OUCAN makes several demands toward university’s newer energy policies.
Ohio University announced a commitment to use greener and sustainable energy to power the campus, and needs help doing so.
Currently, OU is committed to no longer using coal as a heating/cooling source by the end of the year and to have 20 percent of its total energy provided by renewable energy sources by 2020 with the ultimate goal to be carbon neutral by 2075.
A search for an energy consultant to aid in achieving the university’s goals has been implemented, OU named three consulting firms on a short list: Brakey Energy (Shaker Heights), Delta Energy Services (Dublin) and STEP Resources (West Chester). The consultant will be hired to guide the university’s energy purchases in the midst of this transition.
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Groups such as Ohio University Climate Action Now criticize the university’s selection process and the candidates named. OUCAN is a coalition of students, faculty and staff concerned with the sustainable energy policies of the university.
The group held a rally Monday morning outside of Cutler Hall, demanding for OU to cease its delay in abstaining from the use of fossil fuels to speed up the transition processes of implementing sustainable energy on campus.
The group highlighted five demands directed at the university in a news release:
That OU President Roderick McDavis, Associate Vice President of Information Technologies and Administrative Services Joe Lalley and a representative from the OU Board of Trustees agree to meet with a nine member delegation composed of three faculty, three students and three community residents;
That the university agrees to an immediate freeze of the consultant selection process until questions regarding the process are resolved;
That OU agrees to remove the name of Brakey Energy from its short list of energy consultant candidates and replace it with a consulting firm that does have a demonstrable track record of promoting green energy;
That OU release a statement to the public that explains the process by which an energy consultant is being chosen, who are the people conducting it, and how it was determined that the firms on the short list demonstrated any “commitment to sustainability;”
That OU institutes a cease on any construction of a gas pipeline until unresolved questions on safety are answered.
Lalley said he had not yet heard from OUCAN in regards to such demands, but said he does not think the goals of the group and the university differentiate from each other.
He said details of the search still cannot be announced, as responses of the candidates are still being evaluated. He added members of the selection team have been on vacation, adding to the difficulty of speeding up the selection process. He said he hopes more action will be taken next week.
Lalley pointed to the energy infrastructure project last year which resulted in a decision not to build a combustion turbine plant.
“We have reiterated again in the RFQ (request for qualifications) for the utility master plan consultant that people would read the RFQ for the energy consultant,” Lalley said. “We’re pretty serious about wanting to do this. That is one of the ways the sustainability component with 25 percent or a little bit more than 25 percent of how we’re scoring the energy consultant.”
He added he would not comment further on the selection process.
In regards to the criticism voiced by members of OUCAN of the gas pipeline constructed by Columbia Gas, Lalley said the medium pressure gas line will be constructed to meet extra demands for gas in response to OU’s commitment to no longer burn coal by the end of the year to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory commitments by the end of January 2016.
He said the use of the pipeline in the place of coal will result in a 34 percent reduction of OU’s carbon emission and that the construction of the line has lowered capital costs by roughly $3 million.
Lalley said the university has only made a nine year commitment to use the line, and if the university continues to use gas at its current rate then capital costs will continue to go down through a rebate structure over the first seven years of its use.
“We’re trying to maximize our flexibility as we make progress toward the goals of the climate action plan of sustainability,” he said. “In regard to OUCAN or anyone else for that matter, I don’t think we disagree on what the end game is. I think the issue is how we get there.”
Lalley said one of the concerns raised in relation to making the transition into green energy is the technicalities of powering the campus through renewable sources, such as solar and wind power.
“When the sun isn’t shining, you have power to campus; when the wind isn’t blowing, you have power to campus. When you know that’s going to take some technical expertise, which is what we’re looking for. Our energy procurement consultant selection process will help us pick how we buy, and also how to get reliable delivery to campus and how we negotiate for those electrical providers, which will be a separate RFQ that we anticipate releasing within a month of getting our consultant on board.”
Lalley said although he wishes faster progress would be made in regards to the university’s transition into green energy, he said such decisions take time and will be a multi-faceted approach that will most likely take years and he is satisfied with the university’s efforts to stop wasting energy through repairs to the steam distribution system.
aw120713@ohio.edu
@Alisa_Warren
