Winter 2015 Forum
"The Energy Manager's Crystal Ball"
December 10, 2010
McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale
Our Winter Forum brought together two timely and interesting speakers; recognized the efforts of the 2010 Energy Manager of the Year Award Winners; and presented our members with a timely update of the ETO New Building Efficiency Program.
Charlie Grist spoke about the energy savings achieved by Northwest Utilities through energy conservation programs. From 2005 – 2009 utilities have spent about $1 billion on conservation programs, and realized about 900 MW of savings. Conservation is a much cheaper way for electric utilities to meet their increasing electric demands than increased generation,and is the focus of many utilities in the coming years. Charlie highlighted this in his presentation, contrasting the average cost for a utility to purchase electricity on the open market since 2005 at $30 to $60 per MWH with the average cost for a utility to “purchase” electricity through conservation has ranged from about $10-$15 over this same time period. The cost for a new large scale wind farm is about $100 per MWH, which is also about the same cost for a new nuclear utility plant. Clearly conservation remains the most cost effective way for utility companies to satisfy future demands for electricity.See His Presentation
Nick Leritz of Ecos presented information about the new (still under development) ISO50001 Energy Management System Standard. This is an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) protocol being developed by representatives of 50 countries that is designed to provide organizations with a methodology to improve their organizations’ energy efficiency. It involves establishing an energy baseline, identifying energy reduction opportunities, developing a strategy to reduce energy, implementing the strategy, and evaluating the progress. It is aimed at industries, commercial enterprises, and the federal sector, and it is expected to be finalized and released in July 2011. See His Presentation
The Energy Manager of the Year Award for 2010 was given to the team at Portland Public Schools consisting of Catherine Diviney and Nancy Bond. Catherine is the Energy Specialist and Nancy is the Resource Conservation Specialist for the district. This District is the largest school district in the state with about 100 buildings averaging 65 years old. Being a large public entity entails much bureaucracy and fiefdoms that can often pose impediments to energy conservation efforts. Nevertheless Nancy and Catherine have successfully implemented behavioral conservation efforts, energy efficiency projects, and renewable energy generation projects. Specific projects include installing Solar PV on roofs of nine schools, installing high efficiency T8 fluorescent lights in all of their gymnasiums, roof insulation projects, boiler upgrades, and entering into a performance contracting agreement to generate energy savings. See Their Presentation
Elin Shepard of PECI (Portland Energy Conservation, Inc.) provided an update of the revised ETO (Energy Trust of Oregon) New Building Efficiency Program. Some of the changes to the program this year include: Introducing a $2,500 incentive for owners to hold an Energy Charette during the schematic design stage, increasing the incentive levels for new buildings energy saving projects, providing even higher incentive levels for projects that exceed 15% overall savings, eliminating many standard track incentives (such as high efficiency lighting and HVAC, VSDs, DCV, etc.) and developing standard spreadsheets that will determine the incentive for these “straightforward” measures that used to be in the standard track path. A small commercial pilot project is underway that utilizes the Core Performance Guide (Oregon Addition). See Her Presentation
Presentations:
Charlie Grist, PWN Consevervation
Catherine Diviney & Nancy Bond, Energy Managers of the Year