Benefits of Data Collection to State
Energy Offices
December 16, 2011 -
3:00 pm - 4:30
pm EST
On Friday, December 16, the
National Association of State Energy
Officials (NASEO) hosted a webinar
sharing the experience of
Minnesota’s State Energy Office
(SEO) and its work with two
Minnesota-based companies to collect
and analyze data that have helped
advance Minnesota’s programs and
policy goals. Presenters included
Janet Streff, Manager, Minnesota
Department of Commerce, Division of
Energy Resources; Mike Myser,
Executive Vice President of Business
Development, Energy Platforms; and
Alecia Ward, Director of Government
Relations and Business Development,
The Weidt Group.
In her opening comments, Janet Streff
touched on Minnesota’s long history in
valuing energy efficiency, and the new
direction and impact of two recent
pieces of milestone legislation. In
2001, legislation was passed that
required all public buildings to be
benchmarked, as well as to create and
implement sustainable design guidelines
for all public buildings that received
bond funds. Funding for this effort was,
and is, an annual assessment to all MN
utilities. A decade later, Minnesota’s
“B3” Program has benchmarked all the
public buildings in the state and
integrated net zero energy standards
into the ongoing sustainable design
guidelines. For additional
details, please refer to Alecia Ward’s
presentation outlining the B3
Benchmarking Tool and SB2030 systems,
which provide states with consistent
turn-key tools for establishing
baselines and targets, measures progress
towards goals, and are tailored for the
unique needs of state and local
governments.
In 2007, the state legislature passed
the Next Generation Act, which requires
all the state’s utilities to save 1.5%
of their annual retail sales, which has
effectively doubled the amount of energy
savings the utilities had previously
done. The diversity of the state’s
184 utilities presented challenges in
standardization and reporting, but
working in partnership with Energy
Platforms, the SEO now has a web-based
tool to enable easy, consistent, and
transparent reporting of utility energy
efficiency program performance, allowing
the state to assess which programs
produce the most energy savings and
which programs are most cost-effective.
For additional details, please refer to
Mike Myser’s presentation and the
webinar recording, which includes a live
demonstration of the Energy Platforms
tool.
Energy Platforms and The Weidt Group
are both NASEO Affiliate Members.
Learn more about
NASEO’s Affiliates Program.
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