Welcome to the October/November issue of the Motor Decisions Matter Sponsor Update.

MDM is pleased to welcome its two newest sponsors, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) and MidAmerican Energy Company, to the campaign.

On Sept. 8 and 9, the Consortium for Energy Efficiency's Industry Partners Meeting showcased its members' partnerships with the motor, lighting and HVAC industries.

MDM sponsors will soon be able to look up information about motor- and drive-related efficiency programs around the country through the Consortium for Energy Efficiency's 2004 National Motor Efficiency Program Summary.

This section lists media placements and other MDM publicity efforts.

Welcome to the October/November issue of the Motor Decisions Matter Sponsor Update. This issue introduces MDM's two newest sponsors, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and MidAmerican Energy Co., and highlights motor-related aspects of the Sept. 8-9 Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) Industry Partners Meeting.

It also includes important news about the upcoming CEE National Motor Efficiency Program Summary and an update on public relations developments.

MDM sponsors held a conference call on Oct. 20 to discuss these topics. Thanks to all who participated. Our next call date is to be determined; we'll keep sponsors informed.

MDM-related submissions to the Sponsor Update are always welcome. Feel free to contact Emily Dahl 617-589-3949, ext. 226, with announcements, story ideas, photos and other news.

LADWP and MidAmerican Energy Co. join MDM

MDM is pleased to welcome its two newest sponsors, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) and MidAmerican Energy Company, to the campaign. Their sponsorship brings the total number of sponsors to 30.

LADWP
Serving 1.4 million electric customers and 640,000 water customers, LADWP is the largest municipal utility in the nation.

"LADWP is excited to be part of the MDM campaign," said Reynaldo Reyes, Senior Marketing Representative for LADWP. "Use of the campaign's resources will be an effective way for LADWP to promote best practices in motor management and to work at transforming the industrial/commercial motor replacement market towards the use of NEMA Premium^TM motors."

In November, LADWP will launch a pilot program that will provide incentives for commercial and industrial customers to purchase and install NEMA Premium motors. The full program will take effect in July 2005 if there is a positive response to the pilot. To help ensure the program's success, LADWP plans to use the 1-2-3 Approach to Motor Management, along with face-to-face marketing, to demonstrate the benefits of motor planning to their customers.

LADWP is currently running a number of energy-efficiency programs which provide equipment and product rebates, technical assistance, load monitoring, and financing.

Contact
Reynaldo Reyes
213-367-4983

MidAmerican Energy Company
MidAmerican Energy Co., a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., is the largest utility in Iowa. MidAmerican also serves parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois. Its energy-efficiency programs, which run only in Iowa, include a prescriptive motors and variable-speed drives program that has been in place since the early 1990s.

"Sponsoring MDM is a great opportunity for MidAmerican to help advance the campaign's message of motor management and efficiency awareness," said Dave Ahlberg, MidAmerican Product Manager for industrial energy efficiency programs. "We look forward to learning from other sponsors' experience and using campaign materials to show our customers the benefits of life-cycle costing, the importance of motor repair/replace policies and the value of NEMA Premium."

MidAmerican is active in energy-efficiency programming, offering the Nonresidential Custom Systems Program, which provides rebates for: motors over 200 hp, energy management system upgrades, waste recovery system improvements and other efficiency measures. In addition, MidAmerican is running pilots for its Efficiency Bid^® Program and the Nonresidential Energy Analysis Program.

Contact
Dave Ahlberg
515-252-6762

CEE meeting showcases industry partnerships

On Sept. 8 and 9, the Consortium for Energy Efficiency's Industry Partners Meeting showcased its members' partnerships with the motor, lighting and HVAC industries.

The meeting was designed to encourage cross-pollination of ideas among these industries about effectively advancing relationships between energy-efficiency programs and industry stakeholders.

The Industry Partners Meeting focused on helping industry representatives and efficiency program administrators to better understand their respective roles in transforming the market towards greater levels of energy efficiency.

MDM presentation highlights strong working relationship
CEE worked with the motor industry and energy-efficiency community to launch MDM in 2001, and continues to manage the campaign. Because MDM has been successful in bringing industry and energy-efficiency sponsors together, it could potentially serve as a model to the other industries currently working with CEE members.

At a general session of the Industry Partners Meeting, Rob Boteler, Marketing Chair of NEMA, described ways in which MDM's resources and third-party credibility have helped campaign sponsors strengthen their relationships with customers and other business partners. The session also featured presentations on the emerging partnership between the HVAC industry and CEE members, and the solid working relationship the lighting industry and energy-efficiency community have developed through CEE.

"We thought meeting attendees might benefit from hearing about the barriers MDM has overcome and the advancements that are being made as a result of the campaign," said Ilene Mason, who manages the MDM campaign. "We felt that some of MDM's approaches might have applications in other areas."

Jim Mapp, Energy Analyst for the Wisconsin Department of Energy, thinks that components of the MDM campaign might be relevant to the lighting industry. "It could make sense to emulate MDM's collaborative development process for the 1-2-3 Approach to Motor Management to create a tool that addresses high-efficiency options in commercial and industrial lighting," he said.

The HVAC and motor industries also have particular relevance to each other because of opportunities for increased use of energy-efficient motors through better HVAC installation practices.

Breakout sessions cover motor programs, ASDs
Two breakout sessions at the Industry Partners Meeting focused on motor efficiency. The first session examined motor efficiency from the standpoint of incentive programs (for details, see Program Summary story). The second session explored the incorporation of adjustable-speed drives ("drives") into energy-efficiency programs and outreach efforts.

Drives are important equipment for both energy-efficiency programs and the motor industry to think about addressing through CEE. Due to low levels of awareness about the benefits of drives and high potential motor system energy savings (up to 50 percent in selected applications), MDM is considering the addition of a message about drives to the campaign's motor management message.

Energy-efficiency programs, such as those that work with MDM and CEE, can promote drives as a step towards meeting their energy-saving goals. For manufacturers, distributors, service centers and energy service companies, showing customers the benefits of drives can increase the chance of repeat business. It can also open the door for industry representatives to implement larger process optimization solutions for customers.

"CEE members have been able to leverage their work with industry partners through MDM to support their motor programs," said Mason. "Because of their positive experiences with industry, members have expressed interest in continuing their collaborative work to address the market for adjustable-speed drives."

At the Industry Partners Meeting, CEE members and industry stakeholders discussed the current market for drives, including opportunities to install this equipment as well as barriers they have overcome to make drives a practical purchase for facilities.

"A few years ago, drive technology was not as dependable, awareness was low among distributors and potential users, and prices were high," said Chuck Collado, Conservation Engineer for the New York Power Authority (NYPA). "Today, however, drive technology is reliable, awareness is growing, and prices have come down. People who had bad first experiences with drives are now willing to take a second look. It's a great time to start promoting the benefits of drives."

On the Oct. 20 MDM conference call, sponsors reconfirmed their agreement that the campaign derives much of its strength from its solid motor management awareness message. In order to prevent dilution of this message, MDM will include any additional information on the benefits of drives as a "post-script" to the importance of motor planning. Drives will not become a separate focal point for the campaign.

As Motor Decisions Matter sponsors continue to develop a non-technical, awareness message about drives, they will work with CEE to explore how best to coordinate MDM's materials and outreach.

For presentations from the Industry Partners Meeting, visit the CEE Web site.

Motor Efficiency Program Summary:
a resource for MDM sponsors

Motor industry stakeholders: Have you been thinking of how best to encourage distributors and end-users to stock and purchase more NEMA Premium™ motors and adjustable-speed drives?

Efficiency program administrators: Do you feel you could benefit from knowing more about other programs that provide incentives for motors and drives?

MDM sponsors will soon be able to look up information about motor- and drive-related efficiency programs around the country through the Consortium for Energy Efficiency's 2004 National Motor Efficiency Program Summary. Since August, CEE has been collecting information that will help motor-efficiency stakeholders locate and learn about these programs. The report includes program details as well as specific contact information.

Feedback from this questionnaire will provide information about regional and national trends in motor-efficiency program administration, including programs’ methods of qualifying motor efficiency measures for incentives. The questionnaire also gave MDM project staff a chance to learn which programs currently use campaign materials, and to talk about the campaign with those who are unfamiliar with it.

The efficiency program information from the Summary and questionnaire will help MDM sponsors determine how best to integrate their educational outreach and coordinate messaging with other programs. The explanations program administrators have provided about their drive incentives will also be useful to MDM sponsors as they consider incorporating a "post-script" message on drive benefits and resources into the campaign.

Ilene Mason gave a presentation on the Program Summary to Consortium for Energy Efficiency members and industry representatives at CEE's Industry Partners Meeting on Sept. 8 in Dallas. (For meeting details, see Industry Partners Meeting story.)

"Focusing on energy-efficiency program design, goals and motivations provided CEE's industry partners – many of whom are also MDM sponsors – with a more in-depth appreciation of CEE members' offerings," said Mason. "We wanted attendees to come away from the meeting with a more thorough understanding of how programs operate and which resources might be available in various regions of the country."

At the meeting, energy-efficiency program administrators discussed their own experiences running different types of programs, which ranged in scope, purpose and stages of development.

"It was good to hear the reasoning behind the programs and to discuss the thought processes used by utilities to develop some of the programs," said Dale Basso, Product Manager for Rockwell Automation. "This allows us to give our field sales staff and distributors a better understanding of how to recognize opportunities and how they can communicate this with their customers."

Basso's comments were echoed by many other industry representatives, who also requested more information about programs. Knowing the "who, what, where and why" of industrial efficiency programs enables industry stakeholders to gain greater success in marketing their high-efficiency products and services.

The 2004 Summary should be publicly available in mid- to late November. The last Summary was completed in December 2002 and is currently available on the CEE Web site.

MDM public relations activities

If you've been looking for ways to use the Motor Decisions Matter campaign's publicity to your organization's best advantage, this new column is the place to start.

Each issue will now feature a brief public relations update, with recently released article titles and other relevant information. Please contact Emily Dahl for copies or information on how to receive articles and/or press releases.

Listed below are the media placements that have occurred since the beginning of June. At that point, 11 publications had run MDM articles in 2004, with an estimated 763,177 impressions rendered. From June through October, 15 publications ran stories that featured or referred to MDM and/or the 1-2-3 Approach, resulting in an estimated 1,237,361 additional impressions.