Meeting/Event Information

February 2021 - Ask an Energy Expert!

Wednesday, February 3rd at 4:30PM - Zoom Meeting

Join us on February 3rd to have your questions answered by three of the most experienced energy efficiency experts in the industry! Whether it's energy management, audits, or procurement, we've got you covered! You'll hear from a Certified Energy Manager, Certified Energy Auditor, and Certified Energy Procurement Professional (amongst other certifications) and gain insight from their combined 120 years of experience working in energy efficiency. This is also a great networking opportunity to meet likeminded professionals in the industry. 

This meeting will be held on Zoom in an open format, where questions may be asked in the chat and answered on a first come, first serve basis. We will also be accepting and selecting 3-5 questions ahead of the meeting to get us started. You may submit your questions by emailing us at [email protected]. We will grant free admission to those who submit questions that are pre-selected for the meeting. We look forward to your submissions!

Meet the Experts

Fran Boucher - Your Certified Energy Manager

Fran Boucher, CEM, LEED AP works as an Energy Program Specialist with National Grid and has over 25 years of energy and facilities engineering experience. He has led National Grid’s program design and engineering effort for the Cannabis production market in MA and RI since its inception. This includes involvement in 25 plus customer projects ranging from 1500 to 500,000 Sf of canopy area. The bulk of these projects include, complex, highly efficient HVAC systems. An increasing number of applications involve; fuel cells, combined heat and power and gas engine driven chillers. As an early adopter for utilities involved in this market, he has experienced challenges of all kinds including; evolution of the State lighting power standards, changes in market design practices, reworking of failed HVAC designs. Learning the hard way, he as unpacked multiple examples with energy savings falling well short of expectations. He has delivered trainings, and professional presentations, on this topic in venues that include; Cannabis World Expo in Boston, New England Real Estate Journal Cannabis Conference and the Boston Society of Architects Summer Study, and webinars by E Source and the Resource Innovation Institute. He has worked with professionals across the county researching this topic, crafting guidelines for utility incentives and reviewing energy savings analysis for numerous growing facility efficiency projects. Over the past 15 years is speaking resume includes dozens of national and regional presentations for; ASHRAE, Labs 21, ACEEE, New Buildings Institute and Boston Society of Architects, NESEA and more.

Joseph Hall - Your Certified Energy Auditor

Joseph Hall is an energy efficiency pioneer whose career evolved in 3 phases. Beginning as energy auditor in 1976, he performed 1000 commercial audits in the USA. In the '80s, computer technology enabled Building Automation Systems to replace traditional building controls. He was again an early adopter working in sales for Andover Controls and Carrier Corp. At Ameresco, he sold investment grade energy performance contracts. The third phase was deploying energy efficiency programs for utilities. For the past 25 years, Joe was a lead technical engineer at National Grid and at Eversource in front-line retail and go-to-launch strategies for market-transorming technology and customer initiatives.

Rich Costello - Your Certified Energy Procurement Professional

Mr. Costello is the President of Acela Energy Group, an energy consulting group specializing in energy procurement, load management, as well as, energy conservation training, auditing, and on-site wind & solar generation projects. Rich has extensive experience in the fields of load management, utility services, energy conservation, as well as, power, natural gas, and tariff related negotiations and agreements.

Rich is a registered professional engineer and was previously the Power Supply Manager for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, as well as, a Senior Engineer in the Load Management Department of Boston Edison (Eversource). He holds a M.S. in Engineering Management from Western New England College and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University.  Mr. Costello also conducts Energy Seminars nationwide for the Association of Energy Engineers.  Rich was the National President of the Association for the Year 2000, and received the 2003 Energy Professional of the Year Award from the organization.  In 2006, Richard was inducted into the Energy Managers Hall of Fame.

Author & Instructor of current CEM Workbook and Course

Author & Instructor of current CEA Workbook and Course

Author & Instructor of current CEP Workbook and Course