Arizona
1997 Energy Management Conference Scheduled
The 1997 Energy Management Conference (EMC) will be December 10-11, 1997, at the Orange Tree Golf and Conference Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Each year the EMC provides a forum for hundreds of energy professionals to learn more about technologies that help their organizations and institutions save energy and reduce utility costs. The Arizona Department of Commerce is also hosting the new award program, the Governor's Award for Energy Efficiency, to recognize energy conservation and renewable energy work of educational institutions, local governments, state agencies, and individuals. A total of ten awards will be presented at the conference for the best energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Contact: Gloria Castro, (602) 280-1410

California
Filings for Merchant Power Plants Signal New Era of Deregulation
In what Chairman William J. Keese calls a flurry of activity due to electric industry deregulation, the California Energy Commission has begun the licensing process for an 830-megawatt power plant to be located in Victorville, California. The High Desert Project is the first of a number of high-technology "merchant" power plant applications the Commission anticipates reviewing this year. Says Chairman Keese, "The interest for power plants built not by the utilities but by private investors is a clear indication that deregulation is working even before its official start on January 1, 1998." Governor Wilson signed the landmark legislation last year overhauling California's 80 year-old electric utility industry. This followed earlier federal action deregulating natural gas and opening access to electrical transmission lines.

Contact: Rob Schlichting, (916) 654-4989

Updates Made on State's Building Standards
The California Energy Commission recently adopted a few changes to Title 24 to update the state's building energy standards. The new standards will be reviewed by the California Building Standards Commission and are scheduled to become effective in January 1999. If approved, the standards would allow residential builders to receive new energy credits for using good heating and cooling duct construction and high performance windows. These credits, in turn, allow homebuilders to meet building codes more effectively while giving consumers a better product for their money. The proposed standards also enhance code enforcement and assure energy savings by eliminating credits for water heater blankets; reducing credits for pull-down roller shades; eliminating calculations for minor amounts of thermal mass, such as tile counter tops inside a structure; and offering an alternative to the fluorescent bathroom light to provide greater flexibility to builders and homeowners.

Contact: Rob Schlichting, (916) 654-4989

Federal Plan Includes State in Return of Spent Uranium Fuel
The California Energy Commission is coordinating the activities of eight state agencies in preparing for a federal plan to transport 1,100 pounds of spent radioactive fuel by rail through the San Francisco Bay Area, over the Sierra Nevadas, to a disposal site in Idaho. The spent fuel is scheduled to be shipped from Asia to the Concord Naval Weapons Station near San Francisco beginning next year. California supports the return of this fuel to remove it from potential international commerce and possible use in nuclear weapons. But the state opposes the choice of Concord as the port of entry for these shipments, contending that other West Coast ports have more experience in receiving spent fuel and have the necessary emergency response capabilities already in place along the route to Idaho.

Contact: Rob Schlichting, (916) 654-4989

Colorado
Weatherization Grants Are Used to Employ "At-Risk" Youth
The Governor's Office of Energy Conservation (OEC) announced today that five of its weatherization grantees will receive a total of $300,000 to employ "at-risk" youth in 21 counties throughout the state. The program is an extension of OEC's Youth Energy Program, which was developed in 1994 in response to Governor Roy Romer's challenge to state agencies to help end youth violence across Colorado. According to Romer, the Youth Energy Program is a triple hit--saving energy, creating jobs, and preventing youth violence.

OEC's weatherization grantees, or Energy $aving Partners, will train the youths to become skilled at making homes more energy-efficient and helping low-income residents reduce their energy bills. "One of OEC's priorities is to offer young people ways they can develop teamwork skills and build their self esteem. OEC also hopes the projects will help rebuild a sense of community in the neighborhoods," said Martha Blackwell, OEC's Youth Energy coordinator. Youth participants will become skilled in these weatherization services: attic, wall, and crawl space insulation; air leakage reduction; forced air furnace efficiency and safety; and high-efficiency lighting.

Since the Youth Energy Program's inception, OEC has granted almost $4.5 million to fund 26 projects in more than half of Colorado's counties. Projects range from retrofitting a crisis shelter in Paonia and weatherizing homes for low-income residents in Denver, to curbside recycling activities in Grand Junction and collecting and sorting reusable items in Frisco.

Other Youth Energy projects have provided funding to young people for low-income residential weatherization, energy-efficient construction, building retrofits; and recycling and source reduction activities.

Contact: Martha Blackwell, (303) 620-4292 or 1-800-OEC-6662, or e-mail oec@csn.net

Iowa
Rebuild Iowa in Webster City
In an effort to create a more productive and sustainable community, Webster City has embarked on a multi-year program to improve energy and water efficiency in its municipal, industrial, institutional, and residential buildings. Webster City is one of five Iowa showcase communities participating in Rebuild Iowa--an Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Energy Bureau, and U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) initiative designed to help communities identify, implement, and finance cost-effective energy efficiency and waste reduction improvements.

Administered by The Energy Group and sponsored by the Webster City Municipal Utilities, Rebuild Webster City represents a diverse partnership of project specialists, lending institutions, government, private sector, non-profit groups, energy service companies, community organizations, and local contractors. This partnership provides for broad-based support of the program, as each partner both impacts and is impacted by the program's development and success.

Since joining the program in October 1996, Webster City has enrolled 20 facilities and has identified more than $175,000 in energy management improvements to be implemented. Rebuild partners are committed to a number of goals for 1997. One goal is to lower monthly utility bills by 30% or more in selected buildings by implementing energy efficiency measures. As the city now spends $8 million annually on electric energy, this goal will save approximately $560,000 for the community each year.

The program will stimulate local economic development by creating jobs and making local industry more competitive in the global market. In addition, Rebuild Webster City will teach school children about water and energy conservation, seek to improve lighting and air quality in participating buildings, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help protect the environment. By partnering with the DNR Energy Bureau and The Energy Group, Webster City is tapping into a wealth of technical expertise, financial resources, and knowledge. The commitment exhibited in Webster City will ensure a sustainable program with resulting benefits for years to come.

Contact: Kimberly Baxter, (515) 281-6486

Kentucky
Landfill Gas Workshop a Success
Seventy people attended a workshop on recovering and using landfill gas (LFG) for energy in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 17, 1997. Speakers presented an overview of federal and state regulations, criteria for deciding if a landfill is a candidate for an economically viable project, technologies for the collection, cleanup, and use of LFG, case studies of successful projects, and financing LFG-to-energy projects. The USEPA and the USDOE's Southeastern Biomass Energy Program assisted in conducting the workshop, which was sponsored by the Kentucky Divisions of Energy, Waste Management, and Air Quality. Documents developed for the workshop include a "Kentucky State Primer on LFG-to-Energy Projects" and "Profiles of Candidate Landfills in Kentucky."

Contact: Geoffrey Young, (502) 564-7192

Division Conducts Students Weatherization/Audit Training
The Kentucky Division of Energy (KDOE) conducted its tenth Students Weatherization/Audit Training (SWAT Jr.) seminar September 28-30 in Jabez, Kentucky. The SWAT Jr. program trains one teacher and two students from participating high schools and vocational schools to conduct energy audits of their school facilities. Forty-five participants from 14 schools attended this year's training. In addition to classroom instruction, participants toured a nearby school to learn hands-on how to conduct an energy audit. The student-teacher teams also prepared a school action plan that outlines how they intend to implement energy conservation measures in their schools. Upon returning to their schools, workshop participants are to form "SWAT teams" to analyze their schools' facilities. In December, SWAT Jr. participants will meet with KDOE staff to give updates on their school action plans and share information with the other schools. The SWAT Jr. program is funded under a cooperative agreement between KDOE and the University of Kentucky's DOE/EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program.

Contact: Greg Guess, (502) 564-7192

Mississippi
Energy Division Receives Grants for Two SEP Special Projects
The Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development-Energy Division (MDECD-ED) has received Notices of Financial Assistance Award to implement two special projects under the 1997 USDOE State Energy Program (SEP). The Biomass Power Sector special project award, $34,777, will be used to implement an anaerobic digester at a swine farm facility located at Alcorn State University (ASU), Lorman, Mississippi. The digester will convert swine farm waste to methane gas as an energy fuel source for farming operations. The methane gas will also be an alternative fuel source for the propane-powered Fuel Cell Power Plant (FCPP) being constructed at the ASU swine farm facility. USDOE and the MDECD-ED are financial contributors to the FCPP project (see Conservation UPDATE, July, 1996).

A $75,000 Industrial Technologies Sector project will assist with the development of Mississippi's Red Hills Power Project: a lignite mine, power plant, and eco-industrial park in Choctaw County, Mississippi. Grant funds will be used to (1) conduct a comparative analysis of the only existing eco-industrial facility in the world, located in Kalundborg, Denmark, and (2) to conduct a series of forums with officials from industries targeted for recruitment to the Red Hills EcoPlex.

Contact: Dot Lambert, (601) 359-6600

New York
Energy Performance Contracting in New York Schools
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) provides assistance to school districts that are interested in using energy performance contracting to make their facilities more energy efficient. In the past two and a half years, NYSERDA provided assistance to 85 school districts, developing 28 energy performance contracts with a total investment of $153.9 million and estimated annual energy cost savings of $9.3 million.

NYSERDA's role is to provide objective information about energy performance contracting, and it has prepared an overview that outlines the steps involved in the development and implementation of such contract arrangements. A model request for proposals (RFP) with evaluation procedures and a list of energy service companies (ESCOs) are also available. In a typical project, NYSERDA staff will meet with school district officials and members of the school board to discuss the opportunities and risks associated with energy performance contracts and give advice on how to get started.

The level of assistance available through staff resources is supplemented by offering services provided through engineering consultants under contract to NYSERDA through the Flexible Technical Assistance Program. FlexTech services, provided on a cost-shared basis, can include assistance with preparing the RFP, reviewing proposals and then reviewing the comprehensive energy audit prepared by the selected ESCO. The FlexTech consultant also can help in reviewing the proposed energy performance contract, including the energy baseline, and savings guarantees or shared savings arrangements.

Contact: John Ahearn, (518) 862-1090, extension 3310.

Texas
Telehealth in the Colonias
The focus of the Texas State Energy Conservation Office's (SECO) most recent initiative in the colonias is telehealth: the use of telecommunications technology to send data, graphics, audio, and video images between participants who are at a distance from one another for the purpose of clinical care. The Texas colonias are rural, unincorporated, subdivisions along the United States/Mexico border which lack sufficient infrastructure needs such as potable water supplies, wastewater treatment facilities, and safe roads. SECO is coordinating with the Texas Telehealth Education Consortium (TTEC), consisting of representatives from the Texas Women's University; University of Texas Health Science Centers at Houston and San Antonio; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Texas Tech University Health Science Center; Texas A&M University Health Science Center; Center for Rural Health Initiatives; and the Texas Department of Health.

The consortium has agreed that the telehealth initiatives along the border should be a collaborative effort, combining assets where possible to maximize the coverage and minimize the impact on the local people. A comprehensive plan to provide health services to the colonias is the goal of the consortium. Some of the issues identified and discussed by this group include: services to be provided and where, staffing, resource sharing, referrals, and data collection. Articulating these issues in a long range plan and identifying the medical resources available along the border will be the key agenda items for future TTEC meetings.

Contact: Bob Otto, (512) 463-1876, e-mail bob.otto@gsc.state.tx.us or Tracy Bryson, (512) 463-9768, e-mail tracy.bryson@gsc.state.tx.us

Colonias Transportation Program
SECO and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) have joined together to establish and evaluate a transportation service demonstration program for selected colonias. This work is being coordinated within the "umbrella" colonias program established and operating in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Texas A&M University. In a related effort, TTI is working with A&M's College of Medicine to explore opportunities for bringing the telehealth initiative into consonance with the efforts of the transportation program. A successful joint effort will clearly expedite delivery of medical services to colonia neighborhoods.

The core of the TTI program involves providing transportation services to local residents in the colonias. The goal is to secure 15 passenger vehicles to operate in the neighborhood. TTI will use local transportation partnerships to procure the vehicles and provide drivers in the targeted areas. TTI will also provide the overall coordination and funding for the program, as well as implement and evaluate the demonstration projects. The transportation services will complement the variety of social, medical, educational, and other programs being targeted to these neighborhood centers.

Contacts: Bob Otto, (512) 463-1876, e-mail bob.otto@gsc.state.tx.us or Mary-Jo Woodall, (512) 305-9383, e-mail maryjo.woodall@gsc.state.tx.us

Colonias Renewable Water Project
SECO has begun to compile information and contact various stakeholders for a fall trip to a Texas colonia. The goal of the project is to identify, install, and maintain an appropriate renewable energy technology for water purification in a selected colonia. Because water purification needs vary greatly along the border, it is crucial to match the appropriate technology with the region to ensure a successful demonstration. Transferring the technology to the local community, visibility, and replication are key components of a demonstration project. Fortunately, a number of successful installations of village-scale renewable energy projects have been completed in developing countries. These can serve as models for the colonias.

The project includes an initial assessment of colonias in areas where the renewable resource is sufficient, as well as an understanding of which colonias are eligible to receive Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) funds. Although SECO has been working with representatives from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, the TWDB, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the Governor's Office, it is also actively recruiting team members for other state agencies to participate in this initiative.

Contact: Jane Pulaski, (512) 463-1796, e-mail jane.pulaski@gsc.state.tx.us or Pam Groce, (512) 463-1889, e-mail pam.groce@gsc.state.tx.us

CONSERVATION UPDATE is a free monthly publication prepared by the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, Division of Energy, with funding from the United States Department of Energy, to facilitate the transfer of current State Energy Program (SEP) and technical information among the states and territories. Please submit short articles that describe successful programs, solicit ideas, share reports, studies or evaluations, or announce new publications, personnel changes, office address changes, conferences, seminars and workshops. Submittals are due by the seventh of each month. Please send submittals, address corrections, or name changes to: CONSERVATION UPDATE, Division of Energy, 663 Teton Trail, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601, phone (502) 564-7192, facsimile (502) 564-7484, email: landry@nrepc.nr.state.ky.us. Past issues are available upon request. For more information, contact Karen W. Landry, Editor, or John M. Stapleton, Director.

Visit the Division's Web site at www.nr.state.ky.us/nrepc/dnr/energy/dnrdoe.html

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