CWEB.022/October.31.1997
PROMINENT ENERGY EFFICIENCY INSTITUTIONS in the Northwest, along with a number of prominent renewable-energy developments, are featured in this Halloween issue of Con.WEB.
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance board of directors has been busy this autumn, approving 15 new market transformation ventures in September and October and electing a new chairperson for the coming year. Meanwhile, we also examine Puget Sound Energy and its new approach to energy conservation, away from rebates and towards information, technical services and financing assistance. Also covered here is the new identity of the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition, now known as the Northwest Energy Coalition but still a principal regional advocate for energy efficiency and renewables.
In the renewables arena, the landmark Wyoming Wind Energy Project is under construction. Assuming it spins out electrons by late 1998 or early 1999 as planned, it will be the first large-scale wind-energy plant to directly serve the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, two landfill-gas plants have earned incentive payments from the federal government. And PacifiCorp has agreed to supply "cleaner power" to a Vermont-based energy marketer for sale into California’s soon-to-be-open retail electric marketplace. The gates officially open in the Golden State in just two months.
Enjoy these colorful (and ever shorter) days of autumn, and keep in touch if you wish, mailto:marko@newsdata.com.
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance has essentially doubled its portfolio of market transformation initiatives, and chosen a new chairperson.
The Alliance board of directors, in a pair of two-day meetings in Portland in late September and late October, approved 15 separate ventures--some new, some already in existence--and rejected 17 other proposals from a summer solicitation for market transformation projects. The Alliance now has adopted 26 distinct projects since it formed almost exactly a year ago. Another four potential initiatives are expected to come up for a vote at the next Alliance board meeting, Dec. 11 and 12 in Seattle.
Through October, the Alliance has committed to projects totaling about $24.3 million of its maximum utility-funded budget (through 1999) of $65 million. Most of the funds to date--$13.5 million, or about 55 percent--are earmarked for ventures in the residential sector. Commercial-sector ventures amount to $4.1 million (about 17 percent). Industrial-sector ventures account for about $3.3 million (roughly 13 percent), and multi-sector/infrastructure/support ventures come to $1.4 million, or nearly 6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Alliance board has selected Jake Fey of Tacoma City Light as its new chairperson. Fey succeeds Dave Houser of Montana Power, who is leaving the Alliance board because of a reorganization at his utility.
In addition to this change of leadership on the board, the Alliance has hired a number of new staff people in recent weeks: lead program coordinator John Jennings, lead evaluator Ben Bronfman, accountant Claude Bowles and business manager Rebecca Slick. Also conducting Alliance business are loaned staff from the Northwest Power Planning Council (Tom Eckman, Jeff Harris) and Bonneville Power Adminstration (Gabrielle Foulkes), along with personal-service contractors Roger Spring, Don Stevens and Doug Findley. This is in addition to the Alliance’s numerous public- and private-sector contractors--including Energy NewsData, publishers of Con.WEB-- working on specific market transformation initiatives.
With much of the staff in place and more than two dozen board-approved projects in various stages of progress, the Alliance will refocus its efforts in the coming months.
"I think we’re going to have to enter a phase now [to] slow down, take care of business we have adopted," executive director Margie Gardner told the Alliance board at its Oct. 28-29 meeting in Portland. "There are a lot of very exciting projects on board; we need to make sure we do a good job on those . . . I want to make sure the next projects are focused on priority market areas." The next project solicitation, sometime in the first part of 1998, is likely to reflect this targeted approach.
Gardner also informed the board she plans to work on spreading the word about the Alliance to utilities, governments and other key audiences around the Northwest. "I see that as a real high priority for me, to spend some time to make the Alliance have a little more regional recognition," she said.
Fey Elected Chairperson
Fey, who has served as the Alliance treasurer during the organization’s first year, was elected chairperson by his board colleagues at the Oct. 28-29 meeting. He received more votes than three other board members seeking the top position: Charlie Grist of the Oregon Office of Energy/NWPPC (he represents the Oregon governor), Ken Keating of Bonneville Power Administration and Carol Brown of Portland General Electric. Brown was chosen treasurer, and Grist secretary. Keating, Nancy Hirsh of the Northwest Energy Coalition and Jon Powell of Washington Water Power round out the six-person executive committee.
"Thanks very much," Fey told board members after the vote. "I appreciate the confidence you’ve placed in me and I’ll try to do my best."
Fey praised the outgoing chairperson Houser for his "very excellent leadership" and "hard work, good humor and travel" during the organization’s first year. Houser, in turn, thanked his fellow board members. "It’s really been a pleasure," he said. "Certainly I’ll look back on this experience with a combination of sorrow it was over and jubilation I was part of it." Deb Young now represents Montana Power on the 18-member board. In addition to Houser’s departure, Jim Baggs of Idaho Power also is leaving the board. Fey commended Baggs for his "active involvement and interest" and "excellent contribution" to the Alliance. Darlene Nemnich is the new Alliance board member from Idaho Power.
Later, Fey elaborated on his views of his chairpersonship. "Dave has left this board in good shape and makes the transition to a new chair very easy . . . My job is to . . . continue the cohesion among the group and to work together to come up with an overall strategy that’s going to provide benefits to the region.
"One of the particular challenges," he continued, "will be to make sure that the region is more aware of what our activities are and the way in which we do business so there is more confidence in this approach to changing markets and having an impact that’s going to benefit the consumers in the Pacific Northwest."
The Alliance also should become more proactive in developing market transformation projects and less reactive, he suggested. Another priority is to "reach those people who are directly involved in the markets, who know the markets and have ideas about how we might improve the efficiency in different kinds of products and services."
Fey also offered a "personal perspective" on the importance of serving residential customers. "We’re in business to serve all markets, but the residential consumer is a particularly important market as far as I’m concerned," he said. "To the extent we’re trying to change markets, transform to more efficient markets, I think the average consumer would be relying on us to bring those things forward more so than commercial and industrial businesses who already have a financial reason to improve markets, and gain a financial benefit from doing that."
Projects Approved
The projects approved by the Alliance board at its Sept. 29-30 and Oct. 28-29 gatherings are aimed at improving energy efficiency in a broad range of distinct markets around the region, from irrigated agriculture to architectural design practices in commercial buildings to the production of silicon ingots for photovoltaic and semiconductor applications.
Following are brief summaries of the 15 approved projects.
[Editor’s note: Because of the volume of projects considered by the Alliance board at its last two meetings, detailed summaries of each project and the board’s deliberations are not included in this report. For more information on specific projects approved, rejected or deferred, contact the Alliance (1-800-411-0834) or Con.WEB, at (206) 285-4848, e-mail, marko@newsdata.com.]
Lighting Design Lab
The Seattle-based Lighting Design Lab has been in existence since 1989 as a utility-funded venture to promote energy-efficient lighting to decision-makers around the region, and it will continue for at least another three years with approximately $2.5 million in funding from the Alliance.
"The purpose of the Lab is to encourage commercial and residential building designers and specifiers of lighting equipment to explore and implement energy-efficient, state-of-the-art lighting design," according to the Alliance’s staff recommendation. Staff called the Lab "a critical component in the regional lighting market transformation strategy."
It will target lighting specifiers for the retail, office, daylighting and residential sectors; continue to work with colleges and trade schools to train students; partner with trade allies, professional organizations, Alliance projects and Northwest utilities; expand its regional approach through increased marketing, advertising and electronic media; and serve as the Alliance representative to the New York-based Lighting Research Center. Seattle City Light will be the primary Alliance contractor for the lab.
Northwest Lighting On-line
Primarily targeting the commercial lighting market, this project offers Internet access to lighting design resources, particularly for lighting specifiers and contractors.
It offers two main components. One is a Northwest lighting World Wide Web site that will host the Lighting Design Lab site, provide relevant regional information such as local utility programs, lighting representatives, supplier directors and event calendars, and link to national on-line lighting resources. The second component is development of energy-efficient lighting design features and product search tools on existing Web sites.
The Alliance approved funding of $108,000 for two years. Contractor for this project is Eugene-based inter.Light, whose http://www.light-link.com Web site receives more than 200,000 hits each month, according to the Alliance staff.
Lighting Research Center
The Alliance will hook up in two ways with the Lighting Research Center, based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Alliance staff described the LRC as "a unique organization" in the services it provides.
One Alliance linkage is membership in the LRC’s Partners Program, which will give the Alliance access to the center’s expertise, information services, technical resources and research/development efforts, and enable networking with other LRC partners such as utilities, governments and corporations, according to an LRC brochure. Membership costs $50,000 annually; the Alliance board voted to support the program for three years, with annual reviews.
The Alliance board also signed up for LRC’s Product Information Program, which provides extensive reports on the performance of specific lighting products and designs. BPA has previously participated in this program. Maximum funding approved by the Alliance board for this LRC element is $200,000.
Silicon Crystal Growing Facilities
Although the title may suggest the Alliance is veering off into some esoteric High Tech/New Age venture, this project actually promises significant efficiencies in an energy-intensive industrial process forecasted to substantially expand around the Northwest.
As explained by the Alliance staff, silicon ingots for photovoltaic and semiconductor applications are produced within so-called "crystal growing" furnaces. This project seeks to improve the efficiency of these furnaces, which currently have an average power demand of 250 kilowatts of direct-current electricity. These efficiencies also are projected to cut production costs 10 to 15 percent for photovoltaic panels built with commonplace single-crystal silicon.
If the new furnace technologies are accepted in the marketplace, the Northwest energy-saving potential is huge: 12 average megawatts over 10 years in existing furnaces in the region, and more than 100 aMW at new furnaces built by 2007. Levelized costs are estimated at less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour.
The contractor--Siemens Solar Industries, the world’s largest producer of single-crystal silicon solar cells--has done preliminary testing on furnace changes but needs to refine the design and assure equivalent crystal quality. This project will focus on developing and implementing furnace efficiencies at Siemens facilities that produce silicon ingots for the photovoltaic industry, with the eventual goal of transferring the new technology to the much larger semiconductor industry, which use the same furances.
The Alliance endorsed $1 million for this three-year project; Siemens will contribute another $1 million.
In-Service Industrial Motors
This project, essentially a market research/market demonstration initiative, targets motors already in place in Northwest industrial facilities.
It involves testing and demonstrating specific ways to assess the efficiency of these motors, along with documenting how testing can benefit industrial plants. A market transformation plan will follow. The long-term goal is to accelerate the replacement of inefficient motors.
The Alliance board approved $89,000 for this venture, for which Washington State University Energy Extension Program is the contractor. Energy-saving potential from accelerated motor replacement is estimated at about 2 aMW.
Refrigerated Storage Warehouses
Making variable-speed drives a standard technology for evaporator fans in refrigerated warehouses around the Northwest is the goal of this project. The means to this end focus on educating warehouse owners--along with vendors, contractors and system operators--on the benefits and performance of VSD technology in so-called controlled atmosphere applications.
Project contractor Cascade Energy Engineering will conduct field trials, write detailed studies, create a database of existing VSD installations as well as refrigerated warehouses generally, and disseminate information to key audiences.
Energy savings are estimated at 18.3 aMW over 10 years, at a projected cost of .14 cents/KWh to the Alliance and 1.1 cents/KWh to the region. And, not least, VSDs for evaporator fans in controlled-atmosphere rooms reduce the weight losses of stored fruit--a considerably more significant economic benefit than the energy savings.
The Alliance board approved funding of about $1.6 million for three years.
DOE Motor Challenge Compressed Air Systems Initiative
This national initiative focuses on information dissemination, technical training and training certification, all intended to improve the efficiency of industrial compressed-air systems. Substantial energy savings are available from such measures as repairing leaks and installing controls. In the Northwest, potential savings from improved operations and maintenance on compressed-air systems exceed 100 aMW.
The Alliance board authorized Gardner to fund the Alliance’s sponsorship of this initiative for two years, at an annual cost of $30,000.
Irrigation Scheduling
The only Alliance project to date targeting irrigated agriculture, this venture aims to make the scientific scheduling of irrigation water common practice in the region.
SIS, as it is known, enables irrigators to supply the right amount of moisture to their crops at the proper time, according to the Alliance staff. It is based on the scientific principle of monitoring water in soil and plants, and predicting irrigation schedules from a soil "water budget" that estimates water depletion in the root zone.
Not only does this save energy--an estimated 80 aMW over the next 10 years, assuming 50 percent of applicable areas use SIS. It also cuts irrigation costs, saves water, reduces use of agricultural chemicals and potentially improves both crop yields and quality.
Contractors for this venture are state extension services in Washington and Oregon, the Idaho Department of Water Resources Energy Division, and Water Conservation Districts of Montana. They will work with irrigators and other stakeholders to spread the word about SIS, and assist with its implementation. The Alliance board approved $2 million of funding over three years for this $3.2 million project.
Billing Simulation for Commissioning and Performance Contracting
Targeting small commercial buildings, especially those in rural areas east of the Cascades, this project is intended to increase the viability of retrofit efficiency measures and commissioning in that particular market.
Specifically, this project will refine, test and support a simplified engineering simulation of energy consumption in buildings. Using billing information, weather data, a telephone audit and various computer capabilities, this tool can remotely determine prospective energy savings and verify efficiencies from retrofit or operations and maintenance projects. Alliance staff believes this will give owners of small commercial buildings more assurance on the performance of efficiency measures--the lack of which is considered a primary barrier to building-owner investment in saving energy. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage acceptance of performance-based contracts offered by utilities and energy service companies to owners of small commercial buildings.
The Alliance board approved $128,000 over three years for this project, which is projected to save 2.8 aMW over 20 years at a levelized cost (in the first three years) of .04 cents/KWh. Contractor is Stellar Process Inc., endorsed and in associated with the Conservation and Renewable Energy System (CARES).
Architecture + Energy: Building Excellence in the Northwest
Through an awards program as well as regional workshops and other educational efforts, this project intends to spread the benefits of energy-efficient architecture to the people who design commercial buildings.
The awards program has been in existence the past five years, and has been lauded by past jurors and architects as an outstanding and appropriate way to reach an audience that often considers first-cost and design issues ahead of energy concerns. This project will continue the annual awards, and provide regional workshops and other avenues to work with architects, engineers and building owners.
The Alliance board approved two years of funding, at a maximum of $500,000. Contractor is the American Institute of Architects chapter in Portland.
Building Operator Certification--Oregon and Idaho
Building operators receive training in energy-efficient practices and technologies under these new programs in Oregon and Idaho (there is also an existing BOC project in Washington). Regional coordination of curriculum, certification requirements and marketing across the three states is a big part of the overall Alliance strategy in this area.
Certification is awarded to people who successfully complete a training series. These trained operators are expected to be able to reduce the consumption of energy and other resources in the facilities they manage. Alliance staff estimates energy savings from this venture of 5 to 6 aMW in Idaho over the next 10 years, and 8 to 10 aMW in Oregon. Levelized costs are forecast at less than 1 cent/KWh.
The Alliance board approved funding of $257,500 for the Idaho venture, which will be overseen by the Idaho Building Operators Association. The Oregon project received up to $350,000. Oregon contractor is the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council, which is also the contractor for the Washington BOC program.
High Efficiency Residential Fenestration (Window) Products
Designed to improve the heating efficiency of single-family homes (primarily in new construction), this project will attempt to improve consumer demand and market share for windows, doors, skylights and other fenestration products that exceed energy-code standards.
Activities undertaken under this venture include various promotional initiatives (such as advertising and product branding), sales training for manufacturers and technical assistance for builders. Energy savings could reach 13 aMW over 10 years, at a levelized total resource cost of about 2 cents/KWh.
Alliance funding approved by the board amounts to $1.9 million over three years. An additional $1.3 million is anticipated from the project contractor, the Northwest Fenestration Efficiency Collaborative.
Public Housing
Public housing in urban as well as rural communities in the Northwest is the target market of this venture, which seeks efficiencies in space- and water-heating as well as appliances.
More specifically, the project aims to demonstrate to public housing authorities the benefits of life-cycle cost analysis and resource efficiency management services, and to get them into widespread practice. Although it will start in Washington, the venture can be expanded to the other three Northwest states. Estimated energy savings in Washington are less than 1 aMW, at a levelized cost somewhere below 2.5 cents/KWh.
The Alliance board gave the go-ahead for $305,000 worth of funding for three years. Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program is the primary contractor, along with Oregon State University Cooperative Extension Program and the Idaho Department of Water Resources Energy Division.
Projects Deferred
Four proposed projects were discussed at the September and October Alliance board meetings but were deferred for action. All four are anticipated to get decisions at the Dec. 11-12 board meeting.
One such venture targets the microelectronics industry. Another would focus on commissioning of public buildings in Oregon. A third covers the Lane Community College Energy Management Program and the Northwest Energy Education Institute. And a fourth would establish a lighting design laboratory in Portland.
Projects Rejected
Meanwhile, the Alliance board said thanks but no thanks to 17 proposals from the summer solicitation process.
By title, the rejected proposals: "Low Cost Air-to-Air Heat Exchangers"; "Promoting Energy Efficiency and Green Power through Neighbor-to-Neighbor Education as a Strategy for Market Transformation in Selected Northwest Municipalities"; "Changing Markets for Efficiency Products and Services: A Holistic Approach for Communities in the Pacific Northwest"; "Commercial Resource Conservation Management"; "Energy Design Assistance Software for Commercial New Construction Projects"; "Pilot Study for GeoExchange Market Transformation Potential in The Pacific Northwest".
Also: "Energy Tracking with an Expert System Software Product"; "Solar Utility Network, Inc.--A Model for End-Use Pricing of Solar Water Heaters in The Northwest"; "Stimulation of Integrated Chiller and Building Retrofits in The Northwest"; "Access and Delivery Strategy to Small Commercial Businesses"; "Transforming the Multi-Unit Construction Industry Towards High Efficiency Central Heating and Cooling."; "Lighting Research Center: Lighting Transformation Program"; "Enhanced Delivery of Market Transformation Ventures."
The other rejected ventures focused on industrial motor system optimization, dimmable commercial lighting systems, commercial and industrial roofing and industrial compressed air. --Mark Ohrenschall
Once upon a time, Puget Sound Power & Light outshone all Pacific Northwest electric utilities in energy conservation.
Puget Power--serving much of suburban Seattle and elsewhere around the Sound--chalked up 182.3 average megawatts of energy savings from 1978 through 1994, according to the Northwest Power Planning Council's 1996 Green Book of regional utility conservation achievements. Outside of Bonneville Power Administration, no other Northwest utility reached even half of Puget's total, which accounted for 20 percent of the region's entire utility-funded conservation during that period.
From 1990 to 1994 alone, Puget--motivated by a projected need for new energy resources to serve the utility's burgeoning western Washington service territory--saved a whopping 110 aMW.
Now the times are dramatically different in the electric industry--and for Puget. Wholesale competition and a market full of cheap power, the prospect of retail customer choice, rate-impact concerns, increasingly energy-efficient technologies and, not least, a landmark merger with Washington Energy Co. (parent of Washington Natural Gas) have all contributed to changing the utility's fundamental outlook on energy conservation.
Big savings through big rebates are gone. Conservation budgets and goals are substantially lower than in the 
early 1990s. These days, the investor-owned utility now known as Puget Sound Energy plans to help its customers use energy more efficiently primarily by providing information, technical assessments, financing assistance and other services oriented more to the marketplace and less to acquiring energy savings.
With the endorsement of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, Puget has embarked on slightly more than a year's program under this revamped approach as it develops a longer-term energy-saving plan as a combined electric-gas utility.
"We are definitely in a state of transition," Puget senior energy management engineer Mary Smith told Northwest Energy Efficiency Council members in September. "Puget Sound Energy as a merged company and the whole conservation arena is changing within the utility industry . . . We are struggling with some of the questions."
The Numbers
Perhaps the most visible sign of Puget's conservation evolution lies in the numbers.
For the period roughly from June of this year through June 1998, Puget anticipates electric energy savings of between 8.8 and 9.8 average megawatts from its assorted residential, commercial, industrial, low-income and market transformation programs. Total cost of these programs is estimated at about $7.5 million.
Those figures are dwarfed by Puget Power's conservation numbers from earlier this decade. In its peak year, 1993, Puget reported total energy savings of 29.7 aMW on spending of $59 million. "Puget has successfully demonstrated that there's a significant and cost-effective conservation resource that can be acquired by utilities," Smith told Conservation Monitor in early 1994.
Since then, however, wholesale electric prices have taken a steep plunge. An ongoing regional price survey by Energy NewsData's Clearing Up newsletter has shown that non-firm wholesale prices during peak periods have generally dropped below 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour--and frequently well below--over the past three years. Among other consequences, this has changed the cost-effectiveness equation for conservation.
This "has probably had one of the more direct impacts on explaining why we're pulling back," said Syd France, the utility's conservation implementation manager. Puget formerly pursued energy savings as "literally a strategic resource acquisition. When the basis for cost-effective strategic resource acquisition went away, we brought the levels down," he said.
Puget's interim conservation plan was crafted with the assistance of a collaborative group of stakeholders--not all of whom agree with the end result.
The Northwest Conservation Act Coalition's June 1997 newsletter described the current $7.6 million budget as "a significant decrease from Puget Power's historical expenditures," and noted that it amounted to about .5 percent of the utility's 1995 revenues--well below the 3-percent annual conservation, renewables and low-income weatherization spending figure recommended by the Regional Review. Puget missed "a perfect opportunity . . . to show its commitment" to the Review, the coalition charged.
France actually credits members of the collaborative--including NCAC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Counsel, the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, and others--with nudging Puget toward more conservation than it would have otherwise sought. "Had they not been strongly advocating a continuing presence in conservation, Puget Sound Energy would likely have done significantly less" in terms of conservation budgets, scope and breadth of measures.
As for meeting the Review's recommended spending level on public purposes, France said Puget couldn't justify a conservation budget for this interim year equaling 3 percent of its revenues, or about $30 million. "We're obviously still very concerned about our net costs to customers. We see this huge competitive challenge coming . . . We tried to be up front real early in the process it was not our vision this year to put that kind of money on the table, and particularly not without the level playing field" established for public-purposes spending regionwide.
France acknowledged dissatisfaction among some collaborative members about the funding level. "It'll be part of the ongoing discussions" as the collaborative works on next year's plan. "For purposes of what we're doing right now, they're not satisfied, but they're willing to accept our position for the interim," said France. "They haven't given up on future expectations."
The interim plan, he also noted, gives Puget "a 12-month vision and marching orders to go do something," in contrast to the previous two to three years of "transitional chaos" for the utility's conservation programs.
Shrinking Rebates
As is the case with many utilities, Puget has substantially cut its rebates for energy efficiency measures, notably in the commercial and industrial sectors.
"We are not using significant grant money the way we have in the past as a resource acquisition," Smith told NEEC members. The economics have radically changed. Four or five years ago, she recalled, the avoided costs (alternative power generation) for an energy-efficient HVAC application was about 6 cents/KWh. Now it's around 3.2 cents/KWh.
It used to be that half or more of Puget's conservation budget was earmarked for these incentive payments to customers, according to France. Today it's on the order of 30 percent.
A Puget information sheet describes the utility's current conservation emphasis on "assessment of the energy-saving opportunities, technical assistance and consumer information, verification [of] product installations, and financing of energy-efficiency measures."
NCAC, however, has taken issue with the orientation of Puget's programs. The coalition's June newsletter quotes Sheryl Carter of the Natural Resources Defense Council as saying that "many of PSE's programs are education based. While lack of information is certainly one of the market barriers to conservation, financial constraints are also significant market barriers which must be addressed in order to accomplish actual energy savings."
France described the interim plan as an experiment of sorts. "In this transitional period we need to test some things, try new approaches, don't just try the old rebate thing. That's one of our biggest challenges . . . to try these other tools with customers to see how much impact we can have with a significantly lower budget."
Indeed, he continued, "Given the nature of phone calls from trade allies and customers, it's real clear that money, up-front cash, is still a very primary motivator, even though we want to test all other options." Between May 1 and Aug. 31 of this year Puget conservation staff worked with about 200 customers in the commercial and industrial sectors. Of those customers, 10 to 15 are potential rebate recipients. He does anticipate more efficiency projects getting rebates as the interim plan ramps up; the total budget for commercial/industrial efficiency services is $2 million, of which $600,000 to $700,000 is targeted for incentives.
Still, the shrunken rebates--capped at 40 percent of incremental costs for efficiency measures installed by commercial/industrial customers--and the total resource cost Puget uses to calculate cost-effectiveness have put a crimp on incentives. "We're very limited," France said. "The kind of projects we can provide funding for fall in a very narrow range," basically a two- to four-year payback period. "That's creating a challenge for us, getting leads, identifying projects with customers . . . It's not a bad challenge either . . . Our mission is to test some other ways of doing this business without necessarily providing significant incentives. So far we haven't raised the flag or sounded the alarm."
Puget faces another challenge in trying to re-establish such important tools as major databases that went untended during the past three or so years of suspended and reduced conservation programs. At the same time Puget's total conservation staff has dropped to 20 people for both electric and gas; in its peak year of 1993, the company employed 130 to 140 conservationists, France recalled.
The Power of Information
As rebates wane, Puget is relying more on the power of information to persuade its customers to use energy more efficiently. The utility is offering a smorgasbord of educational/informational initiatives, audits for homes and businesses, technical services for commercial and industrial customers, and facilitation of third-party financing.
Smith described for NEEC members the basic issues and strategy: "What is market-driven? What can be market-driven?" The utility will "work with customers to get them access to information to invest in energy efficiency . . . hand-holding," she added. And instead of doling out a lot of ratepayer money for energy efficiency upgrades, Puget people are "doing our darndest to sell [customers] on their own financing."
A Puget information sheet offers this explanation: "PSE conservation services are becoming more market-driven, and thus PSE's conservation investments on behalf of all its customers are reduced compared with a few years ago. Customers who directly save energy and dollars on their energy bills now pay a greater portion of the conservation investments. This is partly a result of not only lower 'avoided costs' of electricity, but also the industry's transition to more competitive energy supply and energy services markets.
"Fewer of the overall conservation costs are being allocated among all ratepayers for cost-recovery. This is true not only for the cost of the energy-efficiency equipment installed, but also for the cost of PSE's customer services to arrange for these efficiency improvements. PSE is introducing 'at cost' fees for some energy efficiency services, including customer-specific analyses."
Although many of Puget's services are similar to those offered by energy services companies, Smith assured NEEC businesspeople that "the level of detail we do [for these analyses] is less specific" than what private-sector firms provide. "Often we'd like to partner with energy services companies," she added.
The Programs
A look at Puget's program portfolio demonstrates the utility's changing conservation focus.
In the residential sector, Puget is offering a fee-based home audit service with customized recommendations from the utility; a customer-filled-out survey with subsequent utility suggestions for efficiency measures; an energy hotline; various printed materials on efficiency opportunities; facilitation of customer access to alternative financing sources; In-Concert with the Environment, an energy conservation curriculum for middle school and high school students that includes a take-home audit; a pilot duct retrofit program; another pilot program to promote tight duct work in new construction of electrically heated homes; low-income weatherization (some low-income services are being provided separate from the conservation programs and funded by shareholders, as part of the utility's merger); and support of residential energy code issues.
Puget's residential conservation budget for this interim period is about $1.5 million, and the utility expects to save slightly more than 1 aMW.
Under the heading of commercial/industrial energy efficiency services, Puget is offering what it describes as "a variety of services to identify and implement energy efficiency opportunities in existing buildings and new construction." These include technical services--energy audits and analyses, design assistance, bid review and performance verification--along with assistance in securing third-party financing.
This financing help will include a database of non-traditional funding sources that offer attractive interest rates for what France described as "public-interest benefits . . . From what we've seen so far, it's really this hidden world of [financing] things that are out there. It's a matter of identifying them and developing access paths [for customers] to those folks."
And there are still some rebates, albeit limited. Prescriptive rebates are available in certain restricted circumstances for lighting and occupancy sensors. In addition, Puget offers negotiated and tailored incentives for efficiency equipment and for architectural measures in new construction.
Also in the mix are a resource conservation manager program mainly targeting schools and city governments, and a program to ensure compliance with Washington's Non-Residential Energy Code.
Puget's commercial/industrial budget totals $2.4 million, and the savings target for the interim is 6.4 aMW.
Meanwhile, Puget also is actively supporting market transformation. It is paying up to $1.36 million for its share of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in 1997 and up to $2.7 million in 1998 and 1999, plus another $300,000 or so for complementary market transformation initiatives within its territory.
This is an area of particular interest for WUTC commissioner William Gillis. Describing Puget's overall interim plan as "adequate for the moment," Gillis added, "The element of the plan that I felt most strongly about is they are supporting the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. The market transformation approaches are certainly something we have a lot of hope for as a good way to meet energy efficiency needs in the future."
In addition to its electric conservation programs, Puget also has budgeted about $2 million for residential, commercial and industrial efficiency programs for its natural gas customers, aiming to achieve about one-fifth the savings level of the electric programs.
"That gas DSM [plan] essentially mimics the electric [plan]," according to France. "I think our interest in doing that is particularly to be able to have flexibility . . . to provide equitable access to services to all customers irrespective of fuel types. We don't want to be looking like we have different services for different end-users." The electric and gas programs are likely to be more integrated in the future, he added.
Early Program Results
Although France acknowledged results have not been great for the first trimester of the interim plan, "We're obviously very proud of the accomplishments we've made to get programs up and running again . . . particularly in commercial and industrial."
In addition, some of the information-based residential programs are attracting substantial customer interest, such as the hotline and the customer-filled-out energy survey. And the RCM program is proving popular among Puget Sound school districts.
France is optimistic Puget will reach its goals for the interim plan. "I don't see anything standing in the way to get all this accomplished," he said. "We kind of anticipated it would take a little effort to get up and running."
A New Funding Mechanism
Puget's interim plan also includes a new funding method, in which the utility will concurrently recover through slightly higher rates its electric conservation expenses for all of 1997 and half of 1998. A subsequent "true-up" will reconcile any differences between the amount collected from ratepayers and the amount spent by Puget.
Compared with the utility's previous practice of capitalizing conservation costs and amortizing them over time, this new approach "avoids creating longer-term regulatory assets or liabilities for PSE in a rapidly deregulating world," according to a Puget information sheet. The utility acknowledges a higher initial rate impact for customers--approximately .7 percent for residential customers and 1 percent for industrial customers, according to the WUTC--but also touts a lower overall cost of conservation because financing costs for the conservation-related portion of future rates are avoided.
Puget officials believe this funding approach has many benefits, but France acknowledged it as "a transitional experiment" subject to change.
Looking Ahead
Conservation financing is one of a number of issues still to be resolved as Puget and its collaborative group work to "more fully develop a comprehensive and integrated electric and gas DSM program," according to the WUTC staff's recommended approval of the interim plan.
Indeed, staff emphasized the temporary nature: " . . . all parties involved in PSE's collaborative process support the current proposed filings with the understanding that these filings are intended only as interim measures, and would not set precedent for any . . . issues related to future DSM acquisition or recovery of expenditures." Those up-in-the-air issues include cost allocations, avoided costs, Puget's role in meeting Regional Review recommendations, and the funding mechanism.
For example, the current plan uses avoided-cost calculations from the Northwest Power Planning Council to establish cost-effectiveness standards for efficiency measures. These standards--which give conservation credit for environmental benefits (10 percent) and avoided line losses (7.5 percent)--range from about 3.1 cents/KWh to 4.8 cents/KWh, depending on the nature of the measure and its expected life. Puget, however, does not accept the Council's perspective on avoided costs. "We feel it's probably a little bit liberal compared to what we would see on the open market," said France.
The larger issue surrounding this and other important details concerns the very nature of energy conservation programs within the context of a restructuring electric industry.
On the day the WUTC approved Puget's interim plan, Gillis suggested utility programs may not be the primary means of gaining cost-effective energy efficiencies. The marketplace should play a significant role.
Later, in September, he elaborated: "I think that's something we really need to look at more closely as a state. Most likely the utilities are going to play less of a role, as individual utilities, as unbundling occurs. I would think that [conservation is] going to fall more generally on the public and in the industry as a whole to provide for funding and implementation of these programs. I have some hope we'll do more in the marketplace. I'm real interested in what the Alliance is doing, and we'll see how that plays out [and] see how green pricing, green resources play out. I'm excited about other ways of doing it."
The commission supports energy conservation as a public value, he added, and believes it needs to be addressed on a statewide, regional and even national basis, consistent with changes in the electric industry.
Assuming some form of public-purposes funding is established for energy conservation in Washington, France would like Puget to continue to play a demand-side role. "I think we have a lot of benefits, a lot of value with our existing information," he said. "I lose sleep about whether our utility will still have an opportunity to continue traditional energy efficiency services" under a system of public-purposes funding. Utilities, along with state and regional entities, should all get a share of this money, he believes.--Mark Ohrenschall
The Northwest Conservation Act Coalition has changed its name and its offices--but not its fundamental mission as one of the region's foremost advocates for energy conservation and renewable energy.
NCAC, as it has been widely known around the Northwest energy industry, is now officially called the Northwest Energy Coalition (NWEC), followed by the tag line, For a Clean and Affordable Energy Future. The coalition's board of directors approved the new identity Sept. 28, a few weeks after the organization moved its offices to a new location in downtown Seattle: 219 First Ave. South, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 9810 (same phone, fax and e-mail).
NWEC chair Jeff Shields, whose day job is general manager of Oregon's Emerald PUD, noted that the coalition has a wider focus than implied by the name Northwest Conservation Act Coalition. "Since what we do is a broader influence of energy issues and restructuring than just conservation--we do look out for low-income interests as well as conservation and fish and wildlife--we decided to try and simplify that image to make it a little clearer," he said. "Northwest Energy Coalition seemed like it got away from the [Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and] Conservation Act to what we really do, which is broader energy and related environmental and social aspects of energy."
The new identity is intended to help the coalition connect with people who believe in conservation, renewables, salmon recovery and low-income energy services, but who don't connect with the landmark regional act passed by Congress in 1980, nearly two decades ago, explained NWEC director Sara Patton. "The point is to try to reach out to the folks who care about these issues and who just don't hear them when we say NCAC," she said.
The new name also should minimize confusion about the nature of the coalition's work. "We get mail for all kinds of [non-energy-related] things," Patton noted.
Although the name is changing, "The coalition is still firmly committed to the principles that are embodied" in the regional act, she emphasized. NCAC was founded in 1981 as a regional alliance to "seek the best possible implementation of the [act's] far-reaching progressive goals," according to the coalition's Web site. The coalition declares that its influence can be found in the 1991 regional plan (which called for 1,500 aMW of conservation by the year 2000), Seattle City Light's 10-year plan to meet all load growth through conservation, and the 1996 Regional Review.
The idea of a name change has been tossed around by coalition officials for many months; they mulled such adjectives as fair, clean and sustainable before settling on Northwest Energy Coalition. "We gave up on finding the perfect adjective and decided we would use the tag line [For a Clean and Affordable Energy Future] in our stationary and cards and publications," said Patton.
Although the coalition board of directors unanimously supported the name change, it was neither a simple nor an easy decision, according to Shields. "There was hesitancy in a lot of our minds, including myself," he said. "We did establish credibility in a lot of circles. People just refer to the organization as NCAC; they didn't think of the [regional] act . . . We're going to have to work real hard to re-establish or . . . to maintain that association with that new name."
In the end, said Patton, "We needed a name that communicated with the members of our members who don't remember the Northwest conservation act at all."
A strong and active membership--which Patton and Shields believe the coalition has--is critical for NWEC as it works to influence electric industry restructuring legislation around the region and the nation. "We used to be able to make fairly good progress with our member groups . . . staying in touch via the newsletter and coming to a semiannual board meeting," said Patton. "We used to make progress with staff being the smartest kids on the block at Bonneville [Power Administration] forums and a few large IOU [investor-owned utility] things, a few large PUC [public utility commission] things. That's all changing.
"Deregulation means we're not going to win [solely] on policy and smart ideas," Patton said. "You also have to reinvigorate the membership . . . Members of a coalition have to call the shots if they're going to be engaged." NCAC's policy people "know that they need the push of the membership to make an impression these days on elected and appointed officials who are making the decisions."
NWEC's membership emphasis is on organizations. When Patton joined the coalition as executive director in 1993, there were about 55 member organizations. Now the coalition lists 80 member organizations, including environmental groups, utilities, human-service organizations, consumer groups, civic organizations and a handful of non-profit energy-related groups. NWEC also has many individual members.
NWEC is actively working with its member groups to help them organize on energy issues. This strategy is intended particularly for the transition from a monopolistic electric industry to a restructured environment. When this is sorted out and policies are in place (presumably) to provide for public purposes such as conservation, renewables and low-income energy services, "Then our member groups can potentially go back to other things--they've got a lot of things on their minds--and leave NWEC staff to sort of tend the shop because we will have put the system in place that will deliver what the members of our members want," explained Patton.
To this point, only Montana among the four Northwest states has officially restructured its electric industry. Montana's law, approved this past spring, calls for 2.4 percent of electric utility revenues for various conservation, renewables and low-income energy services.
Elsewhere in the Northwest, Patton believes the public-purposes outlook is "pretty good. My best guess is that the Congress will get serious [about electric restructuring legislation] after the '98 elections . . . That will push Washington and Idaho to bite the bullet and come up with something [in the way of restructuring legislation] that'll be grandparented."
NWEC continues to believe in the Regional Review recommendations and their call for a 3-percent funding level for conservation, renewables and low-income weatherization. Although she acknowledged the Review's recommendations are suffering from "tarnished reputations," they represent the only regional consensus on energy policy. "It had enough buy-in that it'll be something to be pulled out of people's back pockets" as debates continue over the future of the Northwest electric industry.--Mark Ohrenschall
Construction has started on the first large-scale wind-energy project to directly serve the Pacific Northwest.
A Sept. 26 ground-breaking event ceremonially launched the Wyoming Wind Energy Project, a 41.4-megawatt-capacity joint venture of PacifiCorp and Eugene Water & Electric Board that is scheduled to begin operating in late 1998 or early 1999. Bonneville Power Administration will purchase about 36 percent of the energy produced by the landmark renewable-energy plant in southeastern Wyoming, between Rawlins and Laramie. (See Con.WEB, July 25, 1997, for a story on the various agreements and permit approvals allowing the project to proceed, along with other details.)
As of Oct. 20, developer SeaWest Energy and its partner Tomen Power had completed concrete foundations for all 69 of the turbines planned for the windy site (average annual wind speed: nearly 25 miles per hour) on Foote 
Creek Rim. In addition, most of the roads had gone in and some work had begun on underground wiring, according to EWEB's Ken Beeson. "Everything seems to be going pretty well."
Meanwhile, PacifiCorp and EWEB this fall expect to finish two-thirds of the 28.8-mile 230-kilovolt transmission line connecting the project with PacifiCorp's existing high-voltage system. "I think they've actually been doing some line-stringing." reported PacifiCorp project manager Gail Miller.
When Wyoming's typically long and frigid winter breaks sometime next spring--an old joke goes that Wyoming has two seasons, winter and the Fourth of July--the utilities plan to finish the transmission/substation portion, the developers will put up the Mitsubishi 600-kilowatt-capacity turbines and associated on-site facilities.
The entire $62-million project is scheduled for completion by October 1998, according to Miller, although commercial operation may not begin until early 1999. PacifiCorp and EWEB will officially purchase the project after a testing phase shows it is working satisfactorily. PacifiCorp will own about 79 percent of the plant, EWEB the remaining 21 percent.
So far, Miller said, the project appears to be progressing smoothly, with no real obstacles in sight.
Ceremony and Plaudits
The Sept. 26 ground-breaking ceremony drew some 200 people to the tiny community of Arlington, where Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer and others made brief remarks. Then, according to Beeson, the assembled group drove up to the project site on Foote Creek Rim for some ritual shovel work and pictures, followed by a lunch back in Arlington. "Wonderful turnout . . . a very positive event," said Miller.
Following are comments on the Wyoming Wind Energy Project, as reported in a PacifiCorp press release (not all these people attended the ground-breaking):
The Short Mountain landfill-gas project near Eugene and the Coffin Butte landfill-gas plant near Corvallis are among 18 facilities nationwide divvying up an annual payment of $2.5 million under the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI) program. Short Mountain's share is $161,405, while Coffin Butte gets $182,707. The payments were announced in September by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Created by the 1992 federal Energy Policy Act and implemented in 1995, REPI is intended to foster the commercialization and use of renewable energy around the nation, according to a DOE press release. The program provides incentive payments of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (subject to congressional funding) for qualifying solar, wind, biomass and certain geothermal energy facilities owned by state or local governments, or non-profit electric cooperatives.
Of the 18 projects that received REPI money this year, nine use solar photovoltaics, including six in the service territory of Sacramento Municipal Utility District. SMUD also has one of the three REPI-funded wind-energy projects. Five landfill-gas projects received incentive payments, in addition to a cogeneration plant making use of biomass digester gas. Approximately $2 million of the $2.5 million in this round of REPI payments went to renewable-energy facilities in California. Total energy produced by the 18 solar, wind and biomass projects came to more than 176 million kilowatt-hours (about 20 average megawatts) in fiscal year 1996.
This round of requests for REPI money exceeded available funds, which DOE interpreted as a sign of growing interest in renewables among publicly owned utilities. As a consequence of this popularity, however, some of the projects received less than their full request. The landfill-gas recipients, including Short Mountain and Coffin Butte, got about 87 percent of their requested amounts because they do not use so-called dedicated biomass resources, according to DOE.
"We got real close," said Kevin Watkins of the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, which operates Coffin Butte. "We're very happy to get this [even though] it wasn't fully funded."
He did describe the lesser award as "kind of screwy," since Coffin Butte collects and burns landfill methane (a potent greenhouse gas) that would otherwise waft into the atmosphere or be flared in a much less-efficient process that produces no energy. Landfill-gas plants do create nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emissions, but these are considered much less environmentally harmful than unrestricted methane releases from landfills. "This project is . . . renewable and has appreciable environmental benefits," he added. (For a closer look at this renewable-energy technology and its increasing application in the Northwest, see Con.WEB, Feb. 21, 1997.)
Coffin Butte began producing power in fall 1995 with two 820-kilowatt-capacity generators; a third was added in 1996, bringing the total capacity to 2.46 megawatts. Coffin Butte has operated at a 97-percent capacity factor, according to Watkins, shutting down only for maintenance and power-grid disturbances. Although he didn't disclose a current price for the costs of Coffin Butte energy, in 1995 he estimated a lifetime levelized price in the range of 3 cents/KWh.
Each year some 350,000 tons of garbage are hauled into Coffin Butte, according to Watkins, and methane production is expected to expand tremendously. "We need to plan for that."
PNGC is looking into the possibility of installing a prototype mini-combustion turbine running on methane instead of natural gas. "We're talking with vendors about demonstration applications," said Watkins. "Probably by after the first of the year we'll know which way we're going to go, at least with the demonstration."
PNGC also is shopping around Coffin Butte energy to utilities as a functioning Northwest green-power resource cheaper than other renewables--so far, however, with no takers. "Nobody is really interested in this," said Watkins. "My gut feel is that nobody wants to be first . . . If we would've had retail access in Oregon [approved by the Legislature] everybody would've jumped on that. Marketers would try to aggregate loads, try to find green-power resources. It hasn't happened. Everything's up in the air. Everybody's just kind of adopting a wait-and-see attitude."
In any case Watkins said Coffin Butte is not dependent on REPI payments, which have a 10-year limit and are subject to the annual vicissitudes of Congressional appropriations. "When we started this project, production incentives didn't enter into the equation or planning for the expansion . . . We're very, very pleased we receive them and we're very pleased the project is recognized as a qualified renewable resource, but we can't rely on such an uncertain source of funding to make these decisions."
Fifty miles south in the Willamette Valley, the Short Mountain landfill has been generating electricity for Emerald PUD since 1992.
It has a capacity of 3.2 MW, and was operating above 95-percent capacity until heavy rains in 1996 curtailed methane production. Short Mountain energy costs about 3.5 cents/KWh to produce, according to EPUD's Web site, while the utility is credited by Bonneville Power Administration for 4.3 cents/KWh as part of a program to encourage renewable energy. The difference yields Emerald about $75,000 a year.
In addition, Lane County, which owns the landfill, doesn't need to install a methane-control system. The energy-generating operation also reduces the amount of methane and carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere from the landfill. "Short Mountain . . . is diversifying Emerald's power sources in a way that is positive both economically and environmentally," EPUD concludes. --Mark Ohrenschall
PacifiCorp is the first wholesale supplier of renewable resources and other "cleaner" generation that Vermont-based Green Mountain Energy Resources plans to sell in California's restructuring electric marketplace.
Under a recent agreement, PacifiCorp is developing a portfolio of resources, subject to Green Mountain's review, that qualify as renewable or cleaner than California's current resource mix.
PacifiCorp spokeswoman Erin McLellan said the utility has more than 400 megawatts of generation that fit the renewables criteria under California's restructuring law. These include small hydro facilities, a biomass plant, geothermal projects and PacifiCorp's share in the Wyoming Wind Energy Project now under development (see story above).
"We'll be offering a range of products that will feature resources that will be cleaner than California's current resource mix, and resources that are renewable," said Tom Rawls, Green Mountain Energy's manager of environmental affairs. The company doesn't use the term "green," Rawls added, and prefers "cleaner" to "clean" since the latter is an absolute term. The company will review PacifiCorp's resource offerings and identify those "that are most attractive from an environmental standpoint." Rawls expects Green Mountain to soon announce the particulars of its California product, including more detail on choices and prices.
He also said Green Mountain doesn't expect these resources to be the lowest-priced products available in the California market--but he believes they will be attractive to customers who place a value on renewables and cleaner energy generation.
Terms of the agreement were unavailable, but Rawls said the deal will provide Green Mountain with enough power to serve "tens of thousands of customers." Length of the agreement is also unclear, although it appears to end before 2001.
Green Mountain Energy Resources is a new company created to sell energy in competitive markets--at this point, California. It is jointly owned by affiliates of Green Mountain Power Corp., a small Vermont investor-owned utility, and the Texas-based Wyly family.
From PacifiCorp's perspective, the agreement with Green Mountain fits the company's strategy to work through aggregators in the California market. McLellan said that since PacifiCorp is very active in the wholesale market in California, it made more sense to sell larger volumes of energy to aggregators and let the aggregators sell at retail, rather than create a new database of retail customers in California. --Jude Noland
These public entities face "unique market barriers" in their borrowing limitations for conservation and efficiency projects, according to a summary from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. " . . . many of these customers are unable to undertake such projects because they cannot commit funding beyond the term of their current school board or legislative body. As a consequence of this restriction, such public entities frequently rely upon leases rather than purchases for their capital equipment. This program will provide public entities with the means to obtain such equipment, with the equipment becoming the property of the customer at the end of the lease." Lease payments will be structured to not exceed market interest rates, and the equipment itself will need to improve energy efficiency and be "vital to the operation of the facility." The IPUC limited leases to five years in duration and $50,000 per customer.
Potential measures include lighting for schools and exit signs and traffic lights for local governments, according to WWP's Jon Powell. "What we're hoping to do . . . is convince the market you can make sales of energy-efficient equipment if you structure it in this way. Governments are unique . . . to make capital expenditures they need a bond vote, which is both expensive and problematical. By doing it through a lease, it avoids them having to treat [the equipment] as a capital expense."
Water Power also has revised its Home Automation Program to shift the focus away from demonstrations on expensive homes (valued at more than $250,000) toward what Powell called "lower-end products" for less-expensive homes. "We had found that the high end was transforming at a fairly rapid rate without significant utility intervention, but that the low end of the market was lagging. By low end, we are really talking about products that require a minimum of hard-wiring and are suitable for controlling some of the major end-uses in the home (i.e. shedding nighttime water heating, lighting controls, etc.). This is the sort of product that you would find in a Radio Shack or Home Depot."
In addition, Water Power also has received regulatory approval to include water heaters and some other end-uses in its electric-to-natural gas commercial fuel-switching rebate program.
These programmatic changes will not affect the budget of the utility's energy efficiency offerings. --Mark Ohrenschall
A mobile exhibit of resource-efficient washing machines is appearing at retail locations and civic events around metropolitan Portland this fall, as a public-information campaign to help people learn about this technology.
The mobile exhibit--a joint project of NW Natural (formerly Northwest Natural Gas), the city of Portland Water Bureau and the Columbia-Willamette Water Conservation Coalition--is intended to complement the WashWise program sponsored by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. WashWise offers a $130 rebate for purchases of qualifying resource-efficient (also known as horizontal-axis or tumble-action) washing machines, which typically use 40 percent less water, 60 percent less energy and 60 percent less detergent than conventional clothes washers.
The mobile exhibit features two WashWise models--one from Frigidaire and one from Maytag--along with a WashWise video, posters and literature. A laundry efficiency expert is available to answer questions and direct people to stores carrying WashWise machines.
For more information, contact Stephen Bicker at NW Natural: phone, (503) 220-2369; e-mail, sgb@gasco.gasco.com; or Cynthia Dietz at the Portland Water Bureau, e-mail cdietz@water.ci.portland.or.us.
Applications are now being accepted for the National Awards for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which recognize people and organizations that have implemented energy-related measures that benefit the country's environment, economy and security.
The awards program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, will honor winners in each of the following categories: building technologies, industrial technologies, transportation technologies, utility technologies, federal energy activities and energy technologies in education. In addition, up to eight special recognition award-winners will be selected from each category. All other qualifying programs will receive a certificate of recognition. Eligible ventures must have been implemented since Jan. 1, 1993, and been in operation for at least a year. Applications also will be used by the non-profit group Renew America for its National Awards for Environmental Sustainability.
Applications are due Dec. 1 of this year; awards will be presented in April 1998.
Applications are available on the DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN) Web site, or by contacting Renew America: phone, (202) 232-2252; e-mail, renewamerica@igc.apc.org.
A catalog of nearly 100 titles--books, publications, directories, Web sites, videos, software--on sustainable building design and construction has been published by Iris Communications of Eugene, OR.
The titles cover a variety of topics for residential and commercial buildings, including energy-efficient construction, passive solar heating, daylighting, landscaping, material and equipment selection, building operation, ecological design and community planning. Most of the titles are intended for building professionals--architects, contractors, engineers, consultants--but homeowners also may find them useful for construction projects.
This fall 1997 catalog is available on the Iris Web site, or by contacting Iris: e-mail, iris@oikos.com; phone, 1-800-346-0104 or (541) 484-9353; fax, (541) 484-1645; mail, P.O. Box 5920, Eugene, OR 97405-0911.
The second edition of "Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings" has been published by Saturn Resource Management of Helena, MT.
The 280-page book covers information on energy principles, electricity, insulation, air leakage, windows and doors, heating and cooling, lighting and appliances, water heating, and home health and safety.
"This book introduces readers to a home's parts, its functions, and its flaws before explaining the possibilities for energy conservation," according to a promotional brochure. "Readers will learn that effective energy conservation requires an integrated approach that identifies the biggest sources of energy waste. Residential Energy will help homeowners set priorities for energy-conservation work, including the evaluation of cost-effectiveness and practical feasibility."
For more information, contact Saturn Resource Management: phone, 1-800-735-0577; fax, (406) 442-1316; e-mail, saturn@initco.net; or mail, 324 Fuller Ave., N-13, Helena, MT 59601-9984.
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