LEAP To Begin Accepting Applications November 1

***Press Release***

Colorado’s Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP), which provides financial assistance with home heating bills, will begin accepting applications Thursday, November 1st and will continue to do so until April 30, 2013.
LEAP is a federally funded program that provides cash assistance to help families and individuals pay a portion of winter home heating costs. The program pays the highest benefits to those with the highest heating bills and lowest incomes by family size.  Applicant income cannot exceed 150 percent of the federal poverty index, which equates to $2,882 per month for a family of four.

According to Aggie Berens, manager of LEAP, the average LEAP benefit is estimated to be $302 per household. Last year, more than 125,000 Coloradans applied for LEAP, and 100,794 households received an average benefit of $344.

To qualify for LEAP, applicants must be responsible for paying heating costs directly to an energy provider, fuel dealer or as part of rent; be a permanent legal resident of the United States and Colorado or have household members that are U.S. citizens.

LEAP applicants must provide a copy of valid identification and a completed affidavit indicating that they are lawfully present in the United States. Valid forms of identification include, but are not limited to:
1.    Colorado Driver’s License or Colorado Identification card; or
2.    United States Military Identification Card or Military Dependent’s Identification card; or
3.    United States Coast Guard Merchant Mariner card; or
4.    Native American Tribal document.

As defined by the Colorado Department of Revenue, other forms of identification may be accepted as well. For more information on lawful presence requirements, contact the DOR or visit www.colorado.gov/revenue. <http://www.revenue.state.co.us/main/home.asp>

Completed LEAP applications can be faxed, mailed or delivered to the appropriate county office. Potential program applicants may obtain an application through the following:·     Call 1-866-HEAT-HELP (1-866-432-8435) to have an application mailed.·     Visit any county department of social/human services across the state. To locate your county’s office, visit the program’s Web site at www.colorado.gov/cdhs/leap.·     Download and print an application from www.colorado.gov/cdhs/leap <http://www.cdhs.state.co.us/leap> .

LEAP eligible households may also qualify for the Crisis Invention Program [CIP] and Colorado’s Energy Office’s Weatherization Program. The CIP operates year-round and provides assistance with a home’s primary heating source such as a furnace or wood-burning stove. The Weatherization Program improves the energy efficiency in homes throughout Colorado, thereby permanently reducing heating costs.  

To find out if you qualify for LEAP, call toll free 1-866-HEAT-HELP (1-866-432-8435) or visit www.colorado.gov/cdhs/leap to view the most current program application requirements.

Northeastern celebrates energy efficiency accomplishments

***Press Release***

By Barbara Baker

This spring Northeastern Junior College was pleased to be one of 10 Colorado businesses recognized by Xcel Energy for outstanding efforts to save energy.  The awards honored commercial, industrial and small-business customers in Colorado for participating in Xcel Energy's 2011 energy-efficiency programs. Collectively, these companies saved more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, which avoided production of more than 22,000 tons of carbon dioxide -- the equivalent of keeping 5,000 cars off the road for a year. Northeastern was specifically honored with the 2011 Standard Offer Achievement Award. The college had an energy savings of 1,380,031 kilowatt hours and a carbon dioxide reduction of 785 tons.

There were a number of ways in which Northeastern was able to save energy. In 2009 it entered into a U. S. Department of Energy sponsored Energy Saving Performance Contract. Energy Performance Contracting is a financing mechanism used to pay for energy efficiency improvements all at once that are then paid back through annual energy savings. Through this program, Northeastern was able to undergo a comprehensive energy audit by an energy service company (ESCO) during which improvements to save energy were identified. The ESCO, who was Ennovate Corporation of Englewood, CO, designed and constructed a project to meet NJC’s needs and arranged for the necessary funding. The ESCO guarantees that the improvements will generate energy cost savings sufficient to pay for the project over the term of the contract, which in NJC’s case is 15 years. The savings are measured and verified on an annual basis. After the contract ends, all additional cost savings accrue to the college.  This 2011 Xcel award clearly recognizes how well the improvements have helped lower energy use and carbon dioxide production.

 Improvements were done to many of the buildings on campus and included new windows, new lighting fixtures, restroom fixtures, computerized monitoring of heating and air systems, variable speed HVAC motors, high efficiency boiler replacement, and de-stratification fans.

It was the college’s physical plant staff that played a major role in working with the ESCO to schedule workloads, contractors , oversee material deliveries and in some instances, physically helped complete the work that was done as part of the contract.  

National Security and America Energy Future Public Forum shown live in Sterling

***CSU Extension Office Press Release***


Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, the Director for CSU’s Center for the New Energy Economy will be hosting a public forum titled “National Security and America’s Energy Future”. Speakers at the event include:

- Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn (retired), presently Vice Chair of CNA’s Military Advisory Board. According to their website CNA’s Military Advisory Board is an elite group of retired three- and four-star flag and general officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps that studies pressing issues of the day to assess their impact on America’s national security.
- Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti who works on Climate and Energy Security Envoy for the United Kingdom. According to Rear Admiral Morisetti in a recent presentation in the Phillipines, “Climate change exacerbates existing political tensions and resource stresses around the world, making conflict more likely. The military has a significant role to play in helping address this non-traditional threat to our security.”

This public forum will be presented on Monday, February 27, 2012 from 5:30 to 7:00 PM at the Plant Science building at CSU in Fort Collins, Colorado. The event is free and open to the public.

To make this important topic more available to the residence of northeastern Colorado a live video feed will be shown at the Sterling Regional Engagement Center. The Engagement Center is located at 304 Main Street, Sterling, Colorado. For more information on the event and video feed contact Rich Mullaney at 970-466-2355 or Tim Edgar at 970-522-3200, extension 276.

Watts Up?

Sterling Public Library Press Release


Want to learn how much energy you use? Sterling Public Library has just the help you need. Xcel Energy has supplied the library with Watts Up meters that will help you retrieve knowledge about the energy your appliances use.

Power Check is an energy efficiency education program provided by Excel Energy. Library patrons can check out a Watts Up meter to help learn about energy use and determine ways to conserve energy and save money. The Watts Up meter will help identify high energy use appliances, determine approximate cost of use for appliances, predict savings in reducing appliance use and calculate cost savings for replacing older appliances.

The meter is simple to use and helps you take an important step in saving energy. An easy to follow instruction booklet on how to use the meter is included with each kit and more help can be found online. The meter also has the ability to download data to a PC for graphing and charting. This interface also provides a pay-back calculator to calculate number of months to pay back the cost of new energy efficient appliances.

After you have checked out your energy use, please go online to the web address provided with the meter and fill out a short survey. The information Xcel gathers through the survey will help support the continued success of the Power Check program.

Be sure to stop by Sterling Public Library and check out a watts up meter soon to help you save energy and money.

NJC receives $1.3 million federal grant for wind-tech program

By Barbara Baker (courtesy Northeastern Junior College, Sterling, Colorado)

The agreement has been signed, the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Northeastern Junior College is indeed the recipient of a $1.323 million dollar federal grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor, to be used for wind energy training. The grant is part of the Department’s awarding of $125 million in Community-Based Job Training (CBJT) grants to 41 community colleges and organizations across the country. This was the Department’s only CBJT grant awarded in Colorado.

This award puts Northeastern in an extremely solid position to move forward with the delivery of high quality wind energy technology training. The college began offering this training a year ago, bringing 20 students into a state-approved two-year degree program. Very quickly, and based on industry requests, it became obvious that there is a need to train more technicians, faster. This new grant is going to allow for this to happen.

The area wind companies and others have been absolutely stellar in providing financial support and equipment for this still fairly new program. According to the grants office on campus, this $1.323 million grant represents 58 percent of the funds that were originally identified as being necessary to start-up and run the training program. Grant partners and previously received grants, including a State of Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant, will be providing up to $933,745 in resources, including a significant array of donated equipment for the program’s training laboratory.

The majority of the grant is designed to assist students in successfully completing their wind technology education, then finding and holding a job. To accomplish this, the college will be using a variety of services including NJC’s wind technology and other faculty instructors, Northeastern’s Comprehensive Learning Center, the NJC Step Into Your Future Transition Specialist, an Eastern Colorado Workforce Case Manger, project admissions counselors at NJC and Pikes Peak Community College, as well as counselors to perform credit for prior experience reviews.

Seven key partners supported the grant, including Pikes Peak Community College, Next Era, Eastern Colorado Workforce, Alliance Power, Inc., GE Wind. Wazee Wind, and Northeast Colorado Economic Development.

While some of the students will come into the program with minimal skills, others may enter the program with prior industry training, providing them with the opportunity to receive Credit for Prior Learning. Depending on prior industry experience, along with a skill set evaluation, the student will be able to accelerate through the wind energy program into advanced wind turbine generation energy coursework via a Summer Intensive Program. This Summer Intensive Program is being made possible by this federal grant.

“This is really exciting for NJC,” says Kent Wright, department chair for the college’s transportation and energy programs. “This is going to open up some additional opportunity for us to reach some bigger student numbers and help meet the needs of the industry more quickly. By being able to offer this summer training to the military and others who have already acquired quite an array of training in electricity, we will be able to give credit for prior learning and then accelerate them through the more specific portion of the wind technology training.”

Northeastern is one of two schools in Colorado that are offering wind technology training and it was the first to make it a degree option. Red Rock’s Community College is also doing wind technology training. “We have a real advantage here in that we are surrounded by towers and have a huge, live teaching laboratory at our backdoor,” Wright points out. The wind companies who are operating in this area have been very cooperative in allowing students in the program to be in their fields as part of the training now offered at NJC.

Wright explains that the Summer Intensive Program will consist of four to six weeks of very specific training and those who participant will have had to show that they have some high competency levels in various areas of electricity. “The first group of these advanced students will enter and complete the course next summer and we expect to repeat the summer course each year after that,” Wright said.

Pikes Peak Community College will play a major part in the Summer Intensive Program, getting word out to students in that area—military personnel and others--about the accelerated training that is available in Sterling and helping to enroll students in the program.

“NJC is pleased to be able to start offering offer this new summer option,” says Dr. Lance Bolton, president of the college. “Over a year ago the NJC Wind Technology Advisory Board, which includes a number of individuals representing the wind companies invested in this area, first mentioned the possibility of having such a program. It’s very gratifying to see NJC get this grant and be able to make this come to pass.”

The wind technology training program operates from the college’s north campus facility located on Pioneer Road. Neil Browne, a former Sterling High School teacher who specialized in industrial technology, and spent time working as a lead technician for General Electric doing warranty service repair on GE 1.5 megawatt turbines, is coordinator of the program. Area companies, who have farms located here have generously provided training aids, in-field internships for students to get hands-on skills and have been guest presenters in the classroom.

After about 18 months of preparation, NJC opened the program last fall, accepting the first 20 students into the first class. The two year program covers numerous technical electronics courses as well as training in programmable logic controllers, basic fluid power, airfoils and composites, power distribution and control systems, and wind turbine generation diagnostics. For the students that come into the program with no prior electrical or industrial experience, the two-year associate of applied science degree will require completion of 60 credits. Starting wages for trained technicians vary, but average just over $18 per hour.

CBJT grants improve the ability of community colleges to train and prepare workers for employment in high growth and other emerging industries. The awards will focus on providing services to workers who are unemployed, dislocated, and incumbent workers. Over the last four years, approximately $622 million has been awarded to 301 community colleges and other organizations in 49 states to promote job training, education and the U.S. workforce's full potential. More than 147,000 individuals have received education and training through the first four rounds of these grants.