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 The Ohio Municipal Utility In 1997, with the generous support of the George Gund Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio, the Safe Energy Communication Council (SECC) developed a training and outreach program to foster energy efficiency and renewable energy development by Ohio's public power utilities. In collaboration with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), SECC designed the Ohio Municipal Utility Leaders Training Program, created the curriculum and began recruiting participants for the February 1998 training at SMUD in Sacramento, California. William Spratley, the former Consumer's Counsel for the State of Ohio, assisted in the development of all phases of the Program and continues to serve as SECC's consultant on the Program SECC intended the training to cultivate active energy efficiency and renewable energy programs at Ohio's public power utilities. In conjunction with SMUD, SECC designed and conducted a one week pilot training project to educate the leaders of six of Ohio's currently operating public power systems. The training occurred in late February 1998 in Sacramento. The curriculum was carefully drafted and subjected to a rigorous review process. SECC then secured written agreements from both the key municipal utility officials and their city council counterparts from six Ohio public power utilities to participate and "good faith commitments" to implement appropriate sustainable energy programs from five municipal utilities. Ultimately, 14 participants came the utilities, including Cleveland, Bowling Green, Cuyahoga Falls, Jackson, Oberlin and Yellow Springs. For a list of the participating community officials, see roster below. The purpose of the program was to help "plant the seeds" of energy efficiency and renewable energy at Ohio's public power utilities. While most of these systems are small, the Cleveland municipal system services 75,000 customers. It is our belief that other Ohio utilities will be far more receptive to developing these programs if one or more of their colleagues are actually involved and demonstrating the positive economic and environmental results of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in a newly-restructured utility marketplace. SECC's work with municipal utilities across the state is intended to help create an on going conduit to involve the municipal utilities in the work of the Campaign for an Energy Efficient Ohio (CEEO) and related efforts to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy in Ohio. Sustainable energy advocacy and support efforts will be strengthened by such programs at these local utilities and by SECC's follow-up coordination activities and SMUD's provision of follow-up technical assistance. Once the initial training was concluded, SECC, Spratley & Associates and the participating utilities created a follow-up process that includes extensive "resource sharing" as the utilities work to explore and implement these progressive and economical energy programs. Specific aspects of the follow-up have included: one-on-one consultations; six formal meetings in Ohio with the participants at four out of the six utility's headquarters; resource referrals and information transfer and other related activities. The follow-up is a vital part of the training process. Considering the magnitude of the effort and the need, it is essentially an "incubation period" and an opportunity to nurture and cultivate these fledgling programs. In addition, the training dovetailed with the Center for Clean Air Policy's program to facilitate local sustainable energy development with public power representatives in Ohio. Working in tandem with CCAP, the training program benefited from the development of both the curriculum and the community energy audits (a pre-attendance requirement for the training). The one week pilot training program curriculum was conducted by SMUD, staff and guest speakers, including Edward Smeloff (former President of SMUD) and Wes Birdsall (former director of the Waverly, Iowa municipal utility system. The training consisted of review of all aspects of successful energy efficiency planning and implementation, renewable energy production, marketing and public relations strategies necessary for selling such an integrated program to local businesses, the industrial and financial community and the residential ratepayers. In addition, municipal system marketing and survival in an era of deregulation was thoroughly discussed. The training was enthusiastically received by the six participating Ohio municipal utilities and many energy efficiency and renewable energy programs are now in the planning stages as a result of the workshop. Six follow-up meetings have been held with the participants at various participating utility sites in Ohio. The most recent meetings were held in Oberlin in February and Cuyahoga Falls in November, 1999. Action plans developed and presented at the AMP-Ohio (the statewide association of Ohio municipals utilities) annual conference in Hamilton, Ohio in September of 1998 are now well under way. SECC is now planning a mini-training in Sacramento for several additional Ohio municipal power utilities that have expressed an interest in being involved and attended the Oberlin and Cuyahoga Falls meetings. We are grateful for (and the OMULW has benefited from) the participation, resource referrals and assistance that the U.S. Department of Energy, the Ohio Department of Development, the Ohio Clean Air Authority, Oberlin College, and AMP-Ohio have provided in the form of speakers and information packets during each of the follow-up session. As a result of the follow-up meetings and Conference presentations and progress made during the year by the individual utilities, and the expression of interest by other muni-power programs, we are now discussing the program with AMP-Ohio, American Public Power Association, the U.S. Department of Energy and individual foundations to explore possible partnerships with these organizations to expand the program, making it available to municipal utility leaders in many more areas of the country. Once the initial training and follow-up process is completed, SECC intends to use the Ohio model as a pilot program. We look forward to developing the Ohio Public Utility Leaders Training Program to support green power production and marketing programs that will, as envisioned, be linked to the programs that the SMUD-trained utilities develop. Ultimately and theoretically, the impact of this program could be region-wide and even national, in scope. For more information, contact SECC at: www.safeenergy.org or call us at (202) 483-8491. OMULW Community Participants Roster, February 1998 to Present Bowling Green Dr. Ramona
Cormier Daryl
Stockburger Cleveland Bill
Patmon Craig
Willis Mark Hogan John James Jim
Majer Jackie Boesinger Cuyahoga Falls
Valerie Carr Jay Myers Jackson, Ohio Tom Evans Ron Speakman
Oberlin , Ohio Ken Sloane Robert O. Morse Steve Dupee, Manager Yellow Springs, Ohio Don
Hollister David Heckler Sponsor Participants Scott Denman Bill Spratley New Participants at Cuyahoga Falls OMULW Meeting, November 17, 1999 Robert
Bye Omar Farooq Tracy Foster John Greenway Becky McCleary Ron Petron Craig Preston Barbara Sculley New Participants at Oberlin OMULW Meeting, February 25, 1999 Fran Baumann,
Chairperson Andrew
Boatright Marc Gerken, Vice Pres. of
Business & Operations Thomas Green, Electric
Superintendent Dick Lothrop,
Member Jim White |
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Commissioned by Safe Energy Communication Council, the OMULW Project and website developed by William A. Spratley & Associates, Inc. |
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