. Arthur Diedrick asked if Norwalk would be willing to fund the study. It was indicated that the community was more interested in investing in implementation, rather than the cost of the planning study. An interested community could make an investment in the planning process by providing in-kind efforts for collecting information, benchmarking, and outreach to local customers. Leahy stated that there is a large amount of effort expended in gathering energy planning data across all customer types, especially in larger communities.
A discussion was led regarding modeling of advanced energy technologies in industrial parks. California has succeeded with the concept of industrial energy park models, but they also have implemented time of use rates and real-time metering, which make conservation, load management and load curtailment measures more financially attractive. Connecticut is moving forward with both seasonal and time of day rates at this time. The Board members discussed ways to make the energy information needed for municipal planning more easily accessible. It was stated that information tracking could be a core responsibility and long-term funding source for ISE. With the City of Stamford, ISE benchmarking is used as a planning tool for identifying facilities for performance contracting projects, and as a monitoring tool to track results. Dr. Carter stated that it was important to convey to the ECMB the valued added for tracking information as part of a systematic solution to energy problems.

Connecticut Climate Change Action Plan:
Thirty-eight of the original fifty-five suggestions sent to the Steering Committee were approved by the Governor and are before the General Assembly. Five of the initiatives engage ISE in their implementation, including the Benchmarking of Municipal Buildings; Shared Savings for Government Agencies (the action step is benchmarking buildings to indicate good candidates for performance contracts); High Performance Design for State Funded Projects; the Green Campus Initiative (ISE to create a model); and a Biofuel Fuel-Switching Pilot (DEP has submitted an SEP Grant in place to convert an ECSU boiler to 20% biodiesel). A sixth initiative, Promote Clean Combined Heat and Power, is still under consideration. ISE is participating in promotional and educational outreach for a DOE-funded virtual CHP Application Center headed by UMass.

Arthur Diedrick discussed the RFP for Photovoltaic Installations which CCEF is administering. There will be $300,000 in CCEF’s plan for education of certified installers for residential installations. Dr. Carter indicated that this would be a great opportunity for a partnering effort between ISE and the State VoTech high schools.

Grant Activity:
DOE is processing a grant for ISE to benchmark additional State facilities. ECSU and ISE have cleared the first hurdle of the grant process to fund a 1 megawatt molten carbonate fuel cell on the campus. It would be installed as a CHP unit with a 12-month contribution to both the campus hot water loop and distribution system.

UN Children’s Conference on the Environment:
Laurel Kohl reported on the status of the program. Presenters have been notified of acceptance. Nearly 500 invitations have been issued to students.

ECSU Sustainable Energy Studies Endowed Chair:
The committee is in its final stages of recommending a candidate. It is expected that the position will be filled shortly, with courses in sustainable energy studies to start in September 2004.

ECSU Science Building:
The General Assembly has approved the cost of this new LEED Silver building. It will take approximately 1½ years to complete. It was suggested that ECSU talk with CCEF to pursue a PV installation on the building.

ISE Expert Advisory Board:
Shirley Bergert suggested that ISE needs to tap into the energy expertise available in the State. Dr. Carter shared that the original vision for the ISE was to have two advisory boards: one for providing direction to ISE and the other one made up of technical experts. It was stated that ISE should pursue creating and contributing to academic level publications to establish the ISE credentials. It was also stated that the ISE should continue with its annual conference, extending the invitation to students and the public.

 

Joel Rinebold was acknowledged and thanked for his efforts in establishing the ISE as he leaves now for other pursuits.

The next meeting will be held on Monday, May 3, 2004, at 9:30 AM.

A motion to adjourn was made by Shirley Bergert, seconded by John Mengacci. Meeting adjourned at 11:10 AM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Laurel Kohl

Acting Secretary