Tuesday

Decarbonizing Large Affordable Multifamily Housing

Recent solicitations for affordable housing in the northeast are making passive house design for new affordable multifamily buildings cost-effective. The next big challenge is to improve existing, large, affordable multifamily housing with deep efficiency and electrification while preserving affordability and improving occupant health, safety and comfort. This session will explore leading programs, policies and initiatives to achieve this.

Moderator: Ram Narayanamurthy, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

• Sadie McKeown, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Community Preservation Corp.
• Christina McPike, Energy and Sustainability Director, WinnCompanies
• Ed Connelly, President, New Ecology

Accelerating Infrastructure Buildout Ahead of the Coming Boom in EV Adoption

The EV tipping point is fast approaching. Panelists will address the challenge of scaling up public and private sector infrastructure investment to keep pace with the growth in EV adoption, meet evolving charging needs and achieve the right balance between the desire for fast charging and the need for managed charging to ensure grid benefits.

Moderator: Doug McMahon, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, New York Power Authority

• Wayne Killen, Director, Infrastructure Planning and Business Development, Electrify America
• Michael Replogle, Deputy Commisioner for Policy, New York City Department of Transportation
• Terrence Sobolewski, Rhode Island President and U.S. Chief Customer Officer, National Grid
• John Halliwell, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

Smart, Efficient, Clean Heat at Scale

Advanced heat pumps, thermal retrofits, and smart controls are key to economically reducing building sector GHG gas emission in cold climates like New England and New York. With the oldest building stock and the highest use of heating oil in the nation, the northeast is a prime target for accelerated adoption of these technologies. This session will explore scalable, market-ready products and solutions to decarbonize the region’s existing homes and buildings.

Moderator: Dave Lis, Director of Technology & Market Solutions, NEEP

• Eric Dubin, Sr. Director Utilities and Performance Construction, Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC
• Ronald Domitrovic, EPRI Staff
• Donovan Gordon, Director of Clean Heat, NYSERDA
• Michael Stoddard, Executive Director, Efficiency Maine
• Greg Hale, NYSERDA Senior Advisor for Energy Efficiency & Finance for Retrofit New York & EnergieSprong

Electric Mobility in the New Smart City

Well-integrated networks of clean mobility services – including electric transit, zero-emission ride hailing, and scooters and bikes – will be key to achieving steep reductions in vehicle emissions while decreasing urban gridlock and improving transportation equity. This session will explore strategies for accelerating this revolution in urban transportation, with a focus on ways to expand access to clean and affordable services in underserved areas, advance electrification of ride hailing fleets and build connectivity across services using transportation data and strategic infrastructure investments.

Moderator: Kit Kennedy, Senior Director, Climate and Clean Energy Program

• Britta Gross, Director, Mobility Transformation Program
• Nick Sifuentes, Executive Director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign
• Joseph Chow, Deputy Director, C2Smart University Transportation Center, NYU
• Chris Snyder, Sr. Vice President of Expansion/CEO of ViaVan, Via Transportation

State and local communities are responding to climate stabilization goals by developing policy and program roadmaps to reduce the direct use of fossil fuels in buildings and transport. This session will explore the state of the art in developing decarbonization roadmaps with a focus on recent plans for several Northeast cities.

Session Facilitator: Neil Veilleux

Topical Experts:

• Asa Hopkins, Synapse Energy Economics
• Jenna Tatum, Building Electrification

The northeast region is in the midst of a major energy transition. New York and other localities have established goals to decarbonize the economy at an unprecedented level. Building electrification is one solution to do that. At the same time, the existing fossil fuel infrastructure in the region is strained, with pockets of demand for natural gas exceeding projected supplies. Limitations on new natural gas customer connections and opposition to siting of new natural gas pipelines is part of the public discourse in the region. This situation creates an imperative for the rapid scaling of heat pump solutions—in particular in areas facing natural gas supply constraints. The session will explore approaches to support rapid scaling of heat pump solutions in targeted geographical areas—covering topics of new scalable business models/services, successful partnerships, workforce needs, targeted consumer awareness, and policy adjustments.

Session Facilitator: Eleanor Stein, Professor, Mediator, Administrative Law Judge at Albany Law School

• David Logsdon, ConEd, Manager of Non-Pipeline Alternatives
• Tim Weber, President, Diverso Energy
• Tim Banasch, Sr Vice President, GI Energy
• Mick Schwedler, Ingersoll Rand/Trane
• Owen Brady, Manager, Future of Heat, National Grid

The trend toward democratization of transportation data has the potential to accelerate innovation and provide transportation planners and mobility services and charging providers with information to make informed business and public policy decisions that could lead to a more efficient, sustainable, and equitable urban transportation system. At the same time, requiring broad access to these data raises challenging public policy questions about what’s required to protect competitive business, innovation, and privacy interests. What can we learn from these data and how should government policymakers balance these competing interests?

Session Facilitator: Nick Nigro, Founder, Atlas Public Policy

Topical Experts:

• Rodney Stiles, Assistant Commissioner, Data and Technology, New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission

A growing range of advanced cold climate heat pump makes and models are increasingly available to provide reliable air conditioning and space heating with a remarkable level of energy efficiency, e.g., a co-efficient of performance (COP) of 1.5 to 4.0 or better even in very cold weather. However, this new generation of HVAC equipment requires trained, knowledgeable specifiers, installers and inspectors to appropriately match and install equipment to meet specific homes and building conditions—a particular challenge for existing homes and buildings. This session will discuss the needs, initiatives and collaborations of industry, utilities and state and local government to build the workforce capacities needed to install advanced heat pumps at scale.

Session Facilitator: Adele Ferranti, NYSERDA

Topical Experts:

• Eleanor Kahn, NYC Mayors Office of Sustainability
• Adam Romano, Steve Winter Associates
• Jake Marin, VEIC

Improving equitable access to mobility services as we decarbonize transportation is a growing priority among government agencies, utilities, mobility service providers, leading climate and energy non-profit organizations and others. This session will explore approaches to assessing how equitable transportation systems are, and lessons learned from efforts to expand affordable electrified mobility services in historically underserved areas.

Session Facilitator: Nick Sifuentes, Executive Director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign

Topical Experts:

• Jamie Love, Senior Program Officer, Institute for Sustainable Communities

Efficient Electrification to displace the inefficient use of fossil fuels in transportation and buildings presents several challenges (and opportunities) for utility regulation. What is the role of regulators and utilities to promote efficient electrification? When and how should utilities be compensated? What benefits and challenges does increased use of electricity present to ratepayers? Who should pay for grid and other infrastructure upgrades to support increased electrification? What is the role of time-of-use rates? This session will explore these issues with lessons learned from states that have begun to address electrification.

Session Facilitator: Nancy Seidman

Topical Experts:

• Paul Allen, MJ Bradley & Associates
• Rebecca Tepper, MA Attorney General Office
• France Lampron, Director of Transportation Electrification, Hydro Quebec

Advanced building energy codes and standards are a key element of state and local plans to achieve climate stabilization goals. This session will explore leading trends and developments in building energy codes including building energy rating, labeling and benchmarking to support efficient building electrification and the integration of EV charging, customer integrated PV and battery storage, and smart controls for new, renovated and existing buildings.

Session Facilitator: Carolyn Sarno Goldthwaite, Director of Building and Community Solutions, NEEP

Topical Experts:

• Emily Hoffman, PE, CEM, LEED AP

This session will explore the role of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in light-, medium- and heavy-duty transportation applications, what is needed to support early market development and achieve a self-sustaining FCEV market in the Northeast, and the use of hydrogen to enable generation of more renewable energy across the grid.

Session Facilitator: Dave Edwards, Director and Advocate for Hydrogen Energy, Air Liquide

Topical Experts:

• Michael Lord, Executive Engineer, Product Regulatory Affairs, Toyota Motor North America
• Kira Dunn, Grant Manager, Hydrogen Product Development Center, Shell

Building and transportation electrification and decarbonization change how people use energy in their everyday lives. While it can provide multiple benefits, the what, why, and how of these changes are not widely understood. This session will explore how to build a positive public narrative that motivates people to action. It will include how to develop key messages and how to inform and engage media influencers and spokespeople to build public knowledge and understanding of electrification and address concerns as well as misunderstandings.

Session Facilitator: Clay Perry, Senior Media Relations Manager, EPRI

Topical Experts:

• Cat Lazaroff, Managing Director, Resource Media
• Ben Jervey, Desmog