As a side benefit to its May 27 purchase of StarTex Power, Constellation Energy Group is now the official naming sponsor of the Sugar Land Skeeters’ new minor league baseball stadium in Texas.

The Sugar Land City Council on Tuesday approved the name change of StarTex Power Field to Constellation Field, reflecting the change in ownership for Houston-based StarTex. Constellation agreed to buy StarTex Power, a retail electric provider with approximately 170,000 customers, in May for $142.5 million.

“Constellation’s merger with StarTex enhances an already strong partnership,” said Matt O’Brien, President of the Sugar Land Skeeters. “Adding more resources and community initiatives while maintaining local relationships will only bring greater good for Skeeters baseball and the entire Sugar Land community.”

The Skeeters, an expansion team debuting in April, will play in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a minor league system not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The team will be the first in the league not located in the Mid-Atlantic. (The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of Waldorf and Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers are also in the league.)

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A program that offers federal stimulus funds as rebates for homeowners seeking to upgrade properties through whole-house air sealing, duct replacement and insulation of walls, attics, crawl spaces and basements has been infused with an additional $850,000.

The Home Performance Rebate program was given the extra funds Thursday, state officials announced. So far, almost 1,000 Maryland residents have upgraded their homes with an average rebate of $1,529 each. The rebates are paid through the Maryland Energy Administration.

The rebate program offers a 35 percent rebate – which totals up to $3,100 per household – toward qualifying home efficiency upgrades. That rebate, combined with the existing rebates of 15 percent from state utilities, allows homeowners to reduce the cost of installing upgrades by as much as half.

The Home Performance Rebate program has led to nearly $3 million of private investment in home energy efficiency upgrades in just seven months. The new funds are expected to spark more than $1.5 million in additional investment in energy efficient home improvements, state officials said.

The program is funded entirely by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Power company Pepco and its performance, or lack thereof, were the topics of discussion once again Wednesday, this time at a hearing held by the  House Economic Matters Committee.

The company is under fire from multiple sides over its response to power outages in Montgomery County since last year. On Wednesday, the committee had a hearing on HB110, known by some as the ‘nuclear’ option, which, if passed, could lead to the company’s franchise to operate in Maryland being pulled.

Del. Bill Frick, a Montgomery County Democrat, and 13 other lawmakers introduced the bill in February. At the hearing, Frick reiterated the need to force Pepco out.

“What HB110 does is, what our neighbors wish they could do — it takes our business elsewhere,” Frick said.

He said Pepco customers were stuck and unable to switch to another company. He told the commission it was time to bring in another company that could do the job.

After he testified, questions from the committee were light, and Pepco and its allies did not speak to the bill.

For it’s part, the PSC said it had “no position” on the bill. But a spokeswoman said the PSC was undertaking its own investigation of Pepco.

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The truncated work week didn’t keep The Daily Record’s business reporters from breaking some news in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Also cracking the weekly top five for the first time is a recent installment in our new series, the Photo of the Day. The picture relates to air travel, hence the business peg, but mostly it’s just a very cool picture. Do check it out.

1. On the Move, 11/26: Northrop Grumman’s Edwards Veihoffer wins women engineers award

Debbie Edwards Veihdeffer, director of work-life integration at Northrop Grumman’s electronic systems sector in Linthicum, recently received the Work-Life Balance Award from the Society of Women Engineers.

She serves as the human resources focal point for three sector-level employee resource groups and is the project leader for two science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational outreach programs for teachers.

2. State suspends debt collection firm’s license

A collection company hired by payday loan firms was suspended by state regulators Monday because the loans were given by unlicensed companies who violated state usury laws.

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A Baltimore roofing company wants to give away a “green” roof to a nonprofit looking to reduce its carbon footprint.

Cole Roofing has dubbed the promotion the “Green Roof Giveaway” and values it at $30,000, either in the form of solar panels or a vegetated roof, which Cole says are growing in popularity. Interested nonprofits can go to a website and upload a video or submit an essay explaining why a green roof would help them in their work. The deadline is Nov. 15.

Cole Roofing will determine the type of roof to install based on the structure of the nonprofit’s building.

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The days of the residential White Pages delivered to doorsteps across the state would appear to be numbered.

Verizon, the largest landline telecommunications provider in Maryland, is seeking permission from the state’s Public Service Commission to change how it delivers the residential White Pages in all counties except Garrett and Dorchester. If approved, the only way to get the White Pages delivered would be to go to Verizon’s website and request it.

Otherwise, searchable white and yellow, residential and commercial listings are also available on the site. Or, customers can download a copy for use on computers or handheld devices.

The Public Service Commission will be taking comments through the end of the month. And, the commission will discuss the matter at a meeting on Dec. 8.

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As two Montgomery County residents who commute to Baltimore daily, we’ve attacked this week’s power outages in different ways.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re both steaming about Pepco’s slow return to service, but knowing their business a bit — and seeing all of the damage from the storm’s downed trees — has helped take off the edge.

So has working with A/C in Baltimore.

Here’s this week from each of our points of view.

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The Office of the People’s Counsel has a new website that they are touting as more friendly to the people they rep in utility matters — consumers.

The site gives consumers a list of energy providers with the essentials on their offerings: how much they charge per kilowatt-hour, the length of the contract, fee for canceling and what type of power they provide.

While OPC’s website is a good one-stop shop for consumers looking to compare deals, OPC warns that you should still check with the individual providers and read contract details before signing on with an energy company. Contract terms can change quickly, and you don’t want to get stuck paying for a service that you don’t like.

The site also includes a list of public hearings coming up at the Public Service Commission. I even noticed dates for a taxicab rate hike hearing that I didn’t know was coming up (August 2-4). There’s also a section on the latest news from the PSC. Consumers can see how the commission ruled and where OPC came down in support of customers.

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We all know it’s hot out there. Yesterday my colleague heard about someone baking cookies on the dashboard of their car in D.C.

To keep office life pleasant, companies generally pump up the air conditioning on super-hot days like the sweltering ones we’ve been dealing with this week. That means that businesses, which use the most power anyway, up their consumption during heat waves, causing power plants to run at peak load and putting a strain on the regional power grid.

Recognizing the issue, the folks at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center are doing their part to stop electricity use from skyrocketing on these miserably hot days.

GBMC has already declared five “Code Red” days this summer – June 23 and 25, and July 6, 7 and 8 – where lights that aren’t essential are turned off and the thermostat is turned up a few degrees in non-critical areas of the hospital.

GBMC’s green team started working on reducing the hospital’s peak electrical load in 2009 to reduce its costs and its impact on the environment. Last year, the hospital reduced its load by 700 kilowatts on 11 peak days, saving the hospital about $30,000.

This year’s goal is to reduce consumption by 1,500 kilowatts. Reaching the goal could mean savings of $50,000. GBMC works with South River Consulting, a Baltimore-based energy consulting firm, to keep track of high demand days.

To determine conservation measures, the hospital codes each day depending on the weather. Most days are “green,” meaning that the  hospital will use standard conservation practices like turning off lights in unoccupied rooms, keeping air registers clear, closing blinds to keep rooms cool and shutting computers down at the end of the day.

On “yellow” days, hospital staff is asked to follow green protocol, with a heightened awareness. Staff follows the same steps on “red” days, but they are asked to turn off computers during the day when they are away from their desks.

photo from bakingbites.com

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If electric cars are the wave of the future, Genovation Cars just took another step closer to that future.

The Rockville-based designer and builder of environmentally friendly cars has enlisted Tata Technologies, an affiliate of India’s Tata Motors that helped with the creation of the tiny and cheap Nano car, to design and prototype its G2 model, an electric car with a sustainable frame.

The car will include the research that Genovation used to develop its G1 model, which converted Ford Focus cars into electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The car would be manufactured with green materials — the company is looking into bamboo, flax seed and resin from soybeans — and recycled steel.

Genovation’s eventual goal is to become one of the top providers of electric vehicles in the United States — and make a profit selling around 1,000 cars a year by departing from the Detroit model.

Photo of the G1 from Greencar.com

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