Building Retro-commissioning, Texas Style

Authors

  • David J. Snyder

Abstract

CenterPoint Energy is the first investor-owned utility in the state
of Texas to sponsor a retro-commissioning program for commercial
and industrial markets in its service territory. CenterPoint Energy is
a Houston, Texas, based company engaged in the transmission and
distribution of electric power to 1.8 million customers in a 5,000 square-
mile area that includes Houston, the fourth largest city in the nation.
Deregulation occurred in Texas in 2001, and significantly changed how
investor-owned utilities offered energy efficiency programs within
their service territories. As part of deregulation, the State Legislature
required that 10 percent of all new demand growth be met through util-
ity-sponsored energy effi ciency programs. In the large commercial and
industrial markets, CenterPoint Energy implemented a commercial and
industrial standard offer program to help meet this 10 percent demand
reduction goal. After two years of implementation and a downturn in
the economy, it became apparent that another program was needed
to extract demand reduction from commercial and industrial markets.
Through discussion with national experts and review of other building
commissioning programs, CenterPoint Energy concluded that retro-
commissioning would be a good candidate to supply additional de-
mand reduction along with identifying opportunities for its commercial
and industrial standard offer program. In conjunction with other Texas
investor-owned utilities, a retro-commissioning program template was
submitted to and approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas
in early 2003. This program has been structured to be a market transfor-
mation offering, and will continue until retro-commissioning becomes
an everyday practice in the CenterPoint Energy service territory.

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Author Biography

David J. Snyder

After completing college, Mr. Snyder’s fi rst position was a plant engineer for a start-up baby food manufacturer in Middlebury, Vermont. He was responsible for construction coordination in the building of the facility, and once the facility was completed, his attention changed to managing the day-to-day operation of the utility and manufacturing equipment. After a year, Mr. Snyder moved to Houston, Texas, beginning a design career with Brown & Root in the civil engineering section. With Brown & Root, Mr. Snyder was responsible for life cycle costing and building modeling for government projects, along with designing HVAC systems for numerous types of facilities. In 1993, Mr. Snyder commenced working for CenterPoint Energy (HL&P, Reliant Energy) as a senior engineer in commercial industrial services, focusing on the commercial cool storage program. Throughout his career with CenterPoint, Mr. Snyder has been the supervisor of the energy effi ciency programs and energy audits, and is currently the program manager for the retrocommissioning program. Mr. Snyder has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri in mechanical engineering, is a member of ASHRAE, a member of AEE, and is a Certifi ed Energy Manager and Energy Procurement Professional.
David J. Snyder
CenterPoint Energy
1301 Travis, Suite 1647
Houston, Texas 77002
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1700
Houston, Texas 77251-1700
Offi ce: (713) 207-5588
Cellular: (281) 796-2201
Fax: (713) 207-9980
david.snyder@CenterPointEnergy.com

References

Mitchell-Jackson J.; Opinion Dynamics Corporation: Baseline Study

Report, May 2004

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Published

2023-07-11

How to Cite

Snyder, D. J. . (2023). Building Retro-commissioning, Texas Style . Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment, 25(2), 38–45. Retrieved from https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/SPEE/article/view/20119

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