Coalition Building

Every organization can appreciate the increased value of collaboration. Indentifying and bringing together stakeholders has been a TTC strength from day one.

Case Study: Biomass Thermal Energy Council

Need: In 2008, eight industry leaders met at TTC's offices in Washington to discuss the need for a national effort to develop the market for biomass heating technologies. These companies, manufacturers of biomass fuels and equipment, saw an opportunity for their technology to replace fossil fuels in the heating sector. Without a common voice to speak on their behalf in Washington, however, they felt this opportunity was being overlooked was policymakers.

Solution: TTC helped industry leaders form a national trade association, the Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC). BTEC conducts advocacy, education, and research on behalf f the biomass thermal industry. In the beginning, staff led the founders through the development of the organizational structure, common goals, and policy objectives. Since 2009, TTC has met 100% of BTEC’s staffing needs and managed the association from its headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Key Outcomes

• Grew organization’s membership 850% in first year to 76 member companies and nonprofits
• Won an unsolicited $55,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service for a national education and outreach campaign for the organization
• Worked with leaders in Congress to introduce nearly a dozen bills providing assistance for biomass thermal technologies
• Reached thousands of industry professionals, policymakers, and potential end-users of the technology through co-hosted regional conferences and webinar series

Case Study: EPRI Storage Project

Need: The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) contracted TTC to facilitate the development of functional requirements for a diverse set of grid-ready energy storage applications by soliciting input from an array of companies involved in energy storage.

Solution: TTC brought together electric systems manufacturers, regulators, researchers and other stakeholder to disseminate the information regarding utilities’ needs in energy storage applications and to discuss various issues related to energy storage, including operating modes, performance ratings, system effectiveness, and so forth.

EPRI has asked for an open process with all interested stakeholders engaged, reviewing draft requirements as well as the final report, all of which were available in the public domain.

Key Outcomes

• Conducted targeted outreach to companies involved in energy storage and recruited them to participate
• Conducted and managed more than a dozen review webcasts with up to 100 attendees to obtain the needed input
• Created utility working groups to assist directly in shaping specific aspects of the requirements documents
• Merged all input into one coherent document for utility use
• Produced a report available to any utility enabling them to develop technical specifications for their individual energy storage application needs, resulting in a streamlined process to bring new systems online and grow the market