CEE Deputy Director Ed Wisniewski greets MA DOER Commissioner Phillip Guidice

“Exceeded expectations,” “pretty productive,” and “excellent” were a few of the comments heard about the CEE June Program Meeting, held June 11–12 at the Hyatt Harborside in Boston. The scenic waterfront location, with a stunning view of downtown Boston, was the perfect setting for two days of energizing conversations, sharing of ideas, and collaborative planning for future courses of action.

A total of 153 participants attended, representing 56 organizations from the United States and Canada, including utilities, government agencies, and national labs. Leigh Winterbottom from Efficiency Vermont won the $30 gift certificate prize for those who turned in meeting evaluation forms.

A full scope of energy efficiency topics was discussed at both general sessions and breakout groups. Topics ranged from lighting efficiency to new residential water heating technologies, ENERGY STAR to motor management, solar thermal solutions to the digital television transition, commercial HVAC to industrial sector savings, Super Boilers to energy saving opportunities for water treatment facilities. Presentations and breakout discussions on market segmentation were another focus, giving participants ways to meet diverse program needs through a better understanding of the people and the consumer behaviors in their markets.

The meeting opened on Wednesday with a keynote address by Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources Commissioner Phil Giudice, “Are We Becoming Energy Efficient Fast Enough?” Giudice described what he called a “significant transformational change in the way Massachusetts will be approaching energy efficiency,” saying he was quite excited in moving “as fast as we possibly can to achieve all the energy efficiency that we might.” What kind of savings might be expected? Giudice predicted that a 20–25 percent savings in statewide electric consumption would be possible, working only with replacement of existing energy-consuming appliances by off-the-shelf ENERGY STAR or other energy efficient appliances and equipment.

“We’ve seen our oil prices double, and not showing any signs of slowing down,” said Giudice. “We know how that gets translated into our heating oil and gasoline prices, and even more so into our natural gas prices…and we know exactly what that will do to our electricity prices, so from a public policy standpoint, we know how these next cards are going to come out of the deck. So we have to step up in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish here, and make it happen just as quickly as we possibly can.”

The June program meeting is one of a number of industry-wide opportunities and resources that CEE offers each year, to assist its members in exploring common interests, exchanging helpful information, building partnerships, and developing better energy efficiency programs that ultimately result in consumer savings, reduced energy and water usage, more profitable businesses, less pollution, and improved electrical system reliability.

[ back to top ]