6.1. ERMUSR 02-15-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Energy Services Municipal utilities have often struggled to reach the often-changing and increasingly stringent Minnesota Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) mandate. After being outgunned for years in an increasingly significant legislative and regulatory arms race, MMUA in 2007 hired Bob Jagusch, formerly manager of Mora Municipal Utilities. Along with utility experience, Jag- usch brought to the job a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and a master's in nuclear engineering and over 20 years of experience in the U.S. Navy. Office of Energy Security Approximately 60 percent of Jagusch's time is spent working with the Minnesota Office of Energy Security (OES) on CIP-related issues. Much of this effort stems from the 2007 Next Generation Energy Act, which man- dated utilities to reduce growth in energy sales by 1.5 percent per year. Many details in the act were eventually delegated to OES. Jagusch has spent a great deal of his time as the municipal utility representative on the OES task Force that is developing the rules for reporting energy savings to the state. This project often required him to epend three days a week meeting with the group in St. Paul. Among the other CIP issues Jagusch has worked on in 2010 were: • Consumer-based programs • What is to be considered utility infrastructure in terms of energy savings opportunities • Codes and standards • Improving performance of low-income programs. Jagusch has worked with a group dealing mostly with `big picture' issues relating to compliance with the CIP mandates, and has also participated in or monitored working groups, comprised of various interested parties, working on details of issues related CIP. He was an ac- tive participant on the state's "deemed savings database" work group. This database will result in utilities getting more credit for energy savings occurring as part of gen- eral societal energy efficiency improvements: MMUA's efforts to correct mistakes in this database promise to save municipal utility customers millions of dollars each year. Flexibility in meeting the CIP requirements was a con- stant MMUA goal. MMUA was able to achieve a number of small victories in the CIP rule development, which will benefit our members. Through MMUA's efforts, small municipal gas/electric utilities, which are not required to have gas CIP pro- grams, will now be allowed to convert natural gas sav- ings to kilowatt-hour savings. Municipal electric utilities serving cities with no natural gas service will now be al- lowed to participate in home or building weatherization projects and convert projected Btu savings into kilowatt- hour savings. MMUA also helped drive through an agreement that if your utility is seeking a Minnesota Certificate of Need, your utility can claim savings for supply-side energy efficiency upgrades. These savings could be sizeable if, for example, you are upgrading a transmission line from 69 kV to 115 kV. Devices used for VAR control can be counted for CIP expenditures and energy savings calcu- lated and claimed. MMUA's Jack Kegel and Bob Jagusch (standing) talk with The Wenck Group's Leo Steidel (at computer) and Joe Plum- mer of the Minnesota Office of Energy Security. Griffin Project' Faced with helping municipal utilities pursue a Conser- vation Improvement Program with limited resources, MMUA developed an innovative program that leverages the strengths of several cooperating organizations to get the job done. Jagusch enlisted the help of the University of Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Teams, univer- sity students from multiple engineering disciplines and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce `Energy Smart' commercial-industrial audit program to bring all the resources necessary to assist a municipal utility with broad community support. The success of the program in Ely, nicknamed the `Griffin Project,' enabled MMUA to secure funding support from OES to continue this spe- cific program for the next three years. The project is now working in Hibbing, with North St Paul to follow. s Opening doors MMUA's intensive work with OES has opened a lot of doors. Several municipal utilities have obtained grant money with MMUA's assistance. 2010 Year In Review - 9