Agenda

8:30 AM         Registration and Coffee

9:00 AM         Welcome

9:15 AM         Cross Canada overview of Distributed Generation Applications

Michael Ross, RETscreen Trainer and Energy Project Analyst, WADE Canada

9:45 AM         Shale Gas – A Game Changer for Natural Gas?

Malini Giridhar, Director of Energy Supply and Policy, Enbridge Gas Distribution

10:15 AM       Coffee Break

10:30 AM       KEYNOTE: Overview of Modern Gas Engine Technology and Applications

Dr. Guenther Herdin, CTO, Agnion

11:30 AM       Optimization of CHP Operation through Thermal Storage

                       Guido van het Hof, President & General Manager, Soave Agricultural Group

12:00 PM       Lunch Break

13:00 PM       Introduction of GE's Jenbacher 4.4 MW J624, the world's first 24 cylinder gas

      engine and also the world's first gas engine with 2-stage turbo-charging

Roger George, General Manager, GE Jenbacher North America

13:30 PM       Benefits and Considerations for utilizing CHP in Urban Environments

Julia Langer, Executive Director, Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF)

14:00 PM       Connecting the Dots - Integration of CHP in Smart Grid Applications

Jan Buijk, President and CEO, European Power Systems Ltd.

14:30 PM       Financing CHP Installations through DR3

Ed Hsing, Director, Demand Response, Rodan Energy Solutions Inc.

14:45 PM       Wrap-up

15:00 PM       Closing

Speaker Bios

Michael Ross

Michael Ross has over 15 years of experience in renewable energy system evaluations and clean energy technologies. He leads WADE Canada's Training and Education Program and brings to the industry his advanced understanding of the economic, environmental and market growth potential for several energy generation and energy conservation technologies. Michael has held notable research positions with CANMET Energy Technology Centre and the Advanced Energy Systems Group of the Department of Technical Physics and Mathematics at the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland’s premier engineering university.  Since 2001, in addition to consulting extensively for RETScreen International, Michael has provided his expertise for contracts in building energy modeling and energy efficiency, research on photovoltaic systems, wind energy resource assessment and site selection, assessment of icing losses and mitigation methods for wind turbines, quantification of greenhouse gas emissions associated with various energy technologies, and inspection of residential solar thermal systems. Michael is also the head of Renewable Energy Research (since 2003), which provides services for federal, provincial, and municipal governments as well as utilities, wind developers, engineering consulting firms and private homeowners. Michael has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Michael’s presentation will review some of Canada’s showcase DE systems and explore the benefits of supplementing our centralized energy generation with DE to meet future energy demand growth. An overview of DE technologies will examine the risks associated with some of the bleeding edge applications and the commercially available applications. The role of DE in balanced energy supply mix will be presented and the need for strategic market transition strategies that leverage our strengths in existing energy markets.

Malini Giridhar

Malini Giridhar has 20 years of regulatory, rate making and finance experience in the natural gas industry. In her current role as Director of Energy Supply and Policy at Enbridge Gas Distribution, she is responsible for gas acquisition, gas dispatch, energy planning and strategy. Malini is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has a  Masters degree in Economics. 

Malini’s presentation will focus on the North American shale gas phenomenon, its implications for gas availability and pricing, for North America in general and Ontario in particular.

Dr. Guenther Herdin

Dr. Guenther Herdin started his career as a design engineer – cylinder head and diesel injection at BMW/Steyr Daimler Puch in Germany where in 1982 he became the chief engineer of the test laboratory. From 1991 until 2007 Dr. Herdin was the Head of R&D, CTO and Chief Technologist at GE Jenbacher. In 2007 Dr. Herdin started his own engineering company, PGES and in addition became the CTO at Agnion Technologies where he is responsible for the development of a highly efficient CHP system that operates on syngas.

Dr. Herdin’s presentation will discuss high efficiency gas engine concepts, CHP applications as well as biogas and biomass gasification technologies.

Guido van het Hof 

Guido van het Hof has more than 15 years experience in international commercial horticulture. Guido has worked for several greenhouse operations in the Netherlands as well as Eurofresh, the largest hydroponic greenhouse producer of tomatoes in North America. Since 2002 Guido has been overseeing the operations of a 50 acre, hydroponic tomato greenhouse, Soave Hydroponics in Kingsville, Ontario. At Soave Hydroponics Guido was responsible for managing the construction of a 12 MW CHP plant and the integration of the CHP system with the greenhouse facility.

Guido’s presentation will describe the integration of a cogeneration system to a greenhouse facility. Technical synergies through the use of hot water storage tanks and economic advantages as a result thereof.

Roger George

Roger George is General Manager of GE Jenbacher North America.

Roger's presentation will provide an introduction to the new Jenbacher J624, 24 cylinder gas engine with 2-stage turbo charging which at 4.4 MW output and an electrical efficiency of 46.5% delivers game changing high speed gas engine performance. Applications for the new gas engine include independent power producers, CHP, trigeneration and special applications using natural gas as well as a wide range of non-natural gas fuels.

Julia Langer

Julia Langer  is Executive Director of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF), an arm’s length agency of the City of Toronto created in 1991 to advance solutions to climate change and air pollution.  TAF leverages its $20 million endowment to provide grants, financing and programming for innovative and effective approaches to reducing emissions. During her 16 years at World Wildlife Fund Canada, Julia was responsible for various programs, most recently leading WWF’s climate change campaign with the ambitious term mission of ensuring that Canada develops an energy-efficient, sustainably-powered, carbon-neutral economy.  She also established WWF’s Wildlife Toxicology program focused on reducing toxic substances including pesticides, and managed WWF’s marine/coastal conservation program in Cuba. Julia served as Policy Advisor to former Ontario Minister of the Environment Jim Bradley and has worked and volunteered with various non-profit organizations including Friends of the Earth, Pollution Probe, the Canadian Environmental Law Research Foundation, Great Lakes United, the Organic Landscape Alliance and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences (Toxicology) from the University of Toronto. 

Julia's presentation will focus on the benefits and considerations for utilizing CHP in urban environments such as the city of Toronto.  

Jan Buijk

Jan Buijk started his career in the gas engine business in the Netherlands where he had system design and project management responsibilities for a wide variety of CHP and other distributed generation projects. Since moving to Canada in 1988, Jan has had engineering, project management and direct sales and marketing responsibilities for more than 100 gas engine based renewable energy, CHP, district energy, and other distributed generation projects currently in operation across Canada. From 2004 to 2009 Jan was responsible for building an award winning gas engine business group that over this time achieved a 55% market share across Eastern Canada. During this time Jan was personally responsible for selling the first Jenbacher CHP, landfill gas, biogas, syngas, wood gas, CHeP, emergency power and greenhouse applications in Canada. Jan is a former director of the CDEA and OSEA, and currently holds director positions with APPrO and WADE Canada.

Jan’s presentation will discuss the flexible nature of CHP applications, the role CHP can play in maximizing the implementation of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar and the control technology required to integrate CHP in smart grid applications.

Ed Hsing 

Ed Hsing is Director, Demand Response for Rodan Energy Solutions Inc. A Professional Engineer who graduated from the University of Toronto, Ed began his career as a computer software & hardware developer. He quickly transitioned to business development and corporate sales by marketing large scale engineering computer solutions. Ed then moved to Lotus Canada where he launched the marketing efforts of Lotus Notes. He later managed a sales team at the Globe Information Services division of The Globe and Mail. In 1995, Ed jointly founded the Vikara Group Inc., a software company specializing in sales and marketing solutions. For ten years, Ed acted as CEO and grew Vikara's customer base throughout North & South America as well as Europe. After selling Vikara, Ed looked to transition into the energy business. For the past three years, he has worked at Rodan where he was involved in launching the Demand Response industry in Ontario and has been focused on the Ontario Power Authority's DR3 program. 

Ed's presentation will focus on how DR3 can help finance CHP installations by generating revenue and offloading peak electrical demand in Ontario.