Studying convenience store energy use to inform program design (and sharing the results)

Michaels Energy is an energy efficiency consulting company looking to partner with Minnesota convenience stores and utilities in a unique opportunity to save energy and money. We spoke with Ralph Dickinson to learn more.

Joel Haskard: Tell us a little bit about this project.

Ralph Dickinson: Michaels Energy has been awarded a grant by the Minnesota Division of Energy Resources to study energy usage in convenience stores and to develop a program specific to Minnesota to save energy in those stores.

Joel: What is the objective of this project?

Ralph: This program will focus on low-cost and no-cost measures for implementation and will identify more substantial opportunities as well. Michaels’s experience with similar programs in other states indicates that savings of up to 20% can be achieved with such a program.

Joel: How many convenience stores do you hope to work with?

Ralph: We expect to study 4 stores intensively (audits, pre-measurement and monitoring, re-commissioning, post monitoring and reporting). Based on these experiences and our experience in other locales, we will study about 16 more stores and monitor and report their results.

Joel: What will participating convenience stores receive?

Ralph: With the surveys, studies and testing and monitoring, the stores will receive a lot of free engineering help by energy experts. Each store will receive an energy report, recommendations, an estimate of results from work completed and recommendations for energy efficient operations and maintenance for future use.

Joel: Who pays for the various steps of the program?

Ralph: Here’s the breakdown:

Step RCx Step Grant/Michaels Customer
1 Assessments Michaels/utility incentives No
2 Monitoring Michaels No
3 Recommendations Michaels No
4 Implementation Michaels No
4 Equipment & Installation No Yes & with utility rebates
5 M & V Michaels No
6 Bill Monitoring Michaels No

Joel: Can utilities also participate if they are interested?

Ralph: Minnesota utilities may also partner with Michaels to deliver this service to participating stores. The utility may help fund the assessment and provide rebates to assist with implementation of energy efficient adjustments and improvement measures.

Joel: How can interested convenience store managers or utility representatives get more information and get started?

Ralph: For more information, contact Ralph Dickinson, P.E., at 651-900-4710 or RAD@MichaelsEnergy.com.

Joel: Do you have any final thoughts on the subject?

Ralph: This is an opportunity for convenience stores (and their close cousins) to receive a thorough engineering analysis and recommendations that may have a significant impact on energy bills. Michaels and participants will learn and share what we find that works (and how and why) so the whole state can benefit.

You can also learn about a pilot project conducted by Otter Tail Power on commercial refrigeration efficiency >>


Related story: Small grocery store fills gap in W. Minn. ‘food desert’

by Julie Siple, Minnesota Public Radio and Kathy Draeger, U of M Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships

Bonnie Carlson, owner of Bonnie's Hometown Grocery, talks to customer and birthday boy, Nathanael Okeson, 5, on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at her store in Clinton, Minn. Okeson, his mom and grandma stopped in to purchase a chocolate birthday cake - Photo by Ann Arbor Miller for MPR CLINTON, Minn. — Nestled in the heart of farm country, the town of Clinton is surrounded by food — fields of corn and soybeans.

Those crops aren’t consumed by area residents though — most are processed into livestock feed or ethanol. Residents have to drive more than 10 miles to get to a supermarket. That distance makes Clinton, in far western Minnesota’s Big Stone County, a food desert. Well, technically.

There is an oasis: Bonnie’s Hometown Grocery. “I like what I do,” store owner Bonnie Carlson said. “You need a grocery store in a small town. The town would go kaput, I think, if we didn’t have a store here.”

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