Southern California Edison Visit

On May 9th, Southern California Edison hosted UC Davis students and presented information and materials on the multiple programs and

projects underway addressing energy efficiency (Pdf of presentations). Energy Efficiency-Regulatory Manager, Tory Weber, welcomed the students and described the various challenges and opportunities SCE faces in the rapidly changing energy industry. Alex Morris (a UC Davis alum) presented materials on SCE's California Solar Initiative and Jose Salazar described efforts and technological advances in electric transportation. Joy Adams provided UC Davis students with information about SCE’s Residential Energy Efficiency programs, including SCE's

Mobile Education Unit, and David Jacot described SCE’s Non-residential Energy Efficiency Programs. Other SCE presenters included: Paul Kyllo (Non-Residential, HVAC), Robert Brunn (Institutional Partnerships), Edwena Bone & Carlos Torres (Demand Response), Dan Tunnicliff (SmartConnect), Vinnie Tucker (Customer Experience Management), and Linda Low (Marketing Analysis Planning & Strategy-MAPS). Also present at the meeting were Robyn Zander, Competitive Solicitations Project Manager, and Janelle Ward, Energy Efficiency-Regulatory Marketing Analyst, among others. Ben Finkelor, Program Manager for the Energy Efficiency Center (EEC), presented an overview of the Center and three of the EEC's Emerging Venture Analyst also presented their work, including Siva Gunda, an Edison International Fellow and PhD in Mechanical Engineering; Dan MacDonald, an Edison International Fellow and graduating MBA and M.S. in Economics (2009) and Diana Mejia, a graduate in M.S., Biosystems Engineering.

Pacific Gas and Electric

Twelve UC Davis students studying various aspects of energy efficiency visited PG&E's Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco on April 18th to learn first hand about the technologies and innovations that PG&E is working on to reduce energy consumption. PG&E is an EEC Leadership Sponsor and PG&E President and CEO, William Morrow, serves on the EEC's Board of Advisers.

Duane Larson, Director of Customer Energy Efficiency Portfolio Implementation (left), kicked off the event outlining the various customer incentives and programs that PG&E has dealing with the demand side of the energy equation. "The 2006-08 portfolio alone will deliver $811 million in net benefits to PG&E customers," said Larson, "preventing emissions of CO2 in excess of 2.5 million tons, the equivalent of taking 500,000 cars off the road for one year." Maria Eansor, Manager of Emerging Technologies, also spoke to the group about PG&E's efforts to evaluate various energy efficient technologies and accelerate these innovations to market. "The Emerging Technologies Program contributes to energy savings by accelerating the commercialization and market adoption of energy efficient technologies," she said, "our focus is on enabling market penetration, facilitating environmental leadership, and enabling demand side management solutions." The Emerging Technologies Program has 50 projects in the pipeline, she noted.

Other presenters included, Keith Reed, Manager of Mass Markets; Greydon Hicks, Manager of Target Markets; Wendy Trotter, Manager of Customer Energy Efficiency Outreach; Steve Blanc, Senior Program Engineer for Technical Application Services; and Steve McCarty, Director of Demand Response. Chuck Hornbrook, Manager of Customer Generation and Solar as well as Hal La Flash, Director of Emerging Clean Technology Policy also presented.

UC Davis' students presented their work, sharing with PG&E managers the innovative technologies they have been working on commercializing over the past year. Diana Mejia described her work encouraging "smart lighting" solutions in refrigerated warehouses. Siva Gunda, Cassie Hilder, and Nandita Raghaven discussed WicKool, an easy to install wicking device added to rooftop A/C units that reduces energy consumption by capturing and reusing condensation. Jonathan Woolley described his efforts to incorporate energy efficient design and planning in the UC Davis West Village development, Terence Fleischer and Siva Gunda discussed commercialization of an innovative Cost Effective Demand Response technology, and Dan Kaplan shared his efforts to commercialize new HID lighting technologies. Additional photos can be viewed at here.