Bill Johnstone, NHEC
|
|
|
In classic New England fashion, towns across New Hampshire decided not to wait for federal action on energy policy. In March of 2007, 164 townships passed resolutions calling for the creation of energy committees that would analyze and address local energy consumption.
In March of 2008, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC), which serves 70 of those 164 towns, began getting calls for assistance from committee members looking for assistance.
After meeting with several local energy committees, says Bill Johnstone, Key Accounts Executive for NHEC, “I thought: why not bring these committees together for information sharing and networking?”
On June 3rd, NHEC and Lakes Region Planning Commission joined together to hold a regional energy forum that would facilitate regional coordination and help towns avoid duplication of effort. Eighty people representing 25 towns attended the first of several forums planned. NHEC now plans to conduct the forums quarterly.
The first forum featured speakers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Hampshire’s Carbon Challenge, and Clean Air, Cool Planet.
While attendees heard from experts and advocates about national and global energy policy, the cooperative provided practical, specific solutions that can be implemented at the local level to make a difference.
Attendees learned, for example, how to benchmark municipal building energy use and tap into utility energy efficiency programs for rebates. For NHEC, the meetings offer an opportunity to educate localities about the co-op’s wide array of efficiency programs such as demand response and energy management.
The co-op also compiled resource guides for the town committees that included sample municipal energy audit as well as a detailed history of the town’s energy usage over the past two years. According to Johnstone, many committees didn’t have access to data on the town’s month-to-month energy usage.
The guide included a glossary of energy terms and a lighting catalogue. (Looking for ideas? The catalogue can be found on the co-op’s website.)
The co-op also circulated a detailed attendees list so that “the networking can continue far beyond the meeting,” said Johnstone, “That’s where I really see the power of this is the networking and the collaboration.”