In
the Midwest, the Midwest CHP Application Center (MAC) does
not work as a lone entity. There are several groups that serve
in an advisory manner to help formulate the activities that
the MAC undertakes.
The
MAC works closely with the Midwest CHP Initiative (MWCHPI)
and the Midwest Cogeneration Association, receiving valuable
insights from both organizations to help focus and leverage activities
to be the most beneficial to the promotion CHP in the Midwest.
The leaders of the MAC meet routinely with the leaders of these
organizations to discuss activities and identify areas where
the MAC can provide support. The MAC also sends representatives
to their meetings.
The
MWCHPI provides insights, views and advice from the perspective
of environmental, industry, and government organizations. The
MCA on the other hand provides similar perspectives from engineering
firms, end users, equipment vendors, equipment contractors, project
financiers, architects, project developers, and both electric
and natural gas utility representatives. Both perspectives are
important to the MAC in order to understand the landscape of
CHP in the Midwest.
In addition to these two organizations, the MAC has close working relationships with the DOE Midwest Regional Office (MRO) and the State Energy Offices. The DOE CRO has a long established working relationship with each of the State Energy Offices within the MAC region; this relationship has been a benefit to the MAC in that it helped expedite the MACs introduction and then solidify the relationship with States outside of Illinois (which is where the MAC is located).
Co-located
with the MAC at the University of Illinois Chicago Energy Resources
Center (UIC/ERC) is one of the DOEs 26 Industrial Assessment
Centers (IACs). The IACs provide energy, waste and productivity
assessments to small and mid-sized industrial manufacturing
facilities. They accomplish this by conducting the assessments
with an "army" of energy savvy young engineers overseen by an
experienced engineer. The IAC helps the MAC understand where
CHP fits into the overall "energy solution" in these manufacturing
facilities, and the MAC helps the IAC look for opportunities
to apply CHP.
Besides
the MACs two Federal Sponsors and Partners, the DOE and Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, the MAC also has an established
relationship with the Environmental Protection Agency's CHP
Partnership Program. Since it's inception, the MAC has been
a member of the Partnership and has worked closely with them
in targeting specific market segments of interest to the EPA,
such as ethanol plants and hospitals. In this manner, the MAC
and the EPA can leverage off of activities that are being
undertaken by each other in the Midwest. |
