Behind-the-Meter Wind Keeps Spinning with New Solutions, Financial Incentives - GBA Provides Organizations with Turnkey Project Management

Harnessing “behind-the-meter wind” or “distributed wind” for the private sector has never been more financially attractive according to Jennifer Gunby, P.E., LEED AP, who heads up GBA’s Energy Studio, in a statement that appears online at Wind Today.

The reason, she explains, is that with the financial incentives available today, project payback can be achieved more quickly than ever before. But individual businesses, industry, and agribusiness must act now to take advantage of one of these incentives, which offers a 100% first-year bonus depreciation this year only for equipment acquired and ‘placed in service’ by the end of the year.

For those who aren’t aware, “distributed wind” differs from the large wind farms owned by utilities in that it is located behind-the-meter where it directly serves its owners. Owners may be cities, counties, state agencies, school districts, colleges and universities, business and industry, and agribusinesses – even individuals. Distributed wind projects may consist of a single turbine or multiple turbines ranging from 100kW to 1,000 kW. However, only taxpaying entities would benefit from the incentives provided from recent changes in the Tax Relief Act of 2010.

GBA’s Energy Studio helps guide organizations from start-up through installation of their wind project – and helps them negotiate the complexities of financial incentives to take full advantage of these unique tools that can provide much quicker return on investment.

Jennifer emphasizes that if there was ever a reason to act and act now, this is it! For more information about incentives available or how GBA can help, contact Jennifer at jgunby@gbateam.com or at 913.577-8375.

Dennis Cantrell Joins the GBA Team as a Vice President/ Principal for the Water Environment Group

A warm welcome to Dennis Cantrell, who has joined GBA as Vice President/Principal for the Water Environment Group! Dennis will be headquartered in our Lenexa office and will work closely with GBA offices in Kansas City, O’Fallon, St. Louis, and Omaha.

Dennis’s broad experience includes assisting many large and mid-sized metropolitan areas to comply with the EPA’s Clean Water Act and NPDES requirements. Most recently, he has been responsible for management of design for facility and utility projects for the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s facilities, sewer, water, stormwater, and Overflow Control Plan (OCP); the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District’s sewer and Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) program projects; and the Omaha, Neb., CSO program.

Dennis’s career has taken him around the world and back and he’s enjoyed every minute of it…well, almost every minute! In Seoul, South Korea, traffic jams were so severe in the 1990s that vehicles could, literally, be stopped in place for hours. Dennis said he would take a taxi as far as it could go, then walk to the nearest subway station for the rest of the commute. In each country, Dennis made a point of learning the local ways as he helped build water and wastewater infrastructure to meet the needs of the people, from Mexico and South America to Taiwan, the Philippines, Egypt, and the Middle East. By the way, he highly recommends a visit to the Cairo Antiquities Museum, a highlight of his many business travels!

If Dennis has traveled the world, his roots are still firmly planted in the Midwest. He is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, where he graduated from Wyandotte High School (he mentored students there until a couple of years ago), and earned a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Kansas, where he still attends football and basketball games. Dennis and his wife, Betsy, met at KU, and their daughter, Lindsey, is studying communications and marketing there right now!

Dennis also points proudly to their other “daughter,” Kendrea, who came to them as a foster child and at 16 decided to stay! Now 42, Kendrea is a full-time officer in the Army National Guard and lives with her own family in Olathe. Dennis and Betsy clearly enjoyed their experience as foster parents to a number of children!

Dennis comes to us from HNTB Corporation, where he was Director of the Water Services and Water Resources Group for their Kansas City, St. Louis, and Omaha offices.

Our best wishes to Dennis in his new endeavors!

Helping You Achieve Project Success through CxA Selection

John Riley (left) and Pat Prendergast

We're always trying to get the word out about commissioning, just what it is and why it’s important to your project. In an article that appeared in latest issue of "The Checklist," the quarterly newsletter of the Building Commissioning Association, GBA/ViroCon commissioning agents Pat Prendergast, P.E., and John Riley, P.E., talk about how to select a commissioning agent and why he, or she, holds the key to a successful project.

According to our authors, lots of people can perform commissioning tasks, from third-party commissioning agents (CxA) like GBA/ViroCon to construction managers, contractors, equipment suppliers, designers, and owners. Whoever performs commissioning, however, must have the appropriate expertise to ensure desired system performance.

Pat and John suggest that stakeholders determine the “depth and rigor” of commissioning required to achieve the desired goals for the project, then select the CxA with the necessary qualifications. Together they can develop and document specific commissioning goals to ensure that tests are written and executed by qualified personnel.

This leads to the fact that, at least for more complex or “critical” facilities, commissioning staff should be diverse and include system specialists, system engineers, and technicians who can be assigned appropriate tasks to maximize effectiveness and cost-efficiency. The CxA manages the overall commissioning process.

More information about the discipline-specific approach to commissioning, its total cost, the staffing approach and cost, and selecting a commissioning agent is available here.



GBA Selected by MoDOT to Design Replacement of Broadway Bridge over I-670 in Downtown KCMO

Important Link to Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts to be Completed for Grand Opening Gala!

A busy holiday season has gotten even busier for some of GBA's highway, bridge, and traffic designers who, teamed with el dorado inc., Hg Consult, and Kleinfelder, are working with MoDOT to design the replacement of the Broadway Bridge over I-670 in downtown Kansas City, Mo. An accelerated schedule calls for the high-profile new bridge to be completed by mid-September of 2011, in time for the grand opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

 

To make that happen, the team is pulling out all the stops and will submit final plans on February 14, just under three months after receiving a notice to proceed. A public information meeting is planned for early February, and the prominent location of the project has generated more than a passing interest from a wide range of stakeholders well beyond MoDOT and the Kauffman Center. Some of those involved include the City Manager's Office, Kansas City Public Works, Kansas City Parks and Recreation, Westside Community Action Network, Crossroads Community Association, DST Systems, Inc, MC Realty Group, LLC, and the Downtown Council, to name a few!

 

The project is scheduled to be advertised to bidders on March 17, with an early May letting.

 

“In forming our team, we were very aware of the critical nature of the schedule and the need to create a design that could be constructed easily and in keeping with the context of the site and the architecture of the nearby Performing Arts Center and Kansas City Convention Center,” said GBA Project Manager Tawn Nugent. “Our design approach is to bring forth solutions that save money and that are critical to the overall success of the project.” GBA is providing bridge and roadway design, surveying services, traffic engineering and signalization, and required utility coordination.

 

GBA is working closely with Architect David Dowell, AIA, of el dorado to create a design that provides an aesthetic connection to the adjacent projects and is sensitive to the expectations of the community. David was the architect for the recently updated bridges over I-670 east of Bartle Hall that connect the Central Business District with the Crossroads Arts District. Team member Hg Consult, Inc., a Kansas City-based DBE-certified engineering firm, is providing design support, while Kleinfelder, a nationwide planning, engineering, scientific, and technical firm with offices in Kansas City, is providing geotechnical services.

 

We're excited about the project and will share the final design when it's unveiled!

 

Read more about the project in The Kansas City Star at Kansas City.com.

GBA’s Kent Dyck Receives Certified Energy Manager® Designation

Senior Engineer Kent Dyck has achieved the Certified Energy Manager, CEM®, designation, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated high levels of experience, competence, proficiency, and ethical standards in the energy management profession.

Awarded through the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), the certification signifies compliance with a board-approved set of requirements including pre-qualifications of field experience, prior educational achievements, and a passing score on the certification exam. The CEM® certification is an industry-wide accepted standard and is recognized as by the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), the Office of Federal Energy Management Programs (FEMP), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID), as well as by numerous state energy offices, municipal entities, major utilities, and corporations.

Kent, who holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, has more than 20 years of experience in the study, planning, and design of mechanical systems for a wide range of building types. As a key member of GBA's Energy Studio, he heads up the team that focuses on energy studies and audits as well as the design and implementation of recommended energy saving alternatives.   

The CEM® program was established in 1981 to meet the growing needs of individuals and organizations in the field of energy management/energy efficiency.

Congratulations to Kent!  

In the Spirit of the Season, GBA Staffers Provide Meals to Families at Ronald McDonald House

GBA staffers enjoyed an opportunity to provide an evening meal to families at Longfellow House, one of the two Ronald McDonald Houses in the Kansas City area. The families, whose children are in town to receive medical treatment, find a “home away from home” at the Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide temporary lodging to as many as 60 families each night. 

Both the Longfellow and Cherry Street houses offer a warm and welcoming place to sleep as well as full kitchen facilities, laundry facilities, living rooms, and recreation areas to provide a
comfortable environment where families may relax away from the stresses of the hospital and meet other families experiencing similar crises. Annually, the Ronald McDonald Houses and Family Room provide lodging to nearly 6,000 families and support over 41,000 visits from family and friends of in-patients at Children's Mercy Hospital.

We had an opportunity to help these families through the Meal Program, which involves preparing dinner for guest families. Much of the cooking is done on-site, although some menu items such as baked goods and casseroles can be prepared ahead of time. If you’re interested in helping with meals or providing other support, here’s what you can do:

1. Help pay for a family's stay at the Ronald McDonald House.

2. Drop your spare change in a McDonald's® drive-thru donation canister.

3. Fundraise for us.

4. Shop for items that families need the most.

5. Get a group together and make a meal.

For more information, click here to go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities website.

7x24 Exchange’s ‘Newslink’ Features GBA’s Alan Lehman on “Commissioning UPS Lead-Acid Battery Systems”

Alan Lehman discusses the importance of and steps involved in commissioning UPS Lead-Acid Battery Systems in an article that appears in the Fall issue of Newslink. The publication is produced quarterly by 7x24 Exchange, the leading knowledge exchange for those who design, build, use, and maintain mission-critical enterprise information infrastructures. The goal of 7x24 Exchange is to improve end-to-end reliability by promoting dialogue among these groups.

According to Alan, “For powering critical systems, an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is frequently the last line of defense against power disruptions. When the normal source of power fails, the UPS begins pulling power from its energy storage system to serve the critical loads. While there are several types of energy storage in use for UPSs, lead-acid batteries remain the most common.”

Alan goes on to say that battery systems in these applications sit unused and untested most of their lives. When the normal power source fails, the batteries must immediately begin supplying energy for the loads. UPS batteries are commonly sized to last only a few minutes, so power output during discharge can be extreme relative to their capacity.

Considering the critical nature of the loads they support, this is a very demanding application for batteries. Proper installation, startup, and commissioning of UPS battery systems can greatly improve the probability that they will perform when called upon.  Alan goes on to talk in detail about design review, safety, installation verification, startup, UPS configuration, battery system testing, and documention.

He concludes by saying that batteries are one of the most common points of UPS failures. “Clearly, commissioning can be an involved and costly process. If the load is important enough to warrant a UPS, careful consideration needs to be given to the need for commissioning the batteries. Proper commissioning will improve the probability of the UPS performing when called upon and provide a baseline for troubleshooting and future performance evaluation.”