February 10 Dinner Meeting: Developing a Smart Grid in New England with Anne George, Vice President, ISO New England, Joe Thomas, United Illuminating, and Jessica Brahaney Cain, Connecticut Light & Power.
Courtyard by Marriott, Cromwell CT
5:30 Networking and Cash Bar
6:30 Dinner & Program
Members $40, Non-Members $60.
January 22, 2010: Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Roundtable Forum for Energy, Environment, Economic Development & Job Creation
The public is invited to attend the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Roundtable Forum for Energy, Environment, Economic Development & Job Creation sponsored by the Connecticut Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Coalition (CHFCC). As a stakeholder in the Connecticut’s energy industry, this forum may be of great interest as we discuss how the Connecticut hydrogen and fuel cell industry provides efficient and reliable generation for the global market.
Date: January 22, 2010
Time: 1:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Location: Goodwin College – River Campus
One Riverside Drive
East Hartford, CT 06118
Congressman John B. Larson will lead the forum with presentations by Connecticut’s hydrogen and fuel cell industry and panel discussion with Connecticut legislators, agency representatives and other executives. The forum will focus on Connecticut’s hydrogen and fuel cell industry, energy management, environmental protection, job creation, and economic development.
Forum Panel:
• Congressman John B. Larson – Facilitator
(Congressional delegation, State legislative leaders, State Agency Representative, and Executives)
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Industry:
• Avalence – Martin Shimko
• FuelCell Energy – Frank Wolak
• General Motors – Stephen Marlin
• Infinity Fuel Cells – William Smith
• Logan Energy – Sam Logan
• Precision Combustion – Kevin Burns
• Proton Energy Systems – Robert J. Friedland
• UCONN, Center for Clean Energy Engineering – Prabhakar Singh
• UTC Power – Mike Brown
RSVP to Pam Yurgel either by phone 860-282-4916 or email pyurgel@ccat.us by January 20, 2010.
October 28, 2009: LinkedIn Fan? Join the CPES LinkedIn Group.
CPES now has its own LinkedIn group, where members may use an interactive discussion board, submit their own news articles and post job announcements. More than 200 energy professionals joined in the first day. To join, click here.
October 23, 2009: What's the Deal? Conference Donates to Operation Fuel
Instead of providing the usual conference giveway products, CPES and CBIA opted this year to make a donation to Operation Fuel. Operation Fuel’s Executive Director Patricia Wrice said the donation comes at a critical time. More.
October 14, 2009: 2009 What's the Deal? Energy Conference
The 10th annual CPES/CBIA energy conference drew more than 200 energy professionals and end users. CPES recruited Gina McCarthy, US EPA, as keynote speaker. See highlights of her keynote address here.
August 28, 2009: Greater New Haven Clean Cities Coalition Earns $13 million DOE Grant
Congratulations to the Greater New Haven Clean Cities Coalition for its $13 million grant from the US Department of Energy for the Connecticut Clean Cities Future Fuels Project.
As part of the Clean Cities program, the US DOE awarded 25 grants totaling $300 million to kick-start an infrastructure for alternative fuels refueling stations. In all, the grants are expected to help reduce the annual use of petroleum by 38 million gallons.
The greater New Haven project will deploy multiple fuels and technologies. Vehicles to be deployed include 163 CNG, the vast majority for high mileage taxis and 18 heavy-duty LNG refuse trucks. Infrastructure to be deployed includes three CNG stations, one combined B20/CNG/Electric station, one L/CNG station, one hydrogen station, and seven electric chargers. DOE estimates that this project alone will help displace 1.4 million gallons of
petroleum annually. More here and here.
August 19, 2009: Bristol Manufacturer Awarded $1 million SBIR Grant
ELKA Precision, a Bristol manufacturer, was awarded a federal grant Small Business Innovation Grant of nearly $1 million to improve machine tooling to make more efficient automotive fuel injectors, increasing fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gases. More from the Hartford Business Journal.
August 7, 2009: “Capturing the Power of Electric Restructuring” Released
The American Bar Association recently released the book “Capturing the Power of Electric Restructuring,” which looks at important legal and policy issues associated with electricity law, including wholesale and retail competition. CPES Director Joey Lee Miranda, a partner at Robinson & Cole, edited the book. R&C partner Kenneth Baldwin authored the chapter on "Energy Facility Siting" and associate Matthew Dolan contributed as well.
July 14, 2009: Hartford Business Journal Interviews Fred Klein, CPES President, and Kelly Kennedy, Executive Director
July 8, 2009: NRG Says "No Thanks" to Latest Exelon Offer
If NRG and Chicago-based Exelon were to join forces, the new company would be the largest U.S. power generator, providing energy to about 45 million homes. But since NRG refused Exelon's latest hostile takeover bid, that merger is unlikely to happen soon. More.
July 8, 2009: A Garbage-to-Energy Plant in Waterbury? Nope.
Massachusetts-based Chestnut Hill BioEnergy said it won't fight with people who aren't even willing to listen to what it planned to do. Those plans included taking in 625 tons of food waste a day, converting it to methane gas burn the methane to generate electricity. The 12-megawatt power plant would have employed 40 to 50 people. More.
Register by July 9: New Energy Jobs Boot Camp, July 16 in Meriden
The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation are holding a New Energy Jobs Boot Camp, on Thursday July 16, 2009, 11:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton, 275 Research Parkway, Meriden, CT.
The Boot Camp will be a working forum for municipalities, town energy committees, small businesses, utilities, state agencies, workforce development agencies and organizations, and clean energy advocates to help them maximize the use of federal stimulus funds (and state and local funding) for energy efficiency. The program will provide a hands-on opportunity to shape local projects that will achieve the environmental and economic goals, and job creation objectives, associated with the stimulus package and other funding sources. A spectacular group of expert practitioners will be involved in the program. For more information, or if you are interested in attending please register by July 9th to kampman@tremainefoundation.org. Agenda.
CPES Awards 2009 Scholarships
The Connecticut Power and Energy Society presented five budding energy professionals with scholarships at its June 17 dinner meeting in Cromwell, Connecticut. CPES awarded each of the five Connecticut students with a $1000 scholarship for the 2009-2010 school year. David Kinsley, scholarship chair for the Connecticut Power and Energy Society and president of Kinsley Power Systems, announced the awards.
CPES Scholarship winners for 2009 are:
 Ashwin Billava, an Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering double major at the University of Connecticut, has completed an independent study on incorporating centralized solar and wind farms into a Smart Grid. |
Michael Ciurylo, a Mechanical Engineering and German double major  at the University of Connecticut, is studying fuel cells. Ciurylo will complete an internship at a German engineering company as part of UConn’s Eurotech program. |
Dipayan Ghosh, an Honors Scholar and Electrical and  Computer Engineering double major at the University of Connecticut, is researching alternative auction methods that can be used by ISO New England. Ghosh is a summer intern with Northeast Utilities’ transmissions operations. |
| Aaron Fuchs, a Mechanical & Environmental Engineering  double major at Yale University, is a native of South Africa where he grew up on a farm and had no electricity. Fuchs’ senior research will entail reinventing the way renewable systems are implemented and creating new methods of feedback for better designs and efficiency. |
| Kaetochi Okemgbo, a Chemical Engineering major at Yale  University, wants to develop long term energy storage and more efficient high capacity batteries to compensate for the one of the largest shortcomings of renewable energy. “Politicians may lobby for change, but it’s up to scientists and engineers to make new forms of energy a reality,” she asserts. For scholarship winners’ video statements, click here. |
June 30, 2009: Pratt & Whitney Power Systems Expands Renewable Energy Portfolio
Pratt & Whitney Power Systems is buying a majority interest in Turboden, an Italian manufacturer of high efficiency turbogenerator systems. Turboden designs and produces Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems including turbines and turn-key turbogenerator units for distributed power generation in biomass, geothermal, solar and industrial heat recovery applications. Pratt & Whitney Power Systems president, Peter Christman, says the purchase “reflects UTC's commitment to energy efficiency and adds to a growing renewable energy portfolio with enhanced technical capabilities and geographic footprint.” > Hartford Business Journal, reporting.
June 28, 2009: Dozens March Against Proposed Waste-to-Energy Facility
The Waterbury Republican American covered last weekend's rally against Massachusetts-based Chestnut Hill BioEnergy's plan to put a food waste-to-energy plant at the former Anamet plant on South Main Street. Last month, the legislature passed a bill that forbid state regulators from issuing permits to Chestnut Hill. But Governor Rell recently vetoed that bill. > More
June 26, 2009: Landmark Energy Bill Passes US House of Representatives
The New York Times reports: "The 219-212 vote marked the first time that either house of Congress has approved a bill aimed at curbing the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change, and it could lead to sweeping changes in many sectors of the American economy, including electric power generation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction." > More
Connecticut's delegation, Representatives Larson, DeLauro, Courtney, Murphy, and Himes, all voted in favor of the bill, as did the entire Massachusetts delegation. Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey and Representative Henry Waxman of California were the prime movers behind the bill. To see how each representative voted, click here.
June 25, 2009: DelGobbo Elected DPUC Chair
The Hartford Courant reports that Kevin M. DelGobbo has been elected to a one-year term as chair of the Department of Public Utility Control's governing board. DelGobbo, Republican who was appointed to the DPUC by Governor Rell, in January, will succeed Donald W. Downes, who after serving 12 years as chairman is retiring July 1. DelGobbo, who specializes in electicity regulation, previously served in the state House of Representatives, where he was a principal co-author of the state's Energy Independence Act in 2005. He was a member of Rell's working group to develop her "energy vision" policy. >More.
June 17, 2009: CPES Awards 2009 Scholarships
The Connecticut Power & Energy Society awarded its 2009 scholarships to five Connecticut students from Yale and the University of Connecticut. > More.