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HERE'S TO CEE - Gene Rodrigues toasted CEE's 15th birthday.
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CEE celebrated a milestone at the meeting. Mike Stockard of TXU Electric Delivery arranged for his company to host a reception following the first day of the Industry Partners Meeting for social networking between members and industry. Gene Rodrigues kicked things off by offering a toast to CEE's 15th anniversary.
“I'm tremendously proud of the way we've come together,” said Rodrigues, Director of Energy Efficiency at Southern California Edison and CEE Board Chair. “There have been 15 years of wonderful accomplishments.”
CEE was formed in 1991 from a group of utilities that had banded together through the Super-Efficient Refrigerator Program (SERP). Twenty-four utilities committed a total of $30 million through SERP for a winner-take-all, Golden CarrotTM, competition to pull a new, super-efficient refrigerator into the market.
Over the years, membership expanded from coast to coast and the “CEE model” of voluntary specifications for high efficiency was utilized to create national initiatives for a wide range of products, appliances, equipment and services.
Today, CEE has 87 members in 26 states and three Canadian provinces. CEE's staff, just a handful in 1993, now numbers 18, supporting the work of members through 18 program committees.
Rodrigues saluted the CEE staff, calling them to the front of the room. He also acknowledged some original CEE members - Bonneveille Power Administration, Pacific Gas & Electric, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Southern California Edison - as well as individuals at the meeting who had served on CEE's first Board of Directors (David Goldstein and Janis Erickson).
“I'd like to extend special thanks to EPA for giving us seed money to get started,” said Rodrigues, “and I want to thank industry for working with us.”
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