District Energy Now
Volume 11 Number 7 February 1996
Welcome New Members!
Nobuo 'Nick' Uchihori
President
Vito Lampugnano
Vice President Engineering
Mycom America Corporation
2015 S. Arlington Heights Road
Suite 103
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
(708) 806-6886
(708) 806-6902 fax
referred by Stan Gent of Unicom Thermal
Wayne Robertson, P.E.
Director of Energy Consulting
Heery International, Inc.
999 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30367
(404) 881-9880
(404) 872-3098 fax
referred by Hemant Mehta of Syska & Hennessy
Kristie Thayer
Research Associate
Arthur D. Little
20 Acorn Park
Cambridge, MA 02140-2390
(617) 498-6134
(617) 498-7206 fax
Ferman Milster
Power Plant Manager
The University of Iowa
100 Physical Plant
Iowa City, IA 52242-1000
(319) 335-5132
(319) 335-6082 fax
referred by Ray DuBose of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Donald B. Ingle, Jr.
President
Capital Energy
7244 Tuliptree Trail
Indianapolis, IN 46256
(317) 488-3554
(317) 488-3401 fax
Timothy J. Lorencz, P.E.
Project Engineer
Karl Marietta, P.E.
Vice President
Kattner/FVB District Energy Inc.
333 South Seventh Street
Suite 2240
Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 338-4489
(612) 338-3427 fax
Farron Blackburn
President
Refrigerant Gases, Inc.
8701 Bedford-Euless Road
Suite 300-04
Hurst, TX 76053
(817) 589-0622
(817) 590-2648 fax
Tom Grubka
General Manager
Scott French
Application Manager
Armstrong International, Inc.
816 Maple Street
Three Rivers, MI 49093
(616) 273-1415
(616) 278-6555 fax
Calendar of Events
1996 ASHRAE Winter MeetingFebruary 17-21, 1996
Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA
Contact: ASHRAE, (800) 5-ASHRAE or (404) 636-8400
IDEA 9th Annual College/University Conference
February 21-23, 1996
The Hyatt Rickeys Hotel, Palo Alto, CA
Hosted by Stanford University
Contact: IDEA (202) 429-5111
Marketing Workshop
March 7-9, 1996
Marriott City Center, Denver, CO
Contact: IDEA, (202) 429-5111 or Marketing Forum Chairman Jon Wohl, (215) 875-6900 ext.
169.
Chilled Water Plants for Central and District Cooling Systems
May 13-17, 1996
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Contact: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Engineering Professional
Development, (800) 462-0876, (608) 263-3160 fax or e-mail: custserv@epd.engr.wisc.edu
87th Annual IDEA Conference and Tradeshow
June 8-12, 1996
The Sheraton Washington Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Contact: IDEA, (202) 429-5111
IDEA European Study Tour
August 31-September 7, 1996
Sweden, Denmark
Contact: IDEA, (202) 429-5111
Geothermal Resources Council 1996 Annual Meeting - Geothermal Development in the
Pacific Rim
September 29-October 2, 1996
Portland Marriott Hotel, Portland, OR
Contact: Geothermal Resources Council, PO Box 1350, 2001 Second Street, Suite 5, Davis,
CA 95617-1350
(916) 758-2360
11th Annual Cooling Conference
October 2-4, 1996
The Midland Hotel, Chicago, IL
Contact: IDEA, (202) 429-5111
Nordic District Heating Symposium
October 28-29, 1996
Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact: Danish District Heating Association, 45 75 52 88 11 or 45 75 52 89 62 fax
International District Heating Conference
October 30-31, 1996
Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact: Danish District Heating Association, 45 75 52 88 11 or 45 75 52 89 62 fax
National Congress of the Danish District Heating Association
October 31-November 1, 1996
Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact: Danish District Heating Association, 45 75 52 88 11 or 45 75 52 89 62 fax
Washington, DC Meeting Watch
Plans are well underway for IDEA's 87th Annual Conference and Tradeshow, June 8-12, 1996 at the Sheraton Washington Hotel in Washington, DC.If you are interested in exhibiting contact Tammie Jackson or Stephanie Mattes at IDEA as soon as possible to reserve your space! The exhibit hall is filling up fast!
The conference will include technical tours of the General Services Administration's steam plant and the National Institutes of Health's plant.
Watch for the preliminary program in your mailbox at the end of this month!
APPA Publishes New Comparative Costs and Staffing Book
The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA) has published The 1993-1994 Comparative Costs and Staffing Report for College and University Facilities, the only source for comprehensive statistics on higher education facilities services. One of the sections reports utility operations.The report is available from APPA for $60 to members, $120 for all others plus $8 shipping and handling. To order, send a check to APPA Publications, Dept. CCPR, P.O. Box 1201, Alexandria, VA 22313-1201; or call (703) 684-1446 ext. 235 for more information.
Net Operating Income Up in Office Buildings
According to a report released by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), office building owners and managers in the U.S. private sector reported positive growth in net operating income for the first time since 1989. The "1995 Experience Exchange Report (EER): Operating a Cost Effective Office Building, Your Guide to Income and Expense Data," reported the positive results.The report reveals that net operating income grew by 1% per square foot in 1994, compared to negative or flat growth for the last four years.
According to the report's two year control sample, overall expenses did experience a slight increase in 1994. Positive net operating income was realized due to the increase in total income by 2.2% per square foot, while keeping growth in total expenses plus leasing to a minimal 1.1% per square foot.
BOMA's report also includes income and expense data for more than 4,500 office buildings in North America, representing more than 850 million square feet of office space.
For more information, call BOMA at (800) 426-6292.
Finnish District Heating Association Commended for Development and Promotion of DH and CHP
The Finnish Academies of Technology awarded the Diploma of Honor for Outstanding Achievements in Environmental Technology to the Finnish District Heating Association. They were awarded for their work in the development and promotion of large scale district heating systems with combined heat and electricity generation leading to the improvement of air quality in cities and to higher fuel efficiency. The Diploma was presented in the International Congress in Helsinki on November 30, 1995.New Life Cycle Costing Publications and Software Available from DOE
U.S. DOE recently announced the availability of the newly updated NIST Handbook 135, Life Cycle Costing Manual (October 1995) and Building Life-Cycle Cost (BLCC), ERATES and EMISS software by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).The NIST BLCC program can be used to calculate the life-cycle costs, net benefits, and savings-to-investment ratios of Federal and private sector energy projects. ERATES (Electricity Rates), version 1.0, is a computer program for calculating monthly and annual electricity costs for a facility, building, or system under a variety of electric utility rate schedules. EMISS, version 1.0, is a computer program used to generate data files with regional or local air pollution emission factors for use with the NIST BLCC program.
The NIST Handbook 135, Life Cycle Costing Manual (October 1995) is a guide to understanding the life-cycle cost methodology and criteria established by the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) for the economic evaluation of energy and water conservation projects and renewable energy projects in all federal buildings. This version of the handbook replaces the 1987 version.
To order these publications and/or software call the FEMP Help Desk at (800) 566-2877.
Fight Over Stranded Costs Brewing in Texas
The Dallas Morning News reports that a fight is brewing in Texas over nuclear power plant costs which are expected to become "stranded" as full competition comes to the power industry. Texas regulators have begun debating who will bear the costs for these costly plants in the likely case they become money-losers once full competition arrives.Utility executives have criticized a Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) staff report as too conservative. The report estimates stranded costs of $9.74 billion at the four largest Texas investor-owned utilities with nuclear assets: TU Electric, owned by Texas Utilities; Houston Lighting & Power, owned by Houston Industries; Central Power & Light, owned by Central and South West; and Texas-New Mexico Power, owned by TNP Enterprises.
Two of the state's three public utility commissioners have made clear they are skeptical that utilities are entitled to recover all these costs. A powerful group of independent power producers and big industrial electricity users, who want lower rates, plan a full-scale lobbying blitz. They expect to spend millions wooing state lawmakers by the 1997 legislative session.
Standard & Poor's surveyed 90 regulators in 40 states, and all agreed that electric utility competition will arrive within five to seven years. The survey also found that many don't feel obligated to protect the utilities' financial well-being. According to S&P, only 50 percent of the 90 regulators interviewed nationwide believe it is important to protect the "financial health" of the utilities, while only 8 percent support protecting their natural monopolies. Meanwhile, 26 percent say utilities should not be allowed to recover stranded investments, while another 26 percent say they aren't sure.
In Congress, some key lawmakers have said they will back legislation next year to allow more competition. And this month California regulators approved a plan that provides recovery for stranded assets while allowing some retail competition by 1998. Utilities would have to cap their rates, but they could make higher profits. At the same time, they would be forced to turn over control of transmission lines for competitors' use, and could have to divest much of their remaining business.
MIT Appeals Decision Granting Stranded Cost Recovery to Utility
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an IDEA member, has appealed the state Department of Public Utilities' (DPU) decision to grant Cambridge Electric 75% of its stranded cost request for the departure of the 20-MW load customer. The stranded investment charge covers the departing customer's share of the decommissioning of the Yankee Atomic plant in Rowe, Mass., future nuclear decommissioning costs, long-term power contracts through 2001 and investments since the 1890s in substations, power lines and related equipment.MIT said it spent $37 million over 11 years on the cogeneration plant, which went on line two weeks before the DPU issued its decision (see December 1995 District Energy Now). The DPU decision sprang from Cambridge Electric's request that it be allowed to charge departing customers an exit fee of $7.49/kVa if they have an average monthly billing demand of more than 9.85 million kWh or 2,000 kVa.
The DPU granted the Commonwealth Energy System subsidiary a temporary exit fee of $5.62/kVa per month for the utility's seven largest customers, which represented 61.5 MW or 21.2% of Cambridge's peak load and $24 million or 19% of the company's revenue last year. In establishing the rate, the DPU said it was not setting a precedent for calculating stranded costs for other utilities. Instead, the DPU said each utility must negotiate mechanisms with interested parties as part of their restructuring plans.
California Passes Law on Emission Credits
Legislation recently passed by the California Assembly (Assembly Bill No. 1777) and signed by the Governor requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt a methodology which the districts must use to calculate the value of emission reduction credits from stationary, mobile, and area wide sources of air pollution by June 1997. Existing California law authorizes air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to establish a system to bank and use emission reductions to offset future increases, and authorizes the districts to establish a market-based incentive program to achieve emission reductions.California Passes Limits on Air Quality Fees
A bill (Senate Bill 962) was recently passed which places limits on increases in the fees collected by California's South Coast Air Quality Management District Board for the issuance of air pollution variances and permits to cover the cost of planning, inspection, and monitoring. The bill prohibits the district from increasing any existing permit fee by a percentage greater than any percentage increase in the California Consumer Price Index unless the district can show that the fee increase is necessary and will provide an equitable apportionment of fee payment responsibilities. If the increase is deemed necessary it would be phased in to avoid sudden adverse impacts on regulated sources.Unicom Thermal and Boston Edison Begin Plans on a New Cooling System
On January 23, Unicom Corporation said its Unicom Thermal Technologies subsidiary entered into a joint venture with Boston Energy Technologies Group to develop an iced-based cooling system, similar to one it operates in downtown Chicago.Boston Energy is a subsidiary of Boston Edison Company. The new company will be known as Northwind Boston.
Trigen Energy Acquires Ewing Power Systems
On January 18, Trigen Energy Corporation announced the acquisition of privately-held Ewing Power Systems (EPS), a leading systems integrator of steam turbine cogenerator systems.Ewing Power will help Trigen produce a portion of each steam customer's electricity for considerably less than the average cost per kilowatt hour. EPS specializes in selecting small steam turbines, generators and controls for a specific user, then prepackaging the components into systems which make electricity prior to utilizing the steam for heating or to produce chilled water for cooling.
In addition, EPS will offer small steam cogeneration plants to non-Trigen users of steam.
Thomas R. Casten, president and CEO of Trigen and past president of IDEA, commented, "Ewing Power Systems' mission is consistent with Trigen's goal of energy efficiency. It's another step in Trigen's ongoing effort to produce energy less expensively with less fuel and less pollution than conventional methods."
EPS president, Thomas Ewing, also an IDEA member, said "With Trigen's large volume of steam cogeneration applications and their financial strength and credibility, we will better serve the needs of all steam users." He went on to say, "Trigen needs our expertise and experience to fulfill its mission and we need Trigen to provide us with the opportunity to broadly apply that expertise and experience.
EPS, which is based in S. Deerfield, Massachusetts, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trigen.
IDEA Life Member Turns 102
Bob Sigworth, former supervisor of utilities for Penn State and IDEA life member, turned 102 on August 13, 1995.Sigworth seems to be very popular in his home town of State College, Pennsylvania. The local monthly magazine, Town & Gown, featured a seven page article on him and his career at Penn State. He started working for Penn State in January 1920 and became supervisor of utilities in 1930. When he retired from Penn State in 1955 he took on the project of remodeling the heating system in the State College Presbyterian Church where he served as a deacon.
Members who attended the 84th Annual Conference in Harrisburg were priviledged to hear him give the keynote address right before his 100th birthday. According to Town & Gown, Lloyd Niemann, also a life member of IDEA, had to convince him to attend the conference since he doesn't travel much. The theme of the conference was the history of utilities and he knows a lot about the history of plants, especially the Penn State Steam Plant which was built under his supervision.
CADDET Newsletter on District Heating and Cooling Available
CADDET, the Center for the Analysis and Dissemination of Demonstrated Energy Technologies, was formed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 1988. CADDETs purpose is to collect and disseminate information on demonstration projects that have produced data on the successful economic and technical performance of energy-efficient end-use technologies. The ultimate goal of U.S. involvement in the CADDET program is to assist U.S. companies by promoting their energy-efficient technologies to potential new markets within and outside the U.S.In 1993 CADDET was expanded into two branches -- CADDET Energy Efficiency and CADDET Renewable Energy. In the United States, involvement with the CADDET Energy Efficiency Annex is coordinated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE.
At the heart of the CADDET operation are two computerized registers of information. Each member country, currently 15 countries participate, is responsible for preparing register database entries covering demonstrations in their countries. The CADDET Energy-Efficiency Register contains information on more than 1600 technology demonstration projects. A majority of these entries focus on technologies for increasing the efficiency of energy use in buildings and industrial processes.
CADDET also produces technical brochures which provide expanded information on key technologies represented in the CADDET Register and they produce analysis reports that compare the technical and economic results of selected demonstration projects on a particular technology. They also produce a quarterly newsletter which is distributed to more than 10,000 subscribers worldwide. Each issue focuses on a specific technical topic and features international articles, news item, abstracts of recent publications and meeting notices.
The September 1995 issue of the CADDET Newsletter featured District Heating and Cooling. For a copy of the newsletter contact Jeff Hayter at IDEA, (202) 429-5111 or (202) 429-5113 fax.
Additional information on CADDET can be found on the Internet at the address: http://www.ornl.gov/CADDET/caddet.html or by contacting Melissa Voss, Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6070, (423) 574-1013 or (423) 574-9331 fax.
Geothermal Resources Council Releases Call For Papers
The Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) released a call for papers for its 1996 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, September 29-October 2, 1996. The theme of this year's meeting is Geothermal Development in the Pacific Rim.One of the special sessions that is being planned is "District Heating and Other Direct-Uses of Geothermal Energy." Paul Lienau of the Oregon Institute of Technology Geo-Heat Center is the chair for this session. He can be contacted at (503) 885-1750 or by fax (503) 885-1754.
Anyone interested in submitting a paper should contact the GRC office at (916) 758-2360 for an authors' packet. Draft papers must be submitted to GRC by May 17.
Would you like to have an article published in District Energy?
Articles on data acquisition systems, operations and/or maintenance for the second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter issues of District Energy magazine. If you are interested in drafting a data acquisition article, please submit a two- to three-paragraph abstract to John Fiegel at IDEA, fax (202) 429-5113, no later than Friday, February 23, 1996. District energy system operators are encouraged to team with vendors to provide case-study examples. From the abstracts submitted, the Measurements and Controls Forum will select three to be expanded into articles for publication in sequential issues of the magazine. If your abstract is selected for publication in the fourth quarter 1996, your completed article would be due Friday, June 7, 1996.Marketing Workshop Planned for March
The Marketing Forum will hold its annual workshop March 7-9 at the Denver Marriott City Center. One of the important topics discussed will be how to prepare for the legislative day and meeting with Congressmen and Senators at the annual conference in June.Watch your mail for the preliminary program and registration brochure. Contact Jon Wohl, chairman of the Marketing Forum, at (215) 875-6900 ext. 169 for more information.