Aldermen approve Emanuel's energy switch to Integrys from ComEd

By Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune

December 13, 2012

Chicagoans could find out as soon as Thursday exactly how much they will pay for electricity under a plan approved Wednesday that switches about 1 million people to Integrys Energy Services.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel received unanimous City Council approval Wednesday to negotiate most details of the transaction.

Michael Negron, deputy chief of policy and strategic planning for the Emanuel administration, said Integrys, a sister company to Peoples Gas, is carefully timing its bulk electricity purchase in order to strike a good deal for Chicago. It could happen Thursday.

"Typically in this industry, when you lock down a rate it's for minutes or hours," he said. "We want to be in a position to get us the best possible prices."

The city hopes to be a model for other communities because its contract calls for consumer protections and elimination of power produced by burning coal.

"For protecting our residents and protecting our environment, we have taken, I think, a significant step, and one that's a model that other cities will look at," Emanuel said.

Integrys must deliver prices at or below what residents would have paid Commonwealth Edison through 2015 and cannot charge early termination fees to consumers who decide to seek alternative suppliers or deny service as a result of their credit history. Consumers can also opt out.

Emanuel has said consumers could see savings of about $150 per household through May 2015.

David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a Chicago-based consumer advocate, applauded the deal, which he said had "consumer protections that are stronger than we've seen in any other community."

ComEd, which will deliver electricity purchased by Integrys, will still be responsible for billing and fixing power outages.

An earlier plan to siphon a portion of consumer savings to invest in rooftop solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades in Chicago buildings didn't get out the door. Some critics said the plan would be akin to a hidden tax.

Mark Pruitt, of the Delta Institute, a consultant to the city on the issue, said Integrys is being encouraged to make investments in energy efficiency improvements as it hedges its Chicago portfolio.

Just as Integrys can purchase megawatts from power plants to increase its electricity supply, it can also fulfill its obligations by purchasing so-called negawatts, which decrease demand for power. For instance, rather than buying power from a natural gas plant, Integrys can pay a large manufacturer to power down at certain times to decrease electricity demand.

"The innovation can still continue as the contract begins," said Jack Darin, executive director of Sierra Club's Illinois chapter and a member of the advisory committee for the electricity deal.

Chicago is the largest city in the country eligible to adopt such a plan under state laws. Only Ohio and Illinois laws allow for such efforts, according to city officials. Hundreds of suburbs have adopted the electricity arrangement in recent years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1213-chicago-aggregation--2-20121213,0,4748379.story

Chicago sets brisk timeline for electric aggregation deal

By Julie WernauChicago Tribune

November 8, 2012

The City of Chicago laid out a timeline Thursday for how it intends to quickly complete a deal that would move approximately 950,000 Chicagoans to a new electricity supplier.

The timing of the deal is important because Chicagoans stand to save the most money over Commonwealth Edison's rate between now and June 2013, when ComEd's prices are expected to drop because pricey contracts they entered into years ago will expire. The timeline has Chicagoans moving to the new supplier in February 2013.

In Tuesday's election, Chicago voters passed a proposal to allow the city to negotiate for better electricity prices on behalf of residential customers and small businesses. The city is one of hundreds of Illinois communities participating in so-called electricity aggregation and is by far the largest city in the nation to attempt such a large bulk purchase for electricity.

Michael Negron, deputy chief of policy and strategic planning for the mayor's office, said electricity suppliers have shown great interest in snagging Chicago's service. Nearly 100 people packed a conference Monday for the city's "request for qualifications" process. The bidders ranged from multi-billion corporations to smaller providers from all over the country, he said. Industry analysts say the deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollar to the winning supplier or suppliers.

The timeline is as follows:

Nov. 14: Municipal aggregation ordinance introduced as substitute ordinance in city finance committee

Nov. 21: Bidder responses to request for qualifications due

Nov. 26 - Dec. 11: Finance committee will conduct two public hearings on aggregation ordinance

Early December: City and Delta Institute convene stakeholder process for identifying options for a portion of savings to go toward increased energy efficiency or the development of cleaner, renewable energy sources.

Dec. 5: Qualified pool of energy providers announced

Dec. 6: Issuance of request for pricing; responses due within days. The sole selection criteria at this point will be price because the RFQ phase will have screened out bidders based on their capacity, financial stability, customer service and ability to deliver cleaner energy. 

Dec. 12: City Council considers aggregation ordinance

Mid/Late-December: Opt-out letters are sent to approximately 1 million customers

Early January: Opt-out data processed and final customer list prepared. 

February: Participating Chicago customers are switched over the course of the month

March: All Chicago ratepayers who have not opted out are under the new supplier. City will announce its plan for investment of savings into cleaner energy or improved energy efficiency.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-chicago-sets-brisk-timeline-for-electric-aggregation-deal-20121108,0,1338243.story

City of Chicago to move swiftly with aggregation to help customers capitalize on energy savings

City of Chicago to move swiftly with aggregation to help customers capitalize on energy savings

From Rooftop to Alleyway, Chicago Fights Extreme Urban Heat With Greener Ideas

Report: Online tool cut cooling bills

BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times
 October 2, 2012

The summer’s record-breaking heat raised ComEd customers’ bills about 7.2 percent, as Chicagoans tried to stay cool inside. But consumers who used an online energy-saving tool wiped out most of the extra cost, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Citizens Utility Board.

Chicagoans who used the online tool erased 70 percent of the extra costs caused by the record heat, CUB’s report said.

The city’s third-hottest summer cost Commonwealth Edison consumers an extra $64 million — about $5 a month for the average customer over the four-month summer season, CUB said in the report. But those who used CUB Energy Saver, the agency’s free online tool at CUBEnergysaver.com, paid only an additional $1.50 a month, on average, according to the report.

This summer’s 45 days of 90-degree or higher temperatures included six days of record-tying or record-breaking heat or dryness, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

The records included the highest temperature, 103 degrees, and highest low, 82 degrees, both on July 6.

The study said Illinoisans used an average of 7.2 percent more electricity this summer than last, but CUBEnergysaver.com users saw only a 2.1 percent increase.

Energy savers used fewer lights, turned off the air conditioner when they were away and turned off energy-slurping appliances such as coffee makers, said David Kolata, CUB’s executive director.

The top 10 actions CUB Energy Saver users have taken, ranked according to popularity, are:

◆ Use fewer lights at home.

◆ Replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.

◆ Turn off the coffee maker after brewing.

◆ Dry clothes outside or on a drying rack instead of using the dryer.

◆ Lower window blinds on summer days to keep the home cooler.

◆ Use a smart power strip, which can help consumers combat “vampire power,” energy eaten by computers, TVs and other appliances that are plugged in but not being used.

◆ Wash larger loads of dishes.

◆ Use the microwave, which burns less power than an oven and doesn’t overheat the home.

◆ Buy an efficient gas clothes dryer rather than an electric one.

◆ Turn off the air conditioner one hour before leaving home.

After Leucadia veto, Southeast Chicago group mulls energy future

Kari Lydersen

Midwest Energy news

Hegewisch is a quaint if scruffy neighborhood on Chicago’s southeast side that has an innocent 1950s small town feeling to it, despite being surrounded by heavy industry, crumbling vacant buildings and smelly landfills. Hegewisch and surrounding neighborhoods were once the epicenter of the region’s steel industry, with mills humming day and night, flares lighting up the sky.

The area has fallen on hard times as the steel industry declined, however, and now people are desperate for jobs and economic sustenance. That’s why many local elected officials and residents embraced the Leucadia coal gasification plant proposed nearby; until Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn scuttled the plan with a July veto of state legislation guaranteeing the company full cost recovery from ratepayers.

In the offices of the Southeast Environmental Task Force in Hegewisch recently, community leaders Peggy Salazar and Tom Shepherd praised Quinn’s veto and described their alternate hopes for the brownfield site of a former coking operation where the Leucadia plant would have been built.

The site will be part of the group’s Energy Tour later this month. In a bid to raise awareness of the Southeast Side’s unique environmental and industrial issues past and present, the task force has for several years been leading regular tours – on coach buses or a picturesque trolley owned by the local merchants association – for tourists, residents and government officials.

The tours are also aimed at showing that the task force – founded in 1989 by legendary local environmentalist Marian Byrnes – is not set on “saying no to everything,” as Shepherd put it, but also promoting sustainable and non-polluting economic development, especially in the energy sector.

“We want to bring people to the table and let them know we’re serious about finding alternative energy projects that create jobs and get properties back on the tax rolls,” said Shepherd.

The task force is working with the Blue-Green Alliance of environmental and labor groups and seeking a sponsor to study ideas for brownfield development and job creation especially related to clean energy, both manufacturing of components and building generation facilities.

“We have a workforce, all the amenities, transportation,” said Shepherd.

Energy, old and new

The 10 MW solar installation, launched in 2010, is billed as the world’s largest in an urban setting and generates about 14,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year from nearly 33,000 rotating photovoltaic panels.The tour will feature what the group sees as best and worst examples of energy production in the area. To the west of Hegewisch is Pullman, once home to the historic rail car factory and company town and now the site (in West Pullman) of a 41-acre solar farm owned by Exelon Generation.

Meanwhile just a few miles from Hegewisch across the Indiana border sits the BP Whiting oil refinery, which is undergoing a massive expansion to increase its refining of heavy tar sands oil from Alberta. Though environmental and health leaders have lauded a sweeping consent decree signed earlier this summer mandating significant pollution controls and monitoring, the expansion will still mean increased emissions.

Locals worry about the risk of spills and leaks from pipelines running beneath the area. And they point to the recent recall of 2.1 million gallons of contaminated gasoline from the BP Whiting refinery as an example of the potential for unexpected problems.

The Southeast Side has also historically been the city’s dumping ground, with several major landfills – now closed – and an ongoing legacy of illicit dumping. The energy tour will visit a Waste Management facility where methane collected from capped landfills is used to generate electricity.

What does ‘clean’ mean?

The tour will highlight how it is not always easy to define “clean energy.”

The subsidiary of Leucadia that wanted to build the gasification plant was called Chicago Clean Energy, and backers stressed that the coal gasification technology would mean low emissions, with carbon dioxide captured and piped to the Gulf Coast for enhanced oil recovery. The environmental task force didn’t consider the proposal “clean” in part because it would mean the transport and storage of massive amounts of coal and petroleum coke.

They are not taking a position, however, on another proposal billed as “clean”: startup company Green SEED Energy’s waste-to-energy facility and “eco-industrial park” still in the early planning stages.

As proposed the facility, based partly on one in Kalundbord, Denmark, would use anaerobic digesters to create bio-methane from feedstock including restaurant and institutional food waste, bio-solids from the nearby sewage treatment plant, agricultural residue, and invasive species like the phragmites which are constantly being removed from local marshes.

According to the project website, the bio-methane could be converted to pipeline-quality natural gas or used to generate electricity. Carbon dioxide emissions would be captured and used in a commercial greenhouse onsite.

Task force executive director Salazar, who grew up playing in the shadows of the steel mills and slag piles, noted that the project still raises concerns about diesel emissions from trucking and odors from waste storage.

“We have mixed feelings,” said Salazar. “But sometimes you need to take a risk on something like that.”

A long-term vision

The Southeast Environmental Task Force received some support for its tours and outreach work with the area “Calumet Core” initiative’s designation as part of the Millennium Reserve, an Obama administration plan to align federal support with ongoing local and state conservation projects. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Chicago last month announcing local projects including the Calumet Core.

Community leaders hope the designation and recent increased attention from city and state governments will help further long-standing plans for a “Calumet Corridor” featuring both green space and new clean energy and manufacturing. They envision a solar farm or light industrial park with on-site clean energy generation and co-generation on the brownfield where the gasification plant was proposed.

“These kinds of projects seem to always come back, so we want to make sure there is something else on that site that makes it impossible for them to come back right there,” said Salazar of the gasification plant.

The tour will also highlight two other significant points in the city’s energy transition, in between the glistening skyscrapers of downtown where the tour starts and the coal piles and rusting industrial skeletons of the southeast side. In the immigrant Pilsen neighborhood just southwest of downtown is the century-old Fisk coal-fired power plant, which went dark in late August – closed because of environmental concerns and cheap natural gas prices which have made such archaic coal-fired plants around the country uneconomic.

Juxtaposed against this example of “old energy” is an innovative clean generation project in the city’s gritty Back of the Yards neighborhood, once home to infamous slaughterhouses. Wholesaler Testa Produce Inc. last year installed a wind turbine and 180 solar panels that meet almost a third of the 91,000-square-foot facility’s energy needs, along with methanol fuel cell vehicles and energy efficiency overhauls.

It is the first LEED-Platinum-certified cold storage facility in the country, and the third-generation family owners think the energy cost savings and public relations value will help the company increase their Midwestern market share. They expect to recoup the $24 million project cost within a decade.

“We want people to really think about where their gasoline comes from and where their energy is generated, to see different kinds of examples and judge for themselves,” said Salazar. “We have people get out at the solar farm and at the BP refinery, and in both places we say ‘What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you see? What does this mean for the community where it goes on?’”

For more information or to register for the Southeast Environmental Task Force’s Sept. 22 Energy Tour in Chicago, visit www.setaskforce.org.

http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2012/09/06/after-leucadia-veto-southeast-chicago-group-mulls-energy-future/

Suburban Chicago races to unplug from ComEd

By: Steve Daniels November 28, 2011

Chicago Business

A wave of Chicago suburbs, including many of the largest, is preparing to bargain for cheaper electricity deals next year with competitors of Commonwealth Edison Co. on behalf of their residents.

City councils from Aurora, the second-largest municipality in the state, to Elgin and Evanston will decide in coming weeks whether to ask voters in March referendums to approve plans to solicit bids from ComEd competitors. As many as 130 cities, villages and towns next year could follow the 19 suburbs that already have left the utility, consultants say.

While the suburban exodus from ComEd should generate double-digit-percentage savings on the electric bills of as many as 2 million households, it's going to lead to unpredictability and volatility for residents and small businesses continuing to buy from the subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. That includes residents of Chicago, which has no immediate plans to test the electricity market on behalf of its inhabitants.

Under state law, municipalities can buy power for residents and small businesses, but only if voters back the action in a referendum.

If trends hold, enough households and small businesses could leave for alternative suppliers by the end of 2012 that ComEd could move to have state utility regulators declare the residential market officially competitive. That would mean customers still buying from ComEd could be subject to spot-market electricity prices rather than the negotiated, firm, annual price they currently get. The earliest that could happen would be 2013. The tipping point is the departure of one-third of customers in a specific class.

In Texas, which runs a spot-market system, “the price volatility is huge, and they've had troubles with some of the vendors going under,” says Mark Pruitt, former director of the Illinois Power Agency, which buys electricity on behalf of utility customers statewide. “I don't think this is what people had in mind” when Illinois deregulated its power market 12 years ago.

For its part, ComEd says in a statement that it interprets state law to say that it will be obligated to provide a fixed electricity price to residential and small commercial customers regardless of how many customers it loses. But the Illinois Commerce Commission, which enforces the law, disagrees, saying utilities can move to force residential customers onto the spot market once the 33% threshold is reached.

WILD CARDS

Even if ComEd doesn't move to subject its customers to spot pricing, the IPA probably won't be able to drive the same bargains with power generators that it has in recent years, given the unpredictability in the demand it's trying to fill, Mr. Pruitt says. Under the recently enacted law giving ComEd automatic yearly delivery rate hikes to finance grid 

modernization, the IPA is directed to solicit bids for a four-year power contract. But municipalities that leave the utility can return anytime their contracts expire, making forecasting long-term demand difficult.

One big wild card: Will Chicago opt to leave ComEd for the competitive market? Thus far, the city has made no move to follow Oak Park, its immediate neighbor to the west, which recently won a 25% reduction from ComEd's current energy price for a product made up of renewable power sources. Farther to the west, Oak Brook negotiated a 29% savings with Chicago-based supplier Integrys Energy Services Inc., a sister company of Peoples Gas.

Increasingly, suburbs aren't waiting. Take Elgin, Illinois' eighth-largest municipality, with 108,188 inhabitants. “We believe we have at least a two-year opportunity to save our community 20% to 25% in their electricity prices,” says Colby Basham, public works superintendent. The Elgin City Council will vote on the issue as early as Dec. 7.

In Evanston, city officials are watching other communities that have left ComEd, says Catherine Hurley, sustainable programs coordinator. “We're definitely interested.” The Evanston City Council will discuss the matter on Tuesday.

Municipalities are scrambling to meet a Jan. 3 deadline to put the issue on the March 20 primary ballot.

A spokeswoman for the city of Chicago says it currently has no plans to buy cheaper power on behalf of residents.

Experts say there's a relatively short time frame in which communities can generate the 20%-plus savings they're getting now because ComEd's power prices are expected to more closely mirror the overall market within two years, as high-priced power-supply contracts expire.

“The window of easy headroom is closing,” says David Kolata, executive director of Chicago-based consumer watchdog Citizens Utility Board. “You're not going to see these kinds of deals, say, a year from now.”

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20111126/ISSUE01/311269976/suburban-chicago-races-to-unplug-from-comed#ixzz1ey1bkRa2

CTA's new trains pulling into the station

Full production is finally under way on an order of 706 new CTA rail cars, and the first 26 cars have been delivered to the transit agency, officials told Getting Around over the weekend.

The new rail cars recently arrived in Chicago on trucks from Bombardier Transportation's manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and will enter service soon, officials said.

"We are making final adjustments (to the 26 new cars) before putting them into revenue service in the very near future," CTA spokeswoman Molly Sullivan said. The CTA expects to have 40 more cars delivered from Canada-based Bombardier by the end of the year and another 192 cars delivered in 2012, officials said. The schedule for the remaining cars in 2013 and possibly 2014 is still being worked out, officials said.

CTA is the first customer in the U.S. to receive this new generation of rail cars...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/traffic/ct-met-getting-around-1024-20111024,0,3785794.column

Emanuel outlines green agenda

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES fknowles@suntimes.com Dec 6, 2010 12:09AM

Rahm Emanuel unveiled a proposal to make 21,000 residential and commercial buildings in Chicago energy efficient next year by creating a $10 million fund that he projected will leverage an additional $100 million and create more than 400 jobs.

Emanuel, who is seeking to become the next mayor of Chicago, said the initial $10 million would come in part from unused federal stimulus funds. It also would come from reallocating community development block grant money and economic development and environmental program funding away from inefficient programs, he said. The $100 million would come from public and private funds, including money from utility companies that must be spent on increasing energy efficiency, he said.

The funds would be used for investments in weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades in 12 of the least energy efficient areas of the city, to be identified as so-called target zones, Emanuel said.

He said the effort would create construction jobs and boost sales at home improvement businesses.

He added it would reduce harmful carbon emissions by more than 5,000 tons, which is the equivalent of cutting gas consumption by 618,000 gallons annually.

Chicago Board of Education Makes Landmark Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Through Collaboration With Element Markets

October 24, 2010

HOUSTON -- Element Markets announced today it will supply more than 100 million kilowatt-hours a year of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to theChicago Public Schools (CPS), as part of an integrated program to reduce CPS' impact on the environment and educate students. Chicago Public Schools was honored today at the 10th Annual U.S. EPA Green Power Leadership Awards as one of 18 award winners nationally recognized for advancing the green power market. In conjunction with its enrollment in the EPA Green Power Partnership, Chicago Public Schools received the prestigious Green Power Purchaser of the Year Award. Coinciding with the 2010-2011 school year, the purchase makes Chicago Public Schools the largest K-12 purchaser of green power in the United States. EPA co-sponsors the Green Power Leadership Awards in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy and the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions.

"We commend Chicago Public Schools for this historical purchase and applaud their leadership in support of renewable energy and education for its students," said Angela Schwarz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Element Markets. "We are pleased to have been selected by the Board of the Chicago Public Schools. We share their vision to transform lives by building a foundation for excellence and contributing to a global society."

The EPA estimates that Chicago Public Schools' REC purchase will have the equivalent environmental impact of taking more than 20,000 passenger cars off the road each year or avoiding the amount of electricity needed to power more than 13,500 average American homes annually. The purchase from Element Markets will be certified by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions' Green-e® Energy program which certifies and verifies green power products.

"EPA congratulates our leadership award winners for demonstrating by example the importance of using clean, renewable energy," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "By using green power, these winners are leading the way toward cleaner air and a healthier environment while helping advance the market for renewable energy."

Supplying RECs and educational materials to Chicago Public Schools is an extension of Element Markets' commitment to clean energy production in Illinois. Having significantly expanded their presence in the state, Element Markets currently manages renewable energy credits and is actively developing new renewable energy projects.

Element Markets was recently named "US Emissions House of the Year" by Energy Risk Magazine and was named the recipient of "Best Trading Company in North American RECs - 2009" by Environmental Finance magazine and "#1 U.S. Renewable Energy Credit Dealer - 2009" for the second consecutive year by Energy Risk magazine. In addition, the company has been awarded multiple contracts from the Illinois Power Agency to supply RECs in support of the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Element Markets intends to continue its development of the Renewable Energy Credits markets and looks forward to the successful development of Renewable Energy and Greenhouse Gas reduction projects.

About Element Markets
Element Markets, LLC is the leading developer and supplier of environmental credits in North America, with integrated trading expertise in the greenhouse gas, renewable energy and emissions credit markets. Since its inception in 2005, Element Markets has built one of the industry's largest diversified development portfolios of wind, solar, methane and greenhouse gas mitigation projects. The company provides structured environmental compliance and optimization services to prominent corporate and institutional clients and was named Emissions House of Year for 2010 by Energy Risk Magazine. Element Markets is based in Houston, Texas. Company website:http://www.elementmarkets.com

About Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Public Schools serves approximately 410,000 students in more than 670 schools. It is the third-largest school district in the nation.

http://houston.citybizlist.com/YourCityBizNews/detail.aspx?id=99333

ComEd Creates 'Smart Grid Innovation' Corridor Near Chicago

By GreenBiz Staff at Greener World Media

Thu Sep 2, 2010 1:00am EDT

Commonwealth Edison Co. (ComEd) has launched a concentrated hub of smart grid pilot projects in a bid to put to the test a range of technologies, such as rooftop solar and electric vehicle charging stations.

The company, a subsidiary of utility giant Exelon, launched what it is calling a "Smart Grid Innovation Corridor" in 10 Northern Illinois communities where there are already smart meters installed in 130,000 homes. Five pilot tests will take place in the corridor, using the smart meter technology as the foundation.

"Our innovation corridor is unlike any in the U.S.," Anne Pramaggiore, ComEd's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement Wednesday. "It allows us to study a variety of advanced Smart Grid technologies individually and in relation to each other. Through this deliberate approach, we will learn the best and most cost-effective way to deliver value to our customers, help them manage their bills, and improve system reliability."

The news comes the same week as Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that two million smart grid meters have been installed across the U.S., driven in part by funding from the Recovery Act.

A $5 million grant from the Department of Energy will partially fund one of the five smart grid pilot programs announced by ComEd Wednesday. The three-year photovoltaic pilot is expected to begin next spring, for which ComEd will recruit 100 owners of single-family homes to participate.

Homeowners will receive free rooftop solar panels and installation, with the resulting electricity generation and consumption to be monitored by the utility to examine the customer benefits, hourly pricing signals, impact on customer load, and how well participants are able to sell back unused solar electricity.

ComEd will also launch its first intelligent substation as part of another pilot test. An existing Oak Park substation is being equipped with microprocessor-based controls and advanced digital devices that will go online in December. The substation's automated monitoring and analysis capabilities are to be designed to improve reliability and maintenance.

A third pilot program will see smart-charging infrastructure installed throughout the Chicago area for an electric vehicle pilot program. Partnering on the project will be General Motors, the Electric Power Research Institute and the city of Chicago. The Chevy Volt from General Motors will be tested in the program beginning in 2011.

The remaining pilot programs will focus on self-correcting power lines and reducing surprise voltage on distribution lines. Both will go into effect in December.

The Smart Grid Innovation Corridor includes Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Melrose Park, Oak Park, River Forest and Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS67504947720100902

Article location:http://www.fastcompany.com/1683897/let-the-great-wind-spin

August 19, 2010

Windy City's Gusts Supply Power to Stylish Turbines

By Rachel Arndt

If you say it right, “urban turbine” rhymes. But can it move beyond its oxymoronic wordplay and into the real world? Designers and architects are beginning to say yes.

In Chicago, Greenway Self-Park [1] uses urban wind power and sleek architectural design to spruce up the dull city garage. Greenway Self-Park, which opened at the end of 2009, has 12 turbines--which started moving this summer--attached to its side and is topped with a rain collection system. For HOK, the firm behind the project, green design was an opportunity for good design, something rarely seen in parking garages. That means a screen instead of a wall, giving the 11-story structure both an open look--that admits its automotive contents--and efficient ventilation, which helps lower energy costs.

“With the design, we took away the traditions of parking garages,” says Todd Halamka, director of design at the Chicago office of HOK. He wants to celebrate the building’s function, not hide it.



Greenway’s turbines were made by Helix Wind, though the initial plan was to use Aerotecture, a Chicago-based solar and wind energy company. But after studying the wind patterns near the garage, the company decided the site was too “low power,” says Bil Becker, Aerotecture CEO. To avoid making himself--and the burgeoning wind-power industry--look bad, they withdrew from the project. “They’ll try to [force] you into building a sculpture, he says, “but we don’t make sculptures.”

Instead, the company makes turbines and solar panels, often used in combination so “the high sun in the summer is compensating for the low wind” and vice versa in the winter, Becker says. So far, the five-year old company has more than 30 turbines in Chicago and its suburbs.

Meanwhile, across the country in Reno, the city government is behind the push for reducing the carbon footprint. There are two turbines atop City Hall, one at a wastewater plant, one at a park, and two more in downtown Reno. Four more are in the works.

The City Hall turbine won’t start spinning till at least September, but nearby residents have already praised the look of the blades, which are enshrined in a hoop to cut down noise. They’re rated at less than 35 decibels, says Jason Greddes, Reno’s environmental services administrator, which is quieter than a refrigerator’s hum.

The wind is blowing across the pond too. The three turbines atop London’s Strata skyscraper stand out because they fit in. It’s the first building to have the machines integrated in its structure. In a review in the Guardian, Jonathan Glancey writes [2] that the building has “the feel of an airship holding aloft the passenger cabins (or flats) below.” Others have chosen a simpler description: the Electric Razor.

Will urban wind power catch up? There are certainly enough customers, says Aerotecture’s Becker, but he worries wind power is misunderstood and too often associated with images of endless plains interrupted by swarms of looming towers. “We’re so different,” he says, “that we’re not well understood.”

---

Links:
[1] http://www.greenwayselfpark.com/
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jul/18/strata-tower-london-green-architecture

Regional Study of Green Buildings First of Its Kind to Study Post Occupancy
Results of LEED Buildings in Illinois



CHICAGO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Illinois has been an early leader
in green building construction, currently ranking sixth in the number of
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings built, with the
City of Chicago itself having more LEED(R) certified buildings than any other
city in the country. This leadership continues with release of a report from
the U.S. Green Building Council - Chicago Chapter (USGBC - Chicago) that
provides a first look at post-occupancy performance of LEED buildings on a
local scale.

The Regional Green Building Case Study Project: a Post-Occupancy Study of LEED
Projects in Illinois report summarizes the first year of a multi-year study to
analyze the post-occupancy benefits of 25 LEED(R) certified projects in
Illinois related to: energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use,
construction and operating costs, cost of building green, health and
productivity impacts, and occupant comfort. The study was funded by the Grand
Victoria Foundation and is a collaborative endeavor between the USGBC?Chicago,
U.S. EPA Region 5, the City of Chicago, Delta Institute, and the Center for
Neighborhood Technology, which was the lead researcher for the project.

The study found that sustainability does not stop with building design and
construction. While a building may be
designed to be sustainable, it is often ongoing operational issues that affect
the amount of energy, water, and other resources it consumes. Accordingly,
ongoing performance evaluation is a key component of long-term sustainability.

"Sustainability must be integrated into ongoing operations and maintenance
practices," says Kathy Tholin, CEO of the Center for Neighborhood Technology,
whose Chicago LEED Platinum building was a part of the study. "Constructing to
LEED(R) Platinum was a natural choice given CNT's long-standing commitment to
sustainable development," explains Tholin. "But our job is far from complete.
Now that we're utilizing the space, sustainability means focusing on ongoing
operations and maintenance. We're striving for continuous improvement."

The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted
benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance
green buildings. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success
for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle.

Doug Widener, Executive Director of the U.S. Green Building Council - Chicago
Chapter emphasizes that "with an understanding of operational issues, tenant
behavior, and maintenance practices, building owners and managers can
implement ongoing changes that lead to increased building performance and
sustainability over time." Mr. Widener adds that "this report is an important
step towards achieving our mission of leading the regional transformation of
the built environment to become ecologically sustainable, profitable, and
healthy."

The report compliments the U.S. Green Building Council's recently launched
Building Performance Initiative. Beginning this fall, it will analyze energy
and other resource use data from LEED buildings and provide this data back to
building owners to allow for ongoing sustainability improvements over time. 

The study also found that resource use varies in LEED buildings. Many
participating projects performed better than conventional commercial interiors
and buildings, with projects that focused on energy conservation as a part of
their LEED strategy performing better in relation to energy use and
conservation than projects that focused on other areas of sustainability.
Given that LEED is a multifaceted system that rates a building's
sustainability on a variety of factors (including site, water efficiency,
energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality),
projects that focused on energy conservation performed better in this area
than projects that did not. All buildings in the first year of the study were
certified under older versions of LEED. Newer versions of the rating system
mandate, as well as incent, higher levels of energy efficiency. 

The results of occupant comfort in surveyed projects were very high,
especially related to indoor air quality and lighting. The study also found
that construction costs varied greatly, as do construction costs of
conventional buildings, and that these are largely driven by programmatic
issues. The average premium reported for building green was 3.8 percent; in
line with the national average.

For the second year of the study, 25 additional Illinois LEED projects will be
added to its sample for a total of 50. "We are excited by this initial year of
the study, but are even more excited for the second year when we will add
buildings certified under newer versions of LEED to see if these newer LEED
buildings perform better," notes Widener. "We are also collecting a second
year of data for our first year projects. It will be interesting to see if
operational changes made as a result of the study will result in improved
efficiencies in these buildings."

For the full report and case studies please visit the Chapter web site at:
www.usgbc-chicago.org.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS171154+26-Oct-2009+PRN20091026

chicagotribune.com

eptember 01, 2009

Power play: architects help turn old Sears power plant in Chicago into new charter school

Architects pull different power plays than politicians.

In London nine years ago, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron took a mighty, decommissioned power station on the Thames River and transformed it into Tate Modern (left), an acclaimed showcase for the Tate Gallery's collection of modern art.

Now in Chicago, a team of architects, foundation leaders and consultants has turned a handsome but derelict old power plant that once served Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s massive West Side headquarters into an inspired (and likely, inspiring) public charter high school.

Named the Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center, in memory of the late Chicago developer who had a passion for revitalizing the beleaguered North Lawndale neighborhood, the building houses Power House High (below), which will welcome its first students Tuesday.

The $40 million project, aided by $17 million in federal tax credits, has recovered the architectural glory of the old power plant, especially in a soaring turbine room with glistening white brick walls and tall, arched windows.

Throughout are energy-saving features, from retrofitted historic windows to geothermal wells, that are expected to earn the center a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Located at 931 S. Homan Ave., just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, the 104-year-old structure is among the remnants of Sears' once-vibrant West Side catalog operation. Chicago architects Nimmons & Fellows melded Chicago School efficiency and classical decoration in the complex, which at its height mailed thousands of orders every day to customers across America.

Sears left in 1973 for the 110-story Sears (now Willis) Tower. More than 30 years later, the power plant appeared to be a white elephant. Its arched windows were either broken or boarded up. Birds flew inside. And oversize rodents lived there.

"We thought they were cats -- they turned out to be rats," said Kristen Dean, president of the Homan Arthington Foundation. The foundation worked with Shaw, who died in 2006, to develop more than 300 homes and a community center in North Lawndale.

The wisdom of the foundation's decision to reuse the power plant is now fully apparent, thanks to Chicago architects Farr Associates, who worked with the Midwest office of MacRostie Historic Advisors.

A palace of steam is now a palace of learning, even if some details, like the steel entrance staircases, are disappointingly mundane. Yet old arched windows (left, at rear of building, with new fire escapes) have been sensitively replaced with double-glazed, energy-efficient glass. And the building's 185-foot-tall, brick chimney has been handsomely restored.

To their credit, the architects didn't strip the building of its grit. On the north facade, for example, smudgy lines formed by old lean-to buildings haven't been erased. Round terra cotta decoration enlivens the brown brick exterior with details like bolts of electricity..

Inside, Farr Associates followed the broad outlines of the Tate Modern, making the three-story turbine room a dramatic great hall and turning the boiler room into smaller but no less compelling spaces -- in this case, classrooms and meeting rooms instead of galleries.

The results are particularly impressive in the turbine room (left), which will be used for school assemblies, a cafeteria, exercise activities and community events. Instead of large sculptural projects, as at the Tate, the room is populated by huge industrial objects, including a big blue chilling machine and a 40-ton gantry crane.

"Every room in this building has a story," said Farr Associates' principal designer on the project, Jonathan Boyer.

The story and spaces are equally good in the building's other half, where giant boilers once turned water into steam. There, the architects supervised the removal of a junglelike thicket of machinery and carefully threaded new floors, walls, corridors and stairwells amid historic features they retained as artifacts.

Windows in some classrooms offer views to the the building's chimney. A coal ash conveyor belt is displayed behind glass.

The school's leaders -- Principal Kothyn Evans-Alexander and executive Chris Reynolds, who works for the school's partner, the Henry Ford Learning Institute of Dearborn, Mich. -- predict that the architecture and artifacts will inspire curiosity and help drive home lessons that books alone would not.

It remains to be seen, though, whether the design will help or hinder teaching. Will boisterous kids turn the hard-surfaced turbine room into an echo chamber?

Even if the Shaw Center lacks the Tate Modern's bracing contrasts of old and new, it is still likely to emerge as a model for recycling historic buildings -- and for harnessing architecture's aesthetic power to a broader social purpose.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2009/09/power-play-architects-help-turn-old-sears-power-plant-in-chicago-to-new-charter-school-.html