Advocacy Committee-The advocacy committee is working on a white paper geared towards the CEO of electric utilities. The title of the paper GHEX’s Role to Create the Utility of the Future. Once completed we plan to have a presentation to go along and host webinars to discuss the positive impact of GHEX.

On July 27, the Geothermal Exchange Organization hosted a conference call with state geothermal associations. Leadership from associations in California, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, New England and the Mid-Atlantic region participated. IGSHPA Board Member Cary Smith and Advocacy Committee Chair David Thomison also took part in the wide-ranging discussion on federal and state policy and regulation. Participants shared challenges, successes and strategies to help move the industry forward. GEO and IGSHPA intend to make these meetings a regular occurrence with the next conference call coming in early October.

Conference Planning Committee-The Conference Committee has been working on ways to expand the value offered to attendees and exhibitors at the show. Increasing participation from both is a primary goal and providing new, tangible benefits will help on both fronts. The possible tax credit expiration may have contractors questioning their commitment to geothermal. We need to inspire/energize them, provide training/tools that will help them build stronger HVAC businesses, and prepare them to successfully sell geo without a 30% carrot. With NIBE owning three of the four largest geothermal manufacturers, securing a higher level of participation and cooperation from each will be the first step in unifying the industry like never before.

Thanks to the skills and expertise of every single member in our planning team, I have no doubt that we'll put on an amazing show.

Marketing Committee-The marketing committee has reached out to the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Marketing Manager to help with putting goals and action items together in a marketing plan. The committee is reviewing Geo Outlook articles on IGSHPA Connect, and helping with any other marketing tasks as needed.

Membership Committee-The membership committee wrapped up the renewal campaign drive and is working on a former member renewal campaign as well that will continue through the 2017 conference in Denver. Stay tuned for how you might become involved!

Research Committee-The research committee has been working on applying funding from Department of Energy and Oklahoma Gas and Electric Corporation to support research in characterizing performance of new designs of ground heat exchangers, evaluating impacts of GSHP applications on the electric grid, and development of a cost effective performance monitoring and fault detection system for GSHP systems. Members of the research committee also worked with several technical committees of ASHRAE in a work statement for developing a guideline for calculating the avoided source energy consumption due to waste energy recovery and heat pump technologies.

Standards Committee-IGSHPA members Mark Morelli, Cary Smith and Roshan Revankar have been selected to serve on the IAPMO Technical Committee to review all proposals to the 2018 USEHC along with 13 other industry representatives. This is s 3-year commitment.

Roshan Revankar, IGSHPA Manager, was appointed as one of 16 voting members for the Uniform Solar Energy & Hydronics Code (USEHC) technical committee for the research, standards and testing laboratory expert category. This code establishes minimum requirements and standards for the protection of public health, safety and welfare in regards to the installation and maintenance of geothermal energy systems and other renewal energy source systems. USEHC is an International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) code that is developed using an approved American National Standards Institute process. IAPMO plumbing and mechanical codes are recognized worldwide and are developed by industry experts.

In addition, board of directors member Cary Smith was appointed to the technical committee for the special expert category and Mark Morelli was appointed to the technical committee for the labor category.