| RELATED INFO |
| * Energy Efficiency Services |
| * WIRED worker training program | * WIRED |
| * Energy Efficiency Practitioner program | * Best Practices workshops |
| * Office of Energy & Defense Development |
October 15, 2007
Technical Assistance Program to expand energy efficiency services
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
The initiative supports the state's Hoosier Homegrown Energy Plan by assisting companies in reducing the use of electricity and natural gas. Purdue's program offers companies savings opportunity analysis, technology awareness, and energy efficiency training and implementation services.
To deliver these services, TAP has increased staff and will expand the program to commercial businesses and institutions. Workshops and on-site training also will be offered.
Ethan Rogers, Energy Efficiency Services program manager, said he anticipates that by the end of June, the program will have provided training to more than 200 workers from at least 90 companies.
"We expect that in the next year our efforts will help companies save the amount of electricity and natural gas used by more than 3,000 homes," Rogers said. "This is a significant step toward our long-term goal of decreasing the consumption of power in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors to the point that we reduce the need to build new power plants."
A key component of the program is the Energy Efficiency Practitioner worker certification. This training and mentoring program is currently being tested in a 14-county area in north-central Indiana. Funded by a separate grant from Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED), Energy Efficiency Services staff and program partners will work with facility engineers, maintenance managers and other decision makers to identify and eliminate waste.
"The two greatest barriers to implementing energy savings projects are knowing what to do and justifying it to management," Rogers said. "We're going to help companies with both."
The program partners with utilities, trade associations and governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to provide workshops and to bring awareness to TAP's programs and services.
Writer: Marydell Forbes, (765) 496-7704, mforbes@purdue.edu
Source: Ethan Rogers, (317) 275-6817, earogers@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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