Midwest

The MEEA Policy Webinar - The New Political Landscape for Energy Efficiency was held on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012. It featured Kevin Cullather, MEEA's Senior Policy Manager, and Stacey Paradis, MEEA's Deputy Director. The webinar outlines the results of the November 2012 elections, including gubernatorial and state legislative elections and subsequent utility commission appointments and discusses how the elections could potentially impact energy efficiency policy decisions in the Midwest.

Utilities at the cutting edge of DSM planning are implementing Strategic Energy Management (SEM) programs.  By equipping C&I customers with powerful tools that help them strategically manage their energy use, utilities realize significant EE savings and deepen their customer relationships. 

MEEA, in collaboration with members Xcel Energy and EnerNOC, presented this webinar on SEM best practices and opportunities for Midwest utilities, featuring a case study with Xcel Energy.

On this webinar we discussed:

The MEEA Policy Webinar: A Midwest Look at the Better Buildings Challenge was held on Thursday, October 11th. The webinar focused on the U.S.

This webinar,  which took place on September 6, 2012, took a regional look at the rapid growth of utility energy efficiency programs over the last decade.

Agenda:

Review of ACEEE Report

Advanced lighting remains an essential tool for those seeking to reduce energy consumption through energy efficiency.  The arguments in favor of efficient lighting as a path to reduced energy demand – ease of installation, cost-effectiveness, matched performance, and easily quantifiable savings – are compelling and reliably consistent. 

This MEEA Policy Webinar, held on November 17, 2011, outlined the leading states in the Midwest, reviewed current trends, and highlighted programs in Illinois and Michigan, drawing from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's 2011 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard and energy efficiency experts from the state energy offices. 

On Wednesday August 10th, 2011, MEEA hosted the second quarterly Midwest Home Performance call designed to foster a network of and facilitate conversation for home performance program professionals across the Midwest. Jensen Adams, Associate Executive Director at the Metropolitan Energy Center in Kansas City, and Glenda Abney, Director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens’ EarthWays Center framed the conversation with a presentation on incentives and home performance.

MEEA, in partnership with US EPA, hosted the first Midwest Home Performance call – a series aimed at creating a dialogue to discuss issues relevant to Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) or whole-home programs in the Midwest. The target audience for these periodic calls will be staff from organizations that are currently running HPwES/whole-home programs in the Midwest or sponsors considering programs. This is intended to be an active home performance discussion. The idea is to highlight specific issues, and discuss Midwestern Solutions.

In December 2010, MEEA completed an Energy Codes Needs Analysis Report as part of a grant with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Covering 13 Midwest states, this report highlights key state specific issues and barriers as they relate to code adoption, enforcement, and compliance. Specific topics covered include the state’s current energy code status, code barriers, definitive needs, and possible recommendations.