What’s an Ironman Triathlon?
Those who regularly read The M Files blog may have noted that I am an Ironman® athlete and wondered exactly what that means. An Ironman® triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim in open water, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full 26.2 mile marathon run. Slightly more than 2,000 contestants have 17 hours to complete the race. The start gun sounds at 7 am, and competitors must cross the finish line by 12 midnight to earn Ironman® status. I completed my first Ironman® in 2007 at Lake Placid, NY. Through that effort I raised more than $26,000 for the Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties.

Here’s Where You Come In
On August 29, I will be competing in the Ford Ironman® triathlon in Louisville, Kentucky, and I need your help.

The road to completing an Ironman® can be overwhelming, exhilarating, and immensely personally satisfying—all at the same time. But my deepest desire in this race is to really make a difference in our community by again raising money to benefit Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties.

Please consider a personal or company donation to help me reach my goal of raising $5,000.

As I train to cross the finish line in Kentucky, my “personal best” will be to help Bridge of Hope reach as many single mothers and their children with the opportunity to achieve wholeness and independence.

Bridge of Hope served 38 women and 77 children this year with life-changing skills to end homelessness for single mothers and their families. These families now have a second chance.

Why should you care? The daily challenges these women face remind me of my own journey to the Ironman® finish line. Their Ironman® consists of roadblocks to employment, a paralyzing fear of failure, the physical demands of being a single parent, and staying on track with financial pacing.

The need for stamina, tenacity, and determination to go one more step is crucial.  But where do these resources come from? Having the support of mentoring friendships while working with program staff allows the women to be successful and cross the finish line to self-sufficiency and financial stability.  That makes a stronger community for all of us.

With no government funding, Bridge of Hope has attained a remarkable success rate of more than 80% of its participants graduating to self-sufficiency. They rely solely on private donations.

How can you help me “race” to make a difference?

1. Donate to Bridge of Hope on the web. The link is also on my triathlon training blog, in the right margin under “My Favorites.”
2. Please send a check made payable to Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties and send it to me, Dan Kerr, at: McClure Company, 4101 N. 6^th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110.

Individuals contributing $100 or more will be entered to win a free home chef service from Custom Cuisine Personal Chef Service ($280 value).

Thank you for your support!

P.S.  Learn more about Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties and read some of their stories. Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Learn more about the Ironman® Louisville race here.

For fun, you can follow my training progress via Twitter at @RunOnEnergy.

Gib Armstrong

As an outcome of our evolving deregulated electricity market and quest for smart grid development, “smart meters” are being installed throughout Pennsylvania and the country. While in many ways using these devices represent a game-changing approach to the business of electricity supply, the majority of home and business owners are unaware of their purpose and existence. As the new metering programs are unveiled, a debate has sparked within the energy industry over the merits of the new technology versus potential security and energy information/privacy risks.

To help us all become better informed on this technology, I interviewed a man in the know:
Gib Armstrong, Director of Regulatory Affairs for BlueStar Energy Solutions.

Q. Why are electric utility companies installing smart meters throughout their territories?
A. In Pennsylvania, Act 129 now requires them to.  But some utilities, like PPL, took the initiative without waiting for a mandate.  They did it to cut administrative costs and give customers more functionality.  Beginning in 2002, PPL was the first utility to deploy Automated Meter Reading (AMR) meters that can record real-time usage and be read remotely—no more meter readers. As a customer, I was glad to see that overhead disappear.  AMR meters can also support demand response, data analysis, and money-saving, market-based, hourly pricing plans, which is the direction the electric market is moving.

Q. What are the potential benefits of smart meters to electricity customers?
A. For the first time, suppliers can see how much power a customer has been using in real time, make projections about future use, and offer them a price plan accordingly.

That’s just the beginning—look for a host of innovative products and services to unfold.  The revolution that occurred with telecom deregulation is waiting to happen with electricity.  When the first cell phones came out, no one imagined that a mere 20 years later we would be sending video from our phones around the world for free.  That’s the power of free markets and innovation, and that power is about to be unleashed in the electricity industry as well.

Q. From my perspective as an energy services professional, the high tech features of the meters are currently underutilized. Can you give us a glimpse of future program strategies?
A. The meters let suppliers do at least two things they could never do before: communicate price signals to the customer and see their customer’s usage in real time.  Look for aggressive suppliers to begin offering not just fixed rates, but market rates, where your price moves with market conditions, which is usually lower than an annual fixed price.  For example, I have an hourly rate with BlueStar Energy, the supplier I work for.  Instead of paying over 10 cents for every kilowatt-hour, my price fluctuates—sometimes going below five cents.  Paying “by the hour” saved me over 20 percent on my June bill.  BlueStar also sent me a device that tells me how much power I’m using.  So now each day I go on the PJM website and download the PPL zone prices for the next day.  When it goes above seven cents per kilowatt hour, I shut off the A/C.  By the time anyone notices, it is 6p.m., prices are back down, and I turn the A/C back on.

You may also see suppliers offer “demand response.”  Today this is mostly for large power users, who can get paid monthly for the promise that they will respond to high-grid demand by cutting back on usage—it’s kind of like a grid insurance program where the power user gets the premium.  AMR meters create the opportunity for even residential customers to benefit from programs like this.

Q. There’s a rising tide of criticism that smart meter roll-outs are premature due to issues with security weakness. Is there merit to that criticism?
A. No doubt security will be a big deal, and there will be several issues to address. For instance, some AMR meters talk with each other through a “mesh” network, where each meter is also a relay device.  Sophisticated “listeners” can tell things about you just by intercepting your power noise, like whether or not you are home, and even what type of appliances you have.  The challenge will be to transmit the information from the customer to the supplier and utility, while protecting it at numerous communication nodes along the way. While these and other issues pose real challenges, American persistence and ingenuity will find market-based solutions just as they always have—as long as the market is not hampered by regulators and bureaucrats.

The data from my last post is worthy of review and reinforcement. McClure Company has a client who is installing a basic energy efficiency program with lighting upgrades, HVAC controls enhancements, boiler tuning, and equipment replacements; a geothermal HVAC system upgrade; a biomass heating plant; and both small- and large-scale solar photovoltaic systems. By implementing these measures they will reduce their fossil fuel reliance by 18,452 million BTU annually, accounting for more than 30% of their previous use.

Which of these energy-savings measures represents the largest contribution to fossil fuel reduction? Surprisingly, the answer is the basic energy efficiency program, at 49% of the total.

While representing nearly half of the environmental benefit from the portfolio of projects, the basic efficiency program only cost 12% of the total $7,262,767 price tag.

What makes this client’s energy plan so smart is that they first sought to gain mastery of the fundamentals of energy efficiency. Instead of relying on prescribed checklists, gadgets, and fads, they established energy performance benchmarks and implemented only those measures with verifiable benefits. The numbers don’t lie.

Gunning for LEED ratings or attaching solar panels to inefficient facilities regardless of performance is a public relations stunt. Genuine energy efficiency—walking the green talk—equals a commitment to measurable performance on every energy-reducing project.

As a mechanical engineer in the energy trenches, I strongly advocate striving to master the fundamentals of energy efficiency and conservation prior to tacking renewable energy components—panels, turbines, well fields—onto existing buildings.

I preach that energy efficiency projects represent our best, lowest cost national energy resource.

In many of my earlier posts, I made the energy efficiency financial case using data from our own clients and by citing other qualified sources like McKinsey & Company’s landmark study “Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy.” Recently, we captured additional data from one of our clients that makes the argument even more compelling.

This client continues to complete a series of energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. Of those projects, their investment in fundamental energy efficiency doesn’t only represent their best return on investment (ROI), but also—by far—their most significant permanent reduction of fossil fuel use.

By dividing the total cost of implementing each of these programs by the associated reduction in fossil fuel reliance, we’re able to establish a clear metric for environmental cost effectiveness. At less than $100 invested per million BTUs of annual fossil fuel reduction, the efficiency program is the clear winner.* The strength of the data reinforces that sustainability depends foremost on mastering the mundane, unglamorous fundamentals of energy efficiency.

Do these results surprise you? I’d love to hear your comments.

*In fairness to the geothermal program, the numbers illustrated compare a whole building geothermal HVAC retrofit to maintaining existing conditions. Due to deferred maintenance and changes in building operations, the building was in need of an HVAC replacement project. If the geothermal replacement had been compared to replacement with a more traditional HVAC system, the incremental cost of geothermal would have exhibited better cost effectiveness.

Now just a hole in the ground, this site will eventually be home to the boiler & fuel storage system.

Alternative energy technology surges to the forefront as the new biomass heating project in East Lycoming School District moves forward. After months of detailed design, the field operations phase has begun.

In an unprecedented step, the school district is growing their own biomass fuel, a project slated for completion in time for the 2010-2011 heating season. The school, under contract with Double A Willow of Fredonia, NY, recently began planting their hybrid willow crop. The willows will be fully mature and ready to harvest in three years. Meanwhile, the school will purchase green wood chips as their primary fuel source. Existing natural gas boilers will remain in operation to help satisfy peak heating loads and as a measure of system redundancy.

The short-rotation crop is expected to yield about 30 tons per acre. The new boiler will burn approximately 600 tons of the plant each year, translating into the need to harvest 20 acres annually. The school board has approved the use of 60 acres of district land for growing the biomass crop.

Hybrid willow stacked and ready for planting.

A first tractor load heads to the field.

High school students within the district are gaining a sense of environmental ownership and joining the conversation. They’ve created a website dedicated to telling the story of school district sustainability initiatives.

Considered a biogenic fuel source, the biomass heating strategy will significantly reduce East Lycoming’s carbon footprint. The project made financial sense for the school after they received an $800,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA). Results of the project will be measured and verified through a guaranteed energy savings contract.