A NOTE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Last week, we focused on New York and this week we take a minute to look at Texas. Today I am pleased to announce our latest new member: Austin Energy. Austin Energy is the nation’s 8th largest publicly owned electric utility. They serve more than 440,000 customer accounts and more than 1 million residents in Greater Austin. Their operations are funded entirely through energy sales and services, and the utility operates within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas statewide market. Austin Energy further supports the City of Austin and its other departments through an annual transfer into the general fund of more than $100 million. Welcome Austin Energy to the CHP Association. Many thanks to the outstanding work being done by our Membership Committee: Doug Davis from Broad USA and Joe Allen from Caterpillar.
Also this week we are excited about our new mapping project. Part of our strategic plan document for 2015, we will be unveiling a new, interactive map of CHP facilities across the United States. This map will be a great service, not only to our members, but also for folks on Capitol Hill, in the media, and the general public. We will send out an announcement once the map is up and running on our website early next week.
All the Best,
Dale Louda
NEWS EXCERPTS
President Signs Energy-Efficiency Legislation
President Obama signed into law the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 (S. 535), on May 1st, a bipartisan bill supported by CHPA. The new law will establish a program called “Tenant Star” that will certify and recognize commercial building tenants for achieving high levels of energy efficiency, as well as require the General Services Administration to develop model commercial leasing provisions to encourage commercial building owners and tenants to invest in cost-effective energy- and water-efficiency measures. CHPA will continue to support and devise legislative solutions to benefit the CHP industry in particular and related measures that will indirectly help CHP.
Shaheen Introduces CHP Legislation
Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH) introduced the Heat Efficiency through Applied Technology (HEAT) Act. The legislation does two things: (1) Directs the Department of Energy along with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish model best-practices that address regulatory barriers to CHP and WHP. States would be encouraged, but not required to adopt these best practices. (2) Creates a targeted, voluntary grant program to help states implement the most recent Environmental Protection Agency guidance on output based emission standards, which encourages the efficient use of fuel through CHP and WHP. CHPA has worked closely with Senator Shaheen’s office, resulting in some language changes being made to the legislation. We will talk about the HEAT Act and other legislative initiatives on the next Policy Call on Tuesday.
CHPA Members Work to Reauthorize Ex-Im Bank
CHPA Association members, working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, support legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im). Ex-Im Bank’s charter expires on June 30. Last year, Ex-Im supported exports that in turn sustained more than 164,000 American jobs at thousands of companies. It is especially important to small and medium-sized businesses, which account for nearly 90 percent of the Bank’s transactions.
EPA power plant rule enters final review
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted the final version of its carbon emissions rule for new power plants to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. The move is the final step before the rule is finalized and implemented, something the EPA says should happen by mid-summer.
Click here to read the full article
Murkowski casts aside ‘messaging’ in pursuit of overdue energy bill
E&E Daily
Gone are the days of politically charged, procedurally doomed bills designed more to rile up partisans than to actually change policy. At least that’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s hope when it comes to the sweeping energy bill she looks to assemble in the coming months. “It’s not going to benefit me to try to move a measure that has no bipartisan support. I might be able to move it through committee, but if I can’t actually move it through the floor, that’s a lot of work for no gain,” the Alaska Republican, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told reporters during a 40-minute briefing yesterday afternoon.
Click here to read the full article
The Commercial Combined Heat and Power Market Is Expected to Be Worth More than $14 Billion Annually by 2024
Navigant Research
A recent report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market potential for commercial combined heat and power (CHP) systems for a range of building applications, including global market forecasts for system installations, installed capacity, average installation capacity size, and revenue through 2024. In light of concerns about grid reliability, demand for electricity, and greenhouse gas emissions, policymakers, utilities, and building owners in a growing number of countries are becoming more interested in commercial CHP systems. In fact, governments around the world are increasingly focused on boosting subsidies and other incentives for the adoption of these systems and related building efficiency technologies.
Click here to read the full article
New England city turns to its wastes to ensure year-round supply of fresh vegetables and fish
ClimateWire
By this time next year, residents in Keene, N.H., will have year-round access to local and sustainable fish and vegetables, thanks to their municipal landfill. Keene’s city officials are partnering with an organization called the Local Farms Project with plans to construct a 1-acre greenhouse and a recirculating aquaculture system on the grounds of the closed Keene Landfill. All the heating and power for the greenhouse will come from burning methane released by the city’s garbage dump. An on-site combined heat and power plant (CHP) will produce 750 megawatts of energy, which will be divided between the greenhouse and the city’s recycling center. Altogether, the project is expected to result in around 7,000 metric tons of CO2 offset annually.
Click here to read the full article
Distributed Energy Wins Major Political Champion, A King
Forbes
U.S. Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, may just have changed the game in energy innovation. Senator King is reportedly planning to introduce legislation today called the Free Market Energy Act of 2015. The Free Market Energy Act of 2015 tackles the fundamental problem threatening to curtail future deployment of distributed energy technologies like rooftop solar: what are the benefits and costs of distributed generation and who captures them.
Click here to read the full article
States preview arguments against Obama’s climate rule
The Hill
Two state attorneys general gave a preview Tuesday of their legal arguments against the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants on Tuesday. Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia told a Senate panel that Obama’s plan is based on conflicting statutes within the Clean Air Act and promised his state would pursue further legal action after the Environmental Protection Agency approves the rules this summer. Oklahoma’s Scott Pruitt said the plan is “nothing more than an attempt by the EPA to expand federal bureaucrats’ authority over states’ energy power generation mixes.”
Click here to read the full article
The world needs to triple its investments in clean energy innovation
The Washington Post
The world needs to triple its investments in clean energy research, suggests a new study by the Paris-based International Energy Agency, if we’re to have a chance of keeping the world below 2 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels — a level beyond which truly dangerous climate change might set in. That’s because in addition to any international agreement to cut carbon emissions that may be reached at the end of this year, the world will also need new technologies to fill the gap left behind as we use less of fossil fuels like coal.
Click here to read the full article
Supreme Court Will Hear FERC Order 745 Demand Response Case
GreenTech Media
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that vacated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 745, which calls for demand response to be paid on equal footing as generators in wholesale energy markets. The issue at stake is not just the price demand response can be paid, but the question of whether FERC has the authority under the Federal Power Act to regulate the rules of the wholesale power markets.
Click here to read the full article
Tesla may grow its Gigafactory to meet huge demand for stationary batteries
EnergyWire
Last Thursday, Tesla Motors Inc. announced a new line of batteries to power buildings and the electric grid. Two days ago, CEO Elon Musk said that the response was so strong that Tesla is considering raising production by 50 percent or more at its new battery factory, already slated to be the largest in the world.
Click here to read the full article
EVENTS
CHP Association Annual Meeting
The CHP Association Annual Meeting will be held on Monday and Tuesday September 14 and 15, 2015 in Washington, DC. The Annual Meeting will be preceded by an Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday the 15th of September. Details about registration, the agenda, sponsorship, and other materials will be sent out soon.
EE Global 2015
May 12-13
Washington, DC
EE Global is an exclusive networking event for high-level, international energy efficiency professionals.
Click here for more information
The Next Infrastructure Challenge: Connecting to a Clean, Reliable and Affordable Energy Future
May 14, 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Washington, DC
Join America’s Natural Gas Alliance on Thursday, May 14th, 2015 for a discussion on the future of American energy infrastructure with leading stakeholders, decision makers, companies and associations.
Click here to register
Driving Energy Efficiency with IT: A Solutions Forum
May 18, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
101 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20001
Energy efficiency can be one of the least-cost options a state can use to meet its carbon reduction goals under the proposed Clean Power Plan. Widely deploying energy efficiency enabled through information technologies could help save money, cut emissions, and verify these reductions. Join business, state and city leaders exploring options for deploying intelligent efficiency.
Click here to register
Power Plays: Geothermal Energy in Oil and Gas Fields Conference
May 18-20, 2015
SMU Campus in Dallas, Texas
Don’t miss “WHP Technologies: Transferring Success from Geothermal to Waste Heat to Power Projects” at Power Plays: Geothermal Energy in Oil and Gas Fields. Speakers Jessica Lubetsky of Pew’s Clean Energy Program, Loy Sneary of Gulf Coast Green Energy and Michael Newell of Ener-G-Rotors, Inc. will provide information on technologies that generate power from waste heat without using any additional fuel or generating any incremental emissions, U.S. policies that significantly improve return on investment for certain technology applications but not others, and recommendations for providing parity among U.S. technologies that generate electricity with no incremental emissions.
Click here for more information
NAM 2015 Manufacturing Summit
June 2-3, 2015
Washington, DC
Join manufacturers—from front-office executives to plant managers and workers on the front lines—as they visit with key members of Congress to promote a pro-manufacturing legislative agenda to spur vigorous economic growth and reduce the cost of doing business.
Click here for more information
