At the NJEMP public hearings today held by the NJ Board of Public Utilities, Utility Advantage President Laurie Wiegand-Jackson provided these comments:

“We applaud the state and the BPU for continuing this critical work to address climate change and to reduce waste in the utilization of our energy and water resources. These times call for transformative strategies and programs that are no longer the status quo, but boldly increase the investment in outreach, training, implementation and innovation. Our comments focus on these areas.
 
Building on the state’s inaugural benchmarking mandate, which our company supports, we propose the BPU fund efforts to increase awareness to expand participation, provide education with access to incentives and financing to conduct no or low-cost facility audits for all participants with lower EUIs and to implement efficiency and RE projects. Coordination with the state and utility program implementors will help the state reach the ambitious targets set for the next triennium.
 We support the increase of distributed renewable energy – with a focus on assessment funding and incentive programs that support food recycling to produce biofuels, as well as battery storage and green hydrogen.  BPU should leverage the ground-breaking projects that have proven the success of these technologies in NJ into a broad deployment across the state  – becoming a leader in these renewable energy technologies – much as we did for solar with ground-breaking incentive programs more than 15 years ago. 
 NJ has shown the lowest participation rates in PJM’s demand response programs, resulting in some of the highest capacity and transmission charges in the region.   We support state-sponsored investments in education and real time monitoring in the larger C&I sectors which are largely overlooked in utility programs.
 On a sector basis, we recommend a special focus on wastewater treatment facilities where there are opportunities for energy efficiency upgrades, improved resilience and carbon reductions. 
 We need improved and increased workforce development.  Working with the Association of Energy Engineers, where I serve on the board of directors, the state can quickly and effectively provide training and certification of energy professionals to implement these initiatives.  AEE administers globally recognized certifications for energy auditors and energy managers. The state further needs to expressly target the underrepresented – specifically women, minorities, and those in overburdened communities.   
 
We appreciate this opportunity from the BPU to provide our comments via this public hearing and look forward to the upcoming workshops.”