NW Energy Efficiency Alliance Receives $11M for Green Industrial
Aug 20 - Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR)
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance will begin promoting green practices in the industrial sector this fall after receiving an $11 million allocation from its board of directors earlier this month.
The $11 million allocation clears the way for the alliance, a nonprofit
corporation backed by electric utilities, public benefits administrators, state
governments, consumer groups and efficiency industry representatives, to begin
its five-year campaign to increase energy efficiency in the industrial sector.
The allocation only funds the effort through 2007, although the alliance's
strategic plan calls for a campaign through 2009.
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance is targeting the industrial sector's
efficiency practices because it believes the industrial sector, more than most
other markets, is bound by its own fiscal situation to listen to advocates of
sustainable business practices. The alliance's strategic plan notes that the
sector is in a state of decline with significantly reduced resources, including
staff and capital. With the industrial sector needing to improve its bottom
line, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance expects to find listeners
receptive to its plan to alter the entire sector by only changing its energy
practices.
Industrial facilities are concerned about their bottom line and getting the
project out the door, said the alliance's Bob Helm, who will manage the
application of the $11 million to the industrial sector. In improving the
processes, energy is just one component of that. If you enhance that one
component, you affect the whole system. It's what we call non-energy impact, in
which you may reduce labor costs and improve product quality and production.
While the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance frequently engages in
campaigns to influence a specific practice in an industry, its industrial sector
campaign will take a more holistic approach, focusing on market transformation
as opposed to acquisition programs of the utilities, Helm said.
Most utilities have a rebate program, where they give the customers so much
in horsepower for upgrading to a different motor, or they'll subsidize compact
lights, he said. The industrial initiative is looking longer term for market
transformation - We will be working with corporations on business practices to
incorporate energy into planning and production improvements and how they make
their decisions for projects, to get them to utilize energy as part of those
decisions.
According to Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the industrial sector
initiative will save the Pacific Northwest nearly 130 average megawatts of
electricity by 2015 at a total cost of about $0.01 per kilowatt-hour through
2015.
An average megawatt is the amount of electricity needed to power about 700
homes in the Northwest for one year.
The alliance expects to select a project manager to manage the entire project
in mid- to late October. Also needed are channel managers for each of six
markets - compressed air, refrigeration, pulp and paper, motors, pumps and food
processing - who will design an overall program for their respective markets.
The five-year campaign will begin once the positions are filled.
In addition to the industrial sector initiative, the Northwest Energy
Efficiency Alliance's Board of Directors allocated up to $1,695,000 over three
years to continue funding an energy efficiency information service, and approved
$525,160 for a monthly online newsletter and Web site.
The board also allocated $925,000 for the initiative 80-Plus Efficient Power
Supplies for PCs. As part of the initiative, Ecos Consulting will work with
computer manufacturers to encourage the purchase of computers with highly
efficient power supplies through a buy-down that allows manufacturers to sell
these computers at the same price as computers with less-efficient power
supplies.
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance earlier this year launched a residential
construction program, Energy Star Homes Northwest, which is an effort to get
builders and developers in the Pacific Northwest to construct homes that meet
Energy Star requirements.
Most builders in the Northwest are already familiar with Energy Star
requirements, but some are hesitant to meet them because they fear costs would
be too high, said Marci Sanders, the alliance's residential sector manager. The
Energy Star Homes Northwest program is an attempt to assuage those fears.
Costs are always the issue with the builder, Sanders said. They want to know,
'How much is it going to cost me to do an Energy Star home?' And, also, (they
wonder whether) 'it's a really different way and I have to get my trades to do
something in a different way.' Those are the major barriers.
The Energy Star Homes Northwest program will run through 2005.