| 2010 Summit: Accelerating Energy Efficiency |
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On March 30 & 31 NEEP hosted its fifth Annual Northeast Energy Efficiency Summit in Boston. Despite record breaking rain, the two day event drew a record crowd just shy of 500 program administrators, policy makers, business leaders and efficiency advocates who convened to discuss the 2010 theme of ‘Delivering on the Promise.' The Summit featured an in-depth conference, two topical workshops, efficiency exhibits and awards presentations honoring regional organizations that have demonstrated their commitment to energy efficiency.
2010's Summit program featured state and federal policy makers, program administrators and efficiency advocates coming together to discuss the challenges faced in securing all cost-effective energy efficiency across the Northeast. The Summit kicked off with opening remarks from Executive Director Sue Coakley and Summit Co-Chairs, Phil Guidice (MA DOER) and Tim Stout (National Grid). Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency: US DOE, set the stage for the day's discussions by outlining what is being done at the federal level to advance energy efficiency and highlighting that there is unprecedented support for energy efficiency initiatives from the White House as well as unprecedented funding available as a result of ARRA.
The morning panel, ‘Delivering on the Promise - Key Strategies', featured Phil Guidice (Moderator), Frank Murray (NYSERDA), Ruth Kiselewich (Baltimore Gas & Electric), Ron Araujo (CT Light & Power), Scott Johnstone (Vermont Energy Investment Corporation) and Tim Stout (National Grid) discussing the challenges they face as program administrators and the strategies they're employing to overcome those challenges. Key themes that emerged include the importance of demonstrating the effectiveness of efficiency programs to residential & commercial customers, the need for regional coordination as well as the need to train the next generation of employees on how to effectively address climate change and implement energy efficiency programs.
Echoing Kathleen Hogan's remarks, Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air & Radiation: US EPA, reaffirmed the federal government's commitment to advancing energy efficiency policies as the country moves towards a Clean Energy Future. She also lauded the Northeast for leading the way nationally with its energy efficiency policies and programs, citing the EPA's Region 1 Community Energy Challenge and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as examples of programs that successfully address the adoption of all cost-effective energy efficiency and the reduction of the region's GHG emissions.
As part of the Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency Program, NEEP honored a record number of organizations from across the region that demonstrate outstanding acts of leadership and best practices of energy efficiency. This year's pool of 13 honorees comprised universities, manufacturers and warehouses, a restaurant and a county in NY State and represent a cumulative annual savings of more than $4.5 million.
The afternoon's panel, ‘Delivering on the Promise - Engaging Communities & the Public', looked at the value of engaging community members when introducing energy efficiency initiatives to a region. Harvey Michaels (MIT) moderated a panel of experts including Penni McLean-Conner (NSTAR/NEEP Board President), Julia Dundorf (Clean Air-Cool Planet) and Jim Grevatt (Vermont Energy Investment Corporation). Using examples from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont the panelists discussed how to best facilitate the process of engaging communities when local utilities want to roll out an energy efficiency strategy. Some challenges discussed include how to best scale up a successful pilot program, how to determine what motivates one community versus what motivates another community and how to give ownership to a community group while also achieving the savings goals mandated by state policies.
NEEP thanks all those whose participation made the Summit a great success including our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and business leaders.
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NEEP Moves into an Office of the Future!
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NEEP is so pleased to have moved into our new greener office space at 91 Hartwell Avenue in Lexington, MA. NEEP's Director of Financial Services, Jim Godkins, Sr. Program Manager, Carolyn Sarno and the rest of our design team worked closely with building operators, Boston Properties, and NSTAR and National Grid to develop an architecturally beautiful and energy efficient office space that allows us to ‘walk our talk' even more.
An exciting feature of our new space is a state-of-the-art lighting system, comprised of only CFLs or LEDs, that is 46 percent more efficient than what the Massachusetts State Energy Code requires. To enhance the efficiency of our lighting system even further, automatic occupancy sensors in the lighting controls help us control energy use when a room is not in use.
In addition, our office space was specifically designed to utilize as much natural lighting as possible. Offices around the perimeter of the space have windows out to the center of the space to filter daylight. Since this is New England where natural sunlight is not always in abundance, so we also incorporated manual "step dimming" controls into all fixtures which allows us to further reduce light output and power consumption by 50 percent.
This cutting edge lighting system was made available through a custom incentive from NSTAR under a pilot program called the Advanced Energy Office via the New Buildings Institute. The intent of NEEP's participation for this pilot program is to collect data on lighting and plug loads to see if the potential of saving 30-50 percent of energy in an office space is achievable. Other objectives for the pilot are to evaluate the design and installation of technical measures, validate the energy and demand savings, and collect cost and benefit information.
"NEEP's new space is its own energy efficiency research center which will further our understanding about the significant cost and energy savings that are potentially viable in commercial spaces," said Sue Coakley. "The tremendous collaborative work that involved NEEP, NSTAR, National Grid, and Boston Properties in developing this innovative space in an existing structure is a testament to our common goal of accelerating energy efficiency as a viable energy resource."
Our new office building is ENERGY STAR® certified and to further optimize our energy efficiency, the building's energy system is live monitored from the Boston Properties Command Center 24/7 in Boston to ensure the building systems are operating at expected levels. This helps to ensure any abnormal energy use is quickly identified and diagnosed.
The only thing NEEP staff are more excited about than our lighting system (we get excited about stuff like that), is our location right off the MinuteMan Bikeway. For many of our avid cyclists this is an opportunity to sneak some training in to and from work.
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Change Is in The Air!
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 Over the past few months, the Regional Deployment Initiatives (RDI) group focused much of its work on a restructuring strategy initiated at the end of 2009. Research into perceptions and feedback from NEEP's efficiency program sponsors revealed four compelling needs:
- Establishment of an RDI governance structure led by a Steering Committee, supported by Project Committees co-chaired by sponsors for each regional initiative
- Harnessing the committee structure to sharpen the focus of Initiatives on cross-cutting and sponsor-identified issues
- Clear identification of the short and long-term deliverables stemming from each Initiative
- A transparent, sponsor-led operating model.
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The restructure resulted in a name change; Regional Initiatives is now Regional Deployment Initiatives, a name which emphasizes its focus on execution and implementation. Under this umbrella four committees were formed and launched in the first quarter.
- Steering: Top-level staff from sponsoring efficiency program administrator organizations
- High Efficiency Retail Products: Sponsor staff involved in delivery of lighting, consumer electronics and appliance programs
- High Efficiency Home Performance: Sponsor staff involved in delivery of Home Performance with ENERGY STAR and HVAC programs
- Commercial Buildings and Technologies: Sponsor staff involved in delivery of commercial lighting, HVAC and whole buildings programs
The Steering Committee provides top-level direction and approval of work products coming out of NEEP's RDI activities while the Project Committees bring together the relevant staff and other stakeholders related to planning and executing NEEP's RDI activities. Each committee is co-chaired by two or three sponsor representatives and one NEEP staff member to provide guidance and champion the efforts of the committees.
The first order of business for all committees was to review, revise and ultimately approve the provisional 2010 RDI business plan approved by the NEEP Board of Directors in November 2009. After scores of in-person meetings, teleconferences and email exchanges the task was accomplished in a transparent and sponsor-driven way. The RDI Steering Committee approved each Initiative's long-term goals and high-level strategies at its Inaugural Meeting on January 27. The revised RDI Business Plan was presented to the RDI Steering Committee on April 15 and continues to be developed.
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