Council's Power Planning Director Wins Energy Efficiency Lifetime Achievement Award

This week the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) honored winners of its 2015 Leadership in Energy Efficiency Awards, including the Council’s Director of Power Planning Tom Eckman.

Eckman, who has been a Council employee since 1982 and was manager of conservation resources before being named power planning director last year, won the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Award for Lifetime Achievement. In the future, the award will be named in his honor. Eckman has been involved in developing all seven of the Council’s Northwest power plans.

2015 is the inaugural year of the awards, which recognize outstanding achievement in collaboration, innovative solutions and other efforts that significantly contribute to greater energy efficiency in the Northwest. The regional energy efficiency community participated in nominations, and a panel of energy efficiency leaders from throughout the Northwest selected the winners who included, in addition to Eckman:

• Rich Arneson and Bruce Carter, who work in conservation at Tacoma Power, who won the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Award for Innovation for their work with Habitat for Humanity and to improve energy codes in Washington State.
• Jim West, assistant general manager at Snohomish County Public Utility District, who won the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Award for Collaboration for serving as a model collaborator for energy efficiency for utilities throughout the region.

“We are fortunate to have such experienced leadership that brings innovation and collaboration to our alliance. Their dedication makes a huge contribution to energy efficiency in the Northwest,” said Susan E. Stratton, NEEA’s executive director. “These are exactly the types of leaders that we want to recognize moving forward.”

The Portland-based Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance includes more than 140 utilities and energy efficiency organizations and works to accelerate both electric and gas energy efficiency, leveraging its regional partnerships to advance the adoption of energy-efficient products, services and practices.

Link: Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance:  www.neea.org