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The Energy Efficiency Market Acceleration Program (EE-MAP) is being implemented by the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The program will fund research, market development activities and demonstration projects to help leverage investments and promote business development opportunities for emerging energy efficiency technologies. In July 2012, the NYPA Board of Trustees authorized $30 million for the EE-MAP initiative.

“This public-private partnership will help bring innovative green technologies into the marketplace, helping spur economic investment in the clean energy sector and protect our environment, while maintaining New York’s position as a leader in sustainability,” Governor Cuomo said. “By supporting clean energy research and production, the state is helping create green jobs in communities across New York, while ensuring that our environment is protected for generations to come.”

EE-MAP focuses on accelerating the market development of energy efficiency technologies by:

Helping to accelerate their deployment;

Attracting technology companies to New York State;

Creating and facilitating market channels for energy efficiency technology companies;

Assisting in the forming of strategic alliances and business development opportunities for technology companies; and

Training engineers, contractors and maintenance service providers in designing and installing energy efficiency products.

In addition, EE-MAP assists with developing energy efficiency master planning programs and efforts to create new energy efficiency markets in coordination with state agencies, authorities and electric utilities to improve industry access to investments made at public facilities.

To implement the initiative, NYPA today issued a Request for Proposals (RFP). Once selected, the RFP awardee will identify commercial, but-not-yet-widely deployed clean energy products with significant promise for gaining market share and providing economic development benefits for New York. Each product will be evaluated according to a market readiness and risk profile. The RFP is available here: https://www.nypa.gov/Procurement/Default.aspx

Through EE-MAP, the RFP awardee will develop market development plans, including strategic alliances, business development opportunities and training programs. This will provide a blueprint to enable engineers to design, install and maintain the new energy-efficiency products, and provide technical support and performance evaluation.

To support the initiative, NYPA has teamed with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit collaborative research organization, to catalog state-of-the-art energy efficiency products and services, identify commercial trends and screen and track emerging technologies.

Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and chief executive officer, said, “The aim of this program is to accelerate the deployment of new energy-saving technologies, with a focus on those that also offer economic development benefits for New York State. Governor Cuomo has tasked the Power Authority and other state agencies with ensuring that New York is in the vanguard of integrating the latest energy-efficiency technologies. That’s what we’re doing with the issuance of a Request for Proposals for partnering with organizations engaged with these technologies and who are well-versed in designing programs for expanding their utilization.”

Francis J. Murray, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said, “Energy efficiency is a critical component in New York’s energy policy as it lowers utility bills while contributing to electricity service reliability, economic development and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The Power Authority’s Energy Efficiency Market Acceleration Program under Governor Cuomo complements NYSERDA’s efforts in this area to encourage the use of new energy-saving technologies with a goal of achieving these benefits for all New Yorkers.”

Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president for research and development at EPRI, said, “This Energy Efficiency Market Acceleration program will be a catalyst to jump-start wider deployment of energy efficiency systems. It enhances New York State’s leadership in applying innovative demand-side management strategies, and will serve as a model for other states.”

The New York Power Authority has long been a leader in the energy efficiency industry. Since the late 1980s, NYPA’s energy services programs have achieved over $144 million in annual customer savings at about 3,900 public facilities, including schools, hospitals and municipal buildings, for a reduction of annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 845,000 tons. The improvements have lowered peak electricity demand by approximately 225 megawatts, or the equivalent of the output of a medium-sized power plant.

Through its energy services programs, NYPA has committed to finance an additional $450 million in cost-effective energy efficiency projects over the next four years, in support of a goal established by Governor Cuomo for the reduction of energy consumption in state buildings by 20 percent. In addition, NYPA intends to finance another $350 million over the next four years to provide energy efficiency financing and technical services to county and local governments and schools.

Ashok Gupta, Director of Programs and a Senior Energy Economist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “Expanded energy efficiency goes a long way to reducing carbon emissions responsible for global warming, with buildings accounting for one-third of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Governor Cuomo and his administration have shown great leadership with their plans for deploying the latest energy efficiency technologies and increasing investment in solutions that save energy and improve the environment.”