Electric, CNG vehicles fuel Lawrence’s drive toward alt-fuels

By Jerry LaMartina
Metropolitan Energy Center, freelance writer

The City of Lawrence, Kansas has taken actions for many years to protect the environment, including putting alternative-fuel vehicles into use.
In October, the city put into service a refuse truck fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG), with help from a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Cities grant of about $100,000. That money was part of an overall $15 million Clean Cities grant, awarded in December 2009, which also benefited several other municipalities, companies and others in the Kansas City area and elsewhere that had implemented alternative-fuels projects.

Kansas City-based Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) administered the entire grant through a contract with the DOE. All the projects supported by the grant constitute MEC’s Midwest Region Alternative Fuels Project.

This is the city’s first and only dedicated CNG truck, says Steve Stewart, Lawrence’s fleet manager. The grant would only fund dedicated vehicles. The city also has a bi-fuel F-150 pickup, which is its first CNG vehicle. Bi-fuel vehicles are capable of running on more than one fuel but only on one at a time.
The truck cost just over $185,000, Stewart says. The grant provided $50,000, and the city paid the roughly $135,000 remainder. The grant required that the vehicle use a dedicated fuel – in this case CNG – Stewart says.
The Clean Cities grant also paid for 50 percent of the roughly $99,000 cost of a CNG fueling station the city installed. This is Lawrence’s first CNG station.
The city said in its project report to Clean Cities that it had chosen to deploy the CNG truck to evaluate whether the alternative fuel would meet its needs and save it money in the long run.
“So far the truck is meeting our needs, and I anticipate a return on investment of the CNG package within the seven-year life projection of the truck,” Stewart says. “ROI on the fuel station my take longer. As with anything new or different, people are slow to embrace change. The driver is adapting to the difference in the vehicle and learning to accept it.”
The grant also helped Lawrence put into use an electric vehicle called a club-car carryall, Stewart says. It looks like a golf cart but has an enclosed cab and a pickup bed. Maintenance crews at the city’s wastewater plant use it to haul their tools and supplies during service calls.
“We had put a similar electric vehicle into use, but we couldn’t haul equipment with it,” Stewart says. “So we used the grant to help us replace a full-size Ford Crown Victoria to haul equipment. Terms of grant were that you had to replace a full-size gasoline powered vehicle with the electric vehicle. It worked out really well, to the point that we’re about to replace another vehicle with another electric.”
The city paid $9,000 toward the vehicle’s cost, and the grant kicked in $2,000.
Those dollars always have to be considered – unless maybe you’re Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or somebody they play bridge with.
“Fifteen years ago, we couldn’t get grant money to do some of this alt-fuel implementation,” Stewart says. “We try to stay in touch with alternative fuels and do what we can. Until this grant came along, we haven’t had the money to do some of this stuff.”
Some of that includes plans to use two other CNG trucks to water trees on city property, which will start in the summer, he says. The water will come from a former fertilizer plant, which has nitrogen-rich water in containment ponds and which the city is remediating in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency. The city must contain the water to keep it from flowing back into groundwater. The city also provides the water to farmers in the area for use on their crops.
That water will help those crops grow, and Stewart wants to see alt-fuels use to grow, as well. While that growth embraces the practical value of alt-fuel vehicles – they decrease air pollution and other environmental damage wrought by resource extraction, they typically decrease fuel costs, they decrease dependency on foreign energy supplies – Stewart emphasizes the practical need to think through the financials.
“My biggest concern with it would be planning your budget for your infrastructure and the vehicles that you need, and then scheduling to give yourself enough lead time so you can get done what you need to,” he says.
While he keeps his eye on the budget, he also turns it toward the future.
“I’d like to see these efforts move forward after I retire,” Stewart says.

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lamartina.jerry@gmail.com

CNG blends right in with these Black Hills

By Jerry LaMartina
Metropolitan Energy Center, free-lance writer

Black Hills Energy (BHE) knows the value of both supplying natural gas to its customers and using it as an alternative fuel for vehicles: It’s clean, plentiful, domestic and less expensive than gasoline or diesel.

Black Hills Corp., headquartered in Rapid City, S.D., supplies natural gas and electricity to more than 750,000 customers in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. BHE Nebraska Gas division is a subsidiary of Black Hills Corp., and is based in Lincoln, Neb.

BHE joined the effort to create a sustainable market for natural gas vehicles in the Midwest when it received a $250,000 grant as part of a $15 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Cities grant from December 2009. The overall grant also benefited several other municipalities and companies in the Kansas City area and elsewhere that had implemented alternative-fuels projects. The grant was administered by Kansas City-based Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) for the DOE. All the projects supported by the grant constitute MEC’s Midwest Region Alternative Fuels Project.

The grant helped pay for the second public compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Lincoln, which opened in October 2012. The Lincoln Airport Authority had also received a federal grant from Clean Cities and opened the first public CNG station in August 2010. BHE’s total project cost was $640,000.

BHE has created local partnerships and funded incentives for some Lincoln-based fleets and the city to adopt CNG, and the company is expanding its own use of CNG. BHE currently has 36 CNG-fueled vehicles in its 50-vehicle Lincoln based fleet, customer relations manager Paul Cammack says. So 72 percent of the fleet is fueled by natural gas.

While its natural gas vehicle count is rising, BHE’s fuel costs are falling. The company is saving an average of $100,000 to $150,000 a year by using CNG, Cammack says. As of Dec. 31, 2013, the company had displaced 35,000 gas gallon equivalents (gge) by using the alternative fuel.

“In addition to our own fleet, BHE partners are up to more than 100 CNG vehicles, and we expect it to more than double by end of this year. And those are just the ones we know about.”

Why does BHE embrace CNG?

“If you look at it from a purely corporate view, … each one of these vehicles is a new burner tip for natural gas,” Cammack says. “It’s great for our company. From a personal point of view, it’s also very important to know that CNG is good for the environment. Just because we can’t see smog doesn’t mean we don’t have poor air quality. And it’s important for our country to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

Cammack’s biggest surprise was customers’ reluctance to convert easily and readily to CNG.

“You can put the facts and figures in front of them, but sometimes, for whatever reason, they don’t pull the trigger and convert to CNG,” he said. “It may be an inherent fear of natural gas, especially compressed natural gas. And then there’s lack of infrastructure for fueling.”

When Cammack runs across somebody who’s thinking about making the CNG jump, his advice is to ease into the transition.

“We tell customers as we put all the facts and figures in front of them, ‘Just do one, just convert one vehicle.’ We’ll help a customer defray the cost of a conversion system on their first vehicle. Once they realize, ‘Hey, this works and I’m saving money,’ then they’ll be back to install more conversion systems on their own.”

When BHE completed its Clean Cities project report, the company said it would outsource the installation and maintenance of future CNG stations to a third-party contractor. Cammack says that’s because doing so helps BHE focus on its primary mission as a utility company.

“I think you’ll find that with most utility companies, selling retail CNG is just not in their wheelhouse,” he says. “Credit card transactions, maintaining a CNG station – that’s not part of how most utilities operate. I think it was helpful that some utilities like us built CNG stations – ‘walkin’ the talk’ – but now I’ve got contractors that want to put in stations.”
Cammack says the Clean Cities grant was invaluable.

“The grant helped the airport and the grant helped us,” he says. “We wouldn’t be where we’re at without that. The grant money has been the catalyst to make this happen. I’m very thankful for that. Actually, the whole community of Lincoln should be grateful.”

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lamartina.jerry@gmail.com

Metropolitan Energy Center is adding a more musical touch to its annual reception this year. They’ll be doing their celebration in The Blue Room.

“I guess you can say we’ve jazzed it up,” said Warren Adams-Leavitt, the Energy Center’s Executive Director.

Once a year MEC, the non-profit dedicated to educating the community about the positives of energy efficient use, has a festive occasion to celebrate its successes and give its vendors, partners and sponsors a chance to network with one another. It’s a way not only to show supporters the in-roads MEC has made in the past year in its mission, but also an opportunity to increase membership.

This will be the 7th annual reception and each one has been a light-hearted evening of entertainment and fun. Organizers believe this event will not be any different.

Food will be served, drinks will be flowing and it’s hoped that a good time will be had by all.

Check your email and stay tuned on this site for more information.

National Drive Electric Week is a nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today’s widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. National Drive Electric Week 2015 celebrations will take place Across the US and other countries. Check out the Events going on in the Greater Kansas City!

Stay updated about our Drive Electric events on our Events Page.

Did you know it was mid-2012 when I realized our area needed a local support entity with informationdave johnson on alternative fuel vehicles? And thanks to a similar belief from Kelly Gilbert and Kay Johnson, Central Kansas Clean Cities was born in January of 2014. This would prove to be an amazing chapter for my desk!

Now initially, I thought it would be fairly straight forward and somewhat easy, but Kelly was right, it was not as easy as I saw it. Fortunately, along the way, I received some tremendous help from some wonderful people! Each of our current and founding board members extended themselves and joined our good fight. I would like to thank Dennis Brown, Tim Hess, Alan Martin, Mike Coburn, Abby Brungardt, Brian Meiers, Kay Johnson, Dennis Hupe, John Schlegel, Steve VanderGriend, and Kim Hynes-Trinchet. Your support has and continues to be the life blood of the coalition.

But we are not done yet! We are just a stone’s throw away from submitting our request for designation package to the DOE! Not to mention all the education, events, and resource services still needing to be tended to! Thankfully we picked up Shawn Schmidt this past October through the WSU intern program. During our time together, Shawn demonstrated professionalism, responsibility, and interpersonal skills to be envied! Shawn recently graduated with his BBA from WSU and when combined with his uncommon qualities, it’s with great excitement for the future of our Central Kansas Clean Cities Coalition I announce that Shawn has agreed to replace me and pick up the now full-time Program Coordinator position. I am sure in a short amount of time you will see how very advantageous this will be for the organization. Please help me welcome Shawn to our family! He can be reached at 316-712-5051 or at Shawn@mec.bluesym10.work.

As for me, besides being front line support for the coalition, there’s a little known tech company called Rental Geek. It’s a small three-man operation that has been working to digitalize the college town apartment rental process, and by Jove, I think we’ve done it. You can pick up and follow our story on social media. So this will be my last entry into this chapter of Dave’s Desk.

Viva AFV’s!

Dave Johnson

Steven Carter, Vice-President, Environmental Business Development Office, American Honda Motor Co., Inc writes a letter regarding the decision to halt production of the Honda Civic Natural Gas.

Read the Letter about the Honda Civic Natural Gas program

The Fuels Fix is a collaborative effort of all the U.S. DOE Clean Cities Program coalitions in the United States working together to spread the word about actions that are taking place to reduce oil dependence, improve air quality and get advanced fuels, vehicle and vehicle technologies in use.
Fuels Fix is an online publication of Clean Cities Coalitions and alternative fuel news. The Ezine is a quarterly collection of stories from all over the U.S. about alternative fuels, hybrids, conservation and efficiency initiatives, emissions reducing technologies, and similar news from the coordinators themselves.

Read the Magazine

As a stakeholder with the KC Regional Clean Cities Coalition, your participation in our Annual Report is very important. The survey will collect information about the progress your organization made in 2014 with alternative fuels, advanced technology vehicles and other clean transportation initiatives. We are collecting this data to analyze our region’s trends and successes in adopting clean transportation policies and alternative fuels.

In addition to KC Regional Clean Cities using the compiled data to better serve your needs locally, the information from coalitions nationwide are compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and conveyed anonymously in the aggregate to the U.S. Government—to members of Congress, the administration, and DOE staff. This data is crucial because the federal government uses it for the following:

• Justification of DOE Vehicle Technologies / Clean Cities program funding
• Justification of Clean Cities grant funding
• Strategic resource investment for Clean Cities and technical assistance
• Media releases and news stories in the national and local markets

Completed surveys are due to angela@mec.bluesym10.work on February 20, 2015. If you are not able to aggregate the information necessary for this survey, please forward this email onto the appropriate person in your organization and cc me on your email.

Click here to download

The final nominations are in for Fuel Consumer, Policy & Incentive, and At-large Representatives.  Thank you for all your nominations and feedback.  Below you will find bios of each candidate. You must be a member to vote, if you are not, please contact Angela Song at angela@mec.bluesym10.work.

Policy and Incentives Representative

Steve Ahrens – Missouri Propane Gas Association (MPGA)

Steve Ahrens serves as both the President of the Missouri Propane Education and Research Council (MOPERC) and the Executive Director of the Missouri Propane Gas Association (MPGA). MPGA is a not-for-profit trade association representing nearly all the state’s propane dealers, suppliers and partners; MOPERC is a state-authorized check-off program that provides funding for consumer safety, industry training, appliance rebates and technology incentives. Ahrens has directed industry efforts to leverage public investment in propane used as motor fuel (autogas) through car and truck fleets, and also lawn mowers. MOPERC incentive programs support both of these initiatives. Ahrens serves on the national PERC Market Outreach advisory committee and is a founder of the National Propane Trainers Conference, an annual meeting of industry safety professionals.

Kimberly Bonhart – United Parcel Service (UPS)

Kimberly, a graduate in Business Management from California Coast University, she has responsibility for public policy that affects all UPS entities in the Central and Northern Plains. In her role, she handles issues covered at local, state and federal levels.  Kimberly manages state government relations for UPS in Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and Colorado. Over the years, Kimberly has used her experience and knowledge in her work on the board of directors for the Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Colorado Trucking Associations. She currently serves on the boards for the Missouri and Kansas Chambers of Commerce, also has served as chairman of the board for the Missouri Motor Carriers Association (2010-2011), and was first vice president of the Kansas Motor Carriers Association before being chosen as president. In March of 2014, she was selected to serve on the Secretary of Transportation Mike King’s newly-formed Kansas Freight Advisory committee.
Article on Kimberly, President of KCMA

Robert White -Renewable Fuel Association

White is VP of Industry Relations for the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a non-profit trade organization that serves as the voice of the ethanol industry, providing advocacy, authoritative analysis, and important industry data to its members, Congress, federal and state government agencies, strategic partners, the media and other opinion-leader audiences. As the VP of Industry Relations, White leads the effort to increase the availability and consumption of ethanol, along with consumer education, social media, marketing and membership. He works with petroleum marketers and retailers, state and federal agencies, fleets and consumers on a daily basis. He is also a sought after technical expert for the ethanol industry on ethanol, E15, E85 and blender pumps. He has served on various boards of directors and advisory committees and is currently on the Board of Advisors for the Fuels Institute, non-profit research-oriented think tank dedicated to evaluating the market issues related to vehicles and the fuels that power them. White is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and holds two degrees, one in Foreign Languages and another in Agricultural Economics. He is a proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
Social Media: Twitter – @fuelinggood

R.J. Wilson – Sandstone Group, LLC.

R.J. Wilson’s energy practice focuses on promotion of legislation, rules and policies which create a favorable demand environment for the Natural Gas Industry. Wilson owns his own consulting business, the Sandstone Group, LLC. He serves as the Central States demand consultant and lobbyist for America’s Natural Gas Alliance. Wilson is a former constitutional officer of the State of Kansas and a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. He was elected by his peers to serve in one of the top six leadership positions in the Kansas House before returning home to serve as the elected County Clerk and CEO of Crawford County Kansas, the 12th largest county in Kansas. Following his elected service, Wilson became Vice President at E3 Biofuels and Mead Cattle Company where he directed the company’s cutting edge ethanol production process which also solved point source pollution from a 30,000 head confined cattle feeding operation in Mead, Nebraska. He assisted the company’s President through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding before making the move to consulting for Chesapeake Energy Corporation headquartered in Oklahoma City. Wilson has gained expertise recently in pipeline construction and project management while working as a member of the management team constructing the 600 mile Flangan South Pipeline from Illinois to Oklahoma. In addition to his work with ANGA, Wilson serves as the legislative chairman of the Midwest Compressed Natural Gas Coalition and as secretary of the Kansas City Clean Cities Board of Directors.

Fuel Consumer Representative

Bryan Fox – Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L)

Bryan Fox, Director Supply Chain Operations, leads KCP&L’s Materials Management, Transportation, and Shops & Technical Services functions.  He joined KCP&L in 2006 heading up the Support Operations group which included Material & Transportation Services and Fleet Management.  KCP&L has a fleet of over 1600 units which includes a variety of alt fuel vehicles and dispenses alt fuel at its fueling sites. Bryan has 20+ years’ experience in production, fleet and supply chain management. Prior to KCP&L, he spent 10+ years with Ford Motor Co. at their Kansas City plant and 8 years with Frito-Lay, Inc. at their Topeka, KS plant and traffic center.  In addition to his work with KCRCCC, Bryan also is a board member of the Utility Supply Management Alliance (USMA) and Heartland KC Roundtable – Council of Supply Management Professionals (CSCMP).

Lanny Wagoner – Fuel Conversion Solutions

Lanny Wagoner is Owner and Vice President of Fuel Conversion Solutions.  Lanny’s automotive experience spans over 30 years.  Starting as a boy working for his father at their automotive repair facility, Lanny has been converting vehicles to run on alternative fuels as early as the 1970’s.  Along with his father Nick, Lanny opened Fuel Conversion Solutions in 2010 which is headquartered in Oak Grove, MO.  Lanny has received extensive training by leading LPG and CNG conversion manufactures and is an Alternative Fuels Installer certified by the State of Oklahoma.  FCS has completed conversions for companies with vehicles located in 28 different states.  FCS is a proud sponsor of the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities and St. Louis Clean Cities.  Prior to starting FCS, Lanny was a successful sales and consulting manager leading large projects and selling multi-million dollar contracts in the healthcare field.  He brings this sales and leadership experience to FCS and has helped grow the company from a single location in 2010 to 5 conversion facilities in 2014.

Dan Williams – Missouri Gas Energy

Dan Williams is a career fleet professional with interests including automotive restoration, performance tuning and alternate fuels technology. Over his career Dan has restored several 1940’s-50’s cars, raced (SCCA Solo II), ASE certified in multiple disciplines and in June of 2013 become a Certified Automotive Fleet Manager, a credential conferred by the NAFA Fleet Management Association after demonstrating competency in 8 equipment, maintenance and business modules. A firm advocate of alternative fuels of all sorts, Dan believes that domestic rethinking of transportation fuels is not only necessary for environmental reasons but crucial for the fiscal independence of the United States. Dan has been active in the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition since 1998 & during his tenure as Fleet Manager of Missouri Gas Energy specified and built NW Missouri’s first public access CNG station. The station is located at MGE’s St. Joseph facility at 402 Cedar, just off of 229 on the lower West side of town.

Orange EV – Corporate Test Drive Event – Sept 18 1-4 PM

Orange EV is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that designs and delivers pure electric, industrial-strength vehicles that are better for the earth, people and bottom line. The T-Series, Orange EV’s flagship offering is now available, manufactured in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. Orange EV’s electric vehicles outperform today’s diesel using the best current forms of energy while costing less. Orange EV Leadership’s success innovating electric vehicles led to Orange EV’s flagship offering, the T-Series pure electric terminal truck. RSVP Mike at MikeS@OrangeEV.com 866-688-5223
Website
WHEN: Thursday, September 18th 1:00 – 4:00 P.M.