2024 Energy Efficiency & Technology Conference
Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Heritage Center of Brooklyn Center
6155 Earle Brown Drive
Brooklyn Center, MN 55430
Session Information:
2024 New and Returning Rebate Programs and Services
Learn about NEW and returning rebate offerings for 2024, including prescriptive and custom rebates for commercial and industrial process applications, as well as audit programs and other programs to help save your facility energy and money.
Presenter: Matt Dean, Energy Solutions Manager, CenterPoint Energy
Morning Keynote:
Energizing change: Exploring the Energy Conservation and Optimization (ECO) Act
Lauren Sweeney, Energy Planner Principal for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, will show how this bipartisan law is revolutionizing energy efficiency goals. ECO will increase the state’s annual energy savings goal from 1.5% to 2.5%. Discover the potential savings through rate design, the ECO Act’s role in fostering efficiency improvements to utility infrastructure, advancements in state energy codes and more! Join us for a glimpse into the future of sustainable energy transformations.
Presenter: Lauren Sweeney, Energy Planner, Principal, Minnesota Department of Commerce
View details about available sessions from each track:
Session 1
Empowering energy-intensive facilities: Onsite solutions for decarbonization
Industrial manufacturing and energy intensive facilities face significant challenges to decarbonize. Learn about the four key decarbonization pillars and strategies that the U.S. Department of Energy has identified through their Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap. In addition, take a look at the number of onsite energy technology solutions that can be implemented to help achieve decarbonization goals in energy intensive facilities and learn about the no-cost resources available to these entities through the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Midwest Onsite Energy Technical Assistance Partnership program.
Presenter: Cliff Haefke, Director, U.S. DOE Midwest Onsite Energy Technical Assistance Partnership
Session 2
Practical Case Studies Focusing on Recommissioning, Energy Design Assistance and Process Efficiency Programs
Learn about energy-saving programs and studies available and how these programs operate. You will also hear from a customer-driven panel, where customers discuss how they approached energy efficiency in their facilities utilizing CenterPoint Energy’s commercial and industrial programs. Customers will share how and why they did their projects, how energy savings were determined, cost comparisons, the process of working with external vendors and other factors that played a role in implementing their energy efficiency projects.
Panelists/Presenters:
Recommissioning: Matt Strebe, President and CEO, Sustainable Energy Savings, Inc
Energy Design Assistance: Ryan Schwartz, Program Manager, Willdan
Process Efficiency: Sachit Rao, Director, Graphet Data Mining
Session 3
Gas Technology Institute's Emerging Technology Program (ETP): Overview and project updates
Gas Technology Institute’s Emerging Technology Program (ETP) is a North American, membership-based utility collaborative that works to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of energy-efficient systems and equipment. Attendees will learn about how the most promising, newly commercialized products are evaluated in pilot assessments and demonstrations and the research currently being done in the latest energy technologies for commercial and industrial natural gas customers.
Presenter: Ryan Kerr, Director, Emerging Technologies, Gas Technology Institute
Session 1
Dual fuel rooftop units (RTUs)
This session will walk through real-world case studies of dual-fuel heat pump RTUs on commercial buildings. These case studies will highlight the performance of the units in the field, as well as control options and the impacts of various switchover temperature settings. The field-performance data will also be used to evaluate customer bill impacts across different building types, helping to evaluate the best applications for this equipment. This session will provide an overview of the market landscape for dual fuel heat pump RTUs and available products.
Presenters:
Issac Smith, Senior Manager of Market Transformation Products, Center for Energy and Environment
Grant Baumgardner, Research Engineer, Center for Energy and Environment
Session 2
Boiler operation and maintenance: Best practices for heating and industrial process applications
Learn important general boiler maintenance practices for your steam or hot water boiler system including daily, weekly and monthly maintenance checks recommended by the manufacturer’s maintenance specifications. PBBS will talk about annual tear down and inspection criteria of steam boilers and five-year inspection of hot water boilers and inspection requirements of most major insurance companies. Along with general maintenance to improve energy efficiency, you’ll also learn other energy-saving operating best practices with linkageless controls, economizers, blow down heat recovery and variable frequency drives -- all little things on boilers that can equate to big cost savings!
Presenters:
Joe Dambroski, Minnesota General Manager, PBBS
Tim Hane, Eagan Service Manager, PBBS
Session 3
What is natural gas transportation and the role of a marketer?
Hear the options for purchasing natural gas from a third-party marketer and the different ways they can be valuable to your company.
Presenter and moderator: Jessica Miller, Key Accounts Manager, CenterPoint Energy
Panelists:
Bruce Hoffarber, CPA., Vice President Market Development, World Kinect Energy Services
Eric Todd, Vice President Business Development, C.E.M., Encore Energy
Jon Jacobson, Senior Key Account Manager, Symmetry Energy Solutions