Future of energy efficiency policy under Obama administration? What the ACEEE thinks
November 17, 2008
Clipped in from the newsletter of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE):
November 13, 2008
WHAT TO EXPECT: ENERGY EFFICIENCY, THE NEW ADMINISTRATION, AND THE NEW CONGRESS
The election is over. President-elect Obama’s transition team has already started its work, and in Congress, new leadership will be elected. What can we expect from the new Administration and a new Congress on energy efficiency policy? Probably quite a bit, since Obama emphasized energy (principally energy efficiency and renewable energy) as one of his key issues (along with the economy, health care, and education). There will also be a lot of interest in energy efficiency from Congress, given expanded Democratic majorities in general and some of the newly-elected Senators in particular (e.g., Tom and Mark Udall, both of whom were very active efficiency supporters when they were in the House). While many Republicans support energy efficiency, probably a higher proportion of Democrats think government should do more to support efficiency. On the other hand, all major legislation requires 60 votes in the Senate, which means that moderate Republicans, such as new Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking-Member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and moderate Democrats have to be on board.
In terms of new legislation, ACEEE expects energy efficiency to come up in three major places—an economic stimulus bill, energy legislation, and climate change legislation.
Given the state of our economy, an economic stimulus bill is the next order of business. Congress may well pass such a bill in November or December, even before the new President and Congress are sworn in, but if not then, probably in the first month of the new Congress. There could also be two bills, one in the waning days of 2008, and one in early 2009. Such bill(s) will include many provisions, such as extension of jobless benefits and perhaps some tax rebate checks. But there’s a reasonable chance that energy efficiency investments will be included, such as extra funds for the low-income weatherization program, funds to upgrade schools and municipal buildings, a green jobs program, and perhaps some type of residential retrofit program, to create jobs and reduce the burden of energy costs on families.
Next up is likely to be an energy bill. The last Congress came close to passing a renewable portfolio standard, and there’s a very good chance one will be enacted in the next year. President-elect Obama’s energy platform calls for an energy efficiency resource standard (EERS), ramping up to 15% savings by 2020, and such a provision will likely be considered. Other potential items for an energy bill include extensions of various energy efficiency and renewable energy tax credits (Congress extended many of these until only the end of 2009), a provision addressing off-shore oil drilling, additional work on clean coal (e.g., House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chair Rick Boucher, D-Virginia, has a major bill in this area), and investments in a green economy (Obama has called for an investment of $15 billion annually for ten years).
Finally, there is climate change legislation. There are many complex issues involved and we would not expect legislation to pass until 2010 or 2011, but a lot of work on such bills will take place in 2009, with bills quite possibly moving out of committee and perhaps even getting debated on the House or Senate floor. Such a bill is likely to be a cap and trade bill, calling for an 80% reduction in emissions below 1990 levels by 2050 (a target that Obama and many Congressional leaders have endorsed). Efficiency is likely to play a significant role since bills advanced by committee leadership in both the House and Senate have significant energy efficiency provisions designed to both reduce emissions and to keep the costs of addressing climate change in check.
Looking to the even longer term, Obama has called for building the green economy as a centerpiece of our economic strategy with investments in basic research, technology demonstration, commercial market deployment, and job training. Targeted areas include advanced vehicles and biofuels, and a smart electric grid. He has also called for:
* weatherizing one million low-income homes a year
* accelerating development of appliance and equipment efficiency standards
* increasing the energy savings in building codes (including grants to states that are early adopters)
* improving the efficiency of federal facilities
* assisting states and municipalities to build green buildings
* increasing vehicle fuel economy standards.
In addition, he wants to expand support for smart growth initiatives and public transit, and support for states that adopt policies to decouple utility profits from utility sales. He also wants to play a leadership role in helping to shape a new global climate change framework. How much of this will see the light of day remains to be seen, particularly given the current state of the economy and burgeoning federal budget deficits. But some of these can be done administratively and/or without spending a lot of money. With energy fairly high on the agenda in the 2008 campaign, significant Congressional action is likely, although exactly what will be in specific bills will only gradually become clear over time.
ACEEE plans to be heavily involved in each of these efforts.
FYI. Kansas ranks 38 out of 50 states on ACEEE’s 2008 Energy Efficiency State Scorecard. Oops.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
CEP Conversations: Michael Volker of Midwest Energy, and their award-winning How$mart energy efficiency program
October 21, 2008
Midwest Energy is a rural electric cooperative based in Hays, Kansas. It serves 48,000 electric and 42,000 natural gas customers in central and western Kansas.
Midwest is a particularly progressive rural electric co-op. It serves a part of Kansas that is suffering high rates of rural depopulation – but in a situation where many businesses suffer, Midwest has figured out how to adapt and thrive.
Midwest has invested in renewables. Currently, it serves 49 megawatts (MW) of its load through wind energy purchased from the Smoky Hills Wind Farm, an amount that represents 16% of the co-op’s peak demand.
Economically, Midwest is also an “independent borrower” – meaning, it freed itself from the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) borrowing system, and now finances its operations through private equity.
Midwest has also developed an award-winning energy efficiency program – How$martSM, a pay-as-you-save® (PAYS®) financing model that helps customers make cost-effective energy efficiency improvements to their home. The program has received compliments from the Kansas Corporation Commission, as well as earning the Governor’s Award for Energy Efficiency.
Michael Volker, Midwest’s Director of Regulatory and Energy Services, working with Midwest Vice President Pat Parke, developed How$mart(SM). Recently, Volker sat down with CEP’s Maril Hazlett to explain a bit more about the program.
**************************************
Maril Hazlett, CEP (MH): Tell me a little bit about how How$mart got started – where did the idea first come from?
Michael Volker, Midwest Energy (MV): Well — in the beginning…
MH: So energy efficiency is part of Genesis, huh?
MV: How$mart got started… well, three things. I happened to be on the Kansas Energy Council, when they were doing an inventory of energy efficiency programs. Also around that time, natural gas prices were spiking.
There is nothing a utility can do to change fuel prices – all we can do is to teach customers to conserve. So, what kind of energy efficiency programs improve or teach energy conservation? We looked at different programs and it stimulated our brain cells.
Now, no utility in Kansas had done a PAYS® program before, or at least not voluntarily. And no one has ever done it like we’re doing it now.
The last thing was that the Hays City Council was receiving a windfall from franchise fees – they charge Midwest a percent of revenue. They wanted to give that money back to the community, to subsidize low-income individuals, and so they asked us for help.
The City Council’s one requirement, before they would give that money to any individual, was an energy audit from Midwest Energy. They’ve long known about our energy auditing. In fact, they require that new homes have an audit from Midwest Energy before they’ll offer a certificate of occupancy.
Safety is a side benefit of the Midwest energy audits. There are probably more dangerous ways to vent the CO from a hot water heater, but it’s a little hard to imagine. Photo credit: Midwest Energy.
MH: Midwest has been doing energy audits for a while?
MV: Since the 1980s. I think we have the longest continuously running energy audit program in the state, compared to other utilities.
MH: Sounds like a great idea.
MV: It was a great idea… but - the first winter, we would do the audit for the customer, and the customer would get the payment. But then we’d come back a year later for the same customer asking for the same thing.
No changes, no improvements. We’d do an audit, and we’d see holes in windows, holes in floors, unsealed, no insulation, equipment that was downright dangerous.
Unless you can fix the building envelope, the shell, energy efficiency is all but impossible to achieve. The most efficient HVAC system in the world isn’t going to matter if your house is uninsulated and leaking like crazy.
Not a lot of people can afford to plug the leaks, let alone put in a new HVAC system. It was frustrating. How do you help these people? How do we get past this barrier? They were living paycheck to paycheck – and/ or, they were renting. They couldn’t make the improvements themselves because it wasn’t their property, it was the landlord’s.
We were doing energy audits and yet, nothing was happening, nothing was changing. Our customers weren’t benefitting. We wanted to make something happen. So we considered the PAYS® idea.
The beginning of a beautiful relationship - energy efficiency
October 20, 2008
by Nancy Jackson
America is seeing the end of a long relationship – we’re breaking up with fossil fuels. They will still be a big part of our lives, sure… but the connection will never be the same again. It’s time to admit that and move on.
It’s time to start seeing other fuels.
And our first choice is the first fuel – energy efficiency.
Don’t get me wrong. Oil, gas, and coal have been lovely – they’ve brought light to the night, sped cars down the roads, and lifted mere mortals into the skies. For over one hundred years, it’s been a great ride.
But folks, let’s face it, our best years with the fossils are behind us. The easiest oil, gas, and coal are long out of the ground. From here on, everything will be tougher and more expensive to get, more polluting to burn, and these days over six billion people are ready to fight for what’s left.
We don’t have to abandon the fossils entirely. Fossil fuels will help us transition to secure, renewable sources of energy. They will ease us into flex-fuel and plug-in electric vehicles, co-fired and combined heat and power electric plants, and they will provide firming power for wind and solar energy on the way to innovative storage technologies.
Want to move on with your energy relationships? You can start today. You can make America more secure and independent, bring investment and non-exportable jobs to Kansas and the nation, and manage our environmental and financial risk.
You can do all this by increasing energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency is like the guy (or girl) next door. You know - dependable, effective, and available this very day. But until now, you just hadn’t recognized how incredibly attractive and powerful energy efficiency really is.
It’s also the least expensive, most productive fuel alternative available – a really cheap date. These days, what could be better than that?
How do you get the ball rolling? Start with these three steps:
1) CFLs. Today is the day. Take a deep breath and screw a CFL into every heavy use fixture in your house. If even half of us do this, we significantly decrease the need for new power plants.
2) Thermostat. Turn that sucker down to 68. Sweaters are the new sexy! Blankets are cozy. Cuddling is some of the best fun you can have indoors. Seriously, folks, our grandmothers gave up meat and pantyhose for the war effort; surely we can snuggle up.
3) Commissioners. Our Kansas Corporation Commissioners hold our energy efficiency future in their hands. If you want robust energy efficiency programs from your utility (check back tomorrow for a profile of Midwest Energy’s exciting HowSmart program), let the Commissioners know it.
Come on, Kansas! It’s time to lighten our load, enrich our bank accounts, and make the world a better place. The new energy economy is recovery for Main Street – let’s get on with it!
And we can look forward to the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Kids, sugar, and energy efficiency
October 7, 2008
Just too funny of a picture not to share - here is how Eileen spent a good chunk of her summer, forever cementing the rhetoric of energy efficiency into impressionable young minds.
In other words, she held several Energy Efficiency Block Parties with various neighborhood associations. CFLs were prominently featured. So were ice cream cones.
Yay! Energy efficiency is good! Just like ice cream!
Heat Pump, Part I: The prep work
October 7, 2008
Bruce Robinson of Anchor Refrigeration plans the heat pump installation for the home of CEP's Maril Hazlett and her husband, Brian.
Banks are trembling, markets are falling, and soon the sky probably will, too - but as blog readers know, this summer Maril’s AC/ heater unit completely blew out. And despite the moment’s financial uncertainties, this sort of infrastructure investment can’t really wait.
(Sob.)
Oh well.
As part of CEP’s work in energy efficiency, we figured this would be a great time to bring our readers an up close look at the installation of a heat pump, from the financing (or lack thereof) to the installation.
What is a heat pump? A heat pump is one of the most energy-efficient heating and cooling decisions you can make. The technology is generally considered to be a form of geothermal heat, which can be ground source or air source. (Since my husband and I live on a rocky hill where trenching would be horribly expensive, we went with air source.)
According to EnergyStar, an air source heat pump “uses the difference between outdoor air temperatures and indoor air temperatures to cool and heat your home.”
Why a heat pump? This decision will vary by homeowner, but a heat pump was especially a good idea for us because our regular heater ran on propane. We usually just depended on our wood stove, since propane was so expensive.
There are those who would say that when your electric provider is a rural electric cooperative with some of the highest rates in the state, moving to an all-electric heat pump is iffy. I say right back - then you pay for the propane.
Actually, this wasn’t just knee-jerk. The switch-over also penciled out for us. We are going with one of the most efficient heat pumps on the market, which means it is also more expensive. However, we are also pretty conservative electricity users. We also keep our thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer. Given these and other factors, this investment should pay off in 5-7 years at the outside, even as electricity price will probably continue to rise.
Also, Maril likes where our electricity comes from. Our co-op is part of KEPCo. Compared to other Kansas rural co-ops and utilities, KEPCo has a much smaller carbon footprint. It gets a large chunk of its electricity from low-carbon emission sources such as nuclear, hydropower, and wind.
Propane is also still right for us, for other types of uses. In the future, if at all financially possible, we’d like to add a propane generator, and possibly a heater for Brian’s woodshop (aka, the garage). When it comes to more limited, targeted uses (versus heating and cooling a 2100 square foot home), we will be more able to afford it.
Getting the Groundwork Set
Rebates from utility. Luckily for us, Leavenworth-Jefferson County Electric Cooperative (LJEC) does offer a rebate for installing heat pumps. The amount you receive depends on the level of efficiency you choose to install. Also, they’re very nice when you call up to talk to them.
Financing. First, we looked into the KEEP program, administered by Kansas Housing Resources Corporation in partnership with Sunflower Bank or other financing interests. This is a low-interest loan plan for Kansas citizens to carry out energy efficiency improvements, and it is available to all Kansans, regardless of income.
Brian, late at night, doing the demo for the ductwork
CEP Conversations: Michael Volker of Midwest Energy, on How$mart, Midwest’s award-winning energy efficiency program
October 2, 2008
Midwest Energy is a rural electric cooperative based in Hays, Kansas. It serves 48,000 electric and 42,000 natural gas customers in central and western Kansas.
Midwest is a particularly progressive rural electric co-op. It serves a part of Kansas that is suffering high rates of rural depopulation – but in a situation where many businesses suffer, Midwest has figured out how to adapt and thrive.
Midwest has invested in renewables. Currently, it serves 49 megawatts (MW) of its load through wind energy purchased from the Smoky Hills Wind Farm, an amount that represents 16% of the co-op’s peak demand.
Economically, Midwest is also an “independent borrower” – meaning, it freed itself from the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) borrowing system, and now finances its operations through private equity.
Midwest has also developed an award-winning energy efficiency program – How$martSM, a pay-as-you-save® (PAYS®) financing model that helps customers make cost-effective energy efficiency improvements to their home. The program has received compliments from the Kansas Corporation Commission, as well as earning the Governor’s Award for Energy Efficiency.
Michael Volker, Midwest’s Director of Regulatory and Energy Services, working with Midwest Vice President Pat Parke, developed How$mart(SM). Recently, Volker sat down with CEP’s Maril Hazlett to explain a bit more about the program.
(For a .pdf of this CEP Conversation, click here.)
**************************************
Maril Hazlett, CEP (MH): Tell me a little bit about how How$mart got started – where did the idea first come from?
Michael Volker, Midwest Energy (MV): Well — in the beginning…
MH: So energy efficiency is part of Genesis, huh?
MV: How$mart got started… well, three things. I happened to be on the Kansas Energy Council, when they were doing an inventory of energy efficiency programs. Also around that time, natural gas prices were spiking.
There is nothing a utility can do to change fuel prices – all we can do is to teach customers to conserve. So, what kind of energy efficiency programs improve or teach energy conservation? We looked at different programs and it stimulated our brain cells.
Now, no utility in Kansas had done a PAYS® program before, or at least not voluntarily. And no one has ever done it like we’re doing it now.
The last thing was that the Hays City Council was receiving a windfall from franchise fees – they charge Midwest a percent of revenue. They wanted to give that money back to the community, to subsidize low-income individuals, and so they asked us for help.
The City Council’s one requirement, before they would give that money to any individual, was an energy audit from Midwest Energy. They’ve long known about our energy auditing. In fact, they require that new homes have an audit from Midwest Energy before they’ll offer a certificate of occupancy.
Safety is a side benefit of the Midwest energy audits. There are probably more dangerous ways to vent the CO from a hot water heater, but it’s a little hard to imagine. Photo credit: Midwest Energy.
MH: Midwest has been doing energy audits for a while?
MV: Since the 1980s. I think we have the longest continuously running energy audit program in the state, compared to other utilities.
MH: Sounds like a great idea.
MV: It was a great idea… but - the first winter, we would do the audit for the customer, and the customer would get the payment. But then we’d come back a year later for the same customer asking for the same thing.
No changes, no improvements. We’d do an audit, and we’d see holes in windows, holes in floors, unsealed, no insulation, equipment that was downright dangerous.
Unless you can fix the building envelope, the shell, energy efficiency is all but impossible to achieve. The most efficient HVAC system in the world isn’t going to matter if your house is uninsulated and leaking like crazy.
Not a lot of people can afford to plug the leaks, let alone put in a new HVAC system. It was frustrating. How do you help these people? How do we get past this barrier? They were living paycheck to paycheck – and/ or, they were renting. They couldn’t make the improvements themselves because it wasn’t their property, it was the landlord’s.
We were doing energy audits and yet, nothing was happening, nothing was changing. Our customers weren’t benefitting. We wanted to make something happen. So we considered the PAYS® idea.
CEP supports incentives for utilities to pursue all cost-effective electricity savings and avoid unnecessary expenditures on generation and grid additions.
Kansans, like all Americans, face skyrocketing fuel and commodity prices, reliability concerns, and an antiquated grid in need of extensive updates. In the face of all this – and amidst a worsening financial crisis and concerns about pollution in general and climate change in particular – it is time not only to remove perverse incentives but to actively encourage our utilities to sell less rather than ever more energy.
We encourage the KCC to align shareholder and customer interests in reducing use and bills. The NARUC National Energy Efficiency Action Plan states the goal well: “modify policies to align utility incentives with the delivery of cost-effective energy efficiency,” by “addressing the typical utility throughput incentive and removing other regulatory and management disincentives to energy efficiency.”
Our state’s regulated utilities have the power to influence the pace of energy efficiency improvements both directly and indirectly. If our investor-owned utilities embrace energy efficiency as a business model – which they will do only as their shareholders receive a dependable return – they can not only deliver proven programs but also shape state and federal standards and tax credits as well as their customers’ attitudes toward personal efficiency investments and conservation.
With proper incentives, our largest utilities can lower bills for most Kansans, spurring local economic development and preserving our environment and our future options in the process.
Tips: Talking about Energy Efficiency
September 2, 2008
Latest installment in the CEP Tips series. For a .pdf of this material, click here.
******************
Energy efficiency means using technology to maintain comfort and convenience while reducing energy use and bills. It is a powerful yet largely untapped resource.
Think of it as a virtual power plant – for every megawatt of energy efficiency that a utility creates, that equals one less megawatt it has to generate.
Energy efficiency programs are crucial to a clean, affordable, and reliable electricity supply for Kansas.
Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective, immediate solution for utilities facing rising fuel and construction costs, aging infrastructures, and looming carbon regulation.
The more energy we save, then the more money we save, and the fewer new power plants we have to build – which means less impact on our environment.
THE BENEFITS
Ready NOW. Affordable energy efficient products and technologies are available today.
Reduces monthly bills. According to the EPA, energy efficiency decreases utility bills by 2-9% over a ten year period.
Provides local jobs. Installing HVAC systems, windows, insulation – these are local jobs that can’t be exported.
Helps our economy. By reducing demand, energy efficiency lowers fuel prices.
Cheap. Utilities can offer energy efficiency programs for 3 cents per kilowatt hour. New generation costs 9-10 cents per kilowatt hour.
Lifetime savings. The upfront costs of energy efficiency improvements (like buying an EnergyStar appliance) are much less than their lifetime savings in dollars.
Reduces pollution. Energy efficiency produces no particulate, mercury, or carbon dioxide pollution.
THE OBSTACLE
As a study commissioned by the Kansas Energy Council recently discovered, Kansas is not reaching its potential for saving energy. Other Midwestern states – like Iowa and Minnesota – are reducing demand by about 1% per year.
According to DOE, Kansas electricity consumption is disproportionately large compared to the rest of the nation. We match the nation’s growth rate in electricity consumption – but our population is growing at only half the national average.
THE SOLUTIONS
Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS)
Requires utilities to get 1% of increased demand from energy efficiency to keep bills low and forestall need for new generation.
Decoupling Incentives
“Decouple” means to break the link between a utility’s profits and their sales volume. Making this break is necessary for utilities who want to help their customers save energy, rather than use more and more. A state public utility commission (such as the Kansas Corporation Commission) can establish new rate structures for a utility’s energy efficiency expenditures, which are often known as decoupling incentives.
Weatherization for low-income homes
The most affordable home is an energy efficient home. Over time, weatherizing low-income housing stock once makes more sense than subsidizing payment of heating bills every year.
Energy efficient building codes
Minimum standards for new construction will help protect consumers and businesses from excessive energy bills in the future.
SUCCESSFUL DEMAND REDUCTION PROGRAMS
Whole house: replacing incandescent lightbulbs with recyclable CFLs, providing home energy calculators, installing programmable thermostats, facilitating energy audits and weatherization.
Working with customers: New utility bill formats that emphasize conservation and savings, allowing energy conservation costs to be placed on consumer bill and paid off over time.
Interruptible service for commercial and farm customers - ie, for irrigation, or cyclable air-conditioning that keeps buildings cool but reduces use during certain peak hours.
Real-time pricing means that residential customers, as well as commercial and industrial customers, can see when energy prices are high or low. This allows them to consume electricity during low price times of the day, and keep their bills down.
Consumer education is the key to success for all programs.
HELPFUL TERMINOLOGY
Peak load – The highest point of demand on the grid. Usually occurs during summer months.
Demand response – The grid’s ability to respond to demand safely and reliably.
Demand Side Management (DSM) – Managing consumer demand to reduce peak load and load growth.
Supply Side Management – When utilities update their generation infrastructure (turbines, pipes and cooling systems, transmission, distribution, etc.) for more efficient electricity production.
Smart meters – Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) – Regular meters with various computer components added that provide two way communications between ratepayer and utility. Tool for managing demand response and reducing consumption during peak hours.
Smart grid – Smart meters are the backbone of a smart grid – an electrical grid that depends on two-way communication to manage load and demand more safely, reliably, and efficiently.
From DotEarth, and via one of our favorite blog readers 
WASHINGTON -– Dan Reicher, Google’s guru of all things related to energy and the environment, came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with some ideas on how to keep Earth from overheating and poor families from freezing this winter in the face of sky-high prices for heating oil.
A central proposal, laid out in testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, was a national program aimed at cutting heat and electricity bills in 10 million low-income homes over a decade. The existing federal “weatherization” program saw its Energy Department budget eliminated recently. The hearing was called “Efficiency: The Hidden Secret to Solving Our Energy Crisis.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and chairman of the joint committee, said he planned to include the weatherization proposal in a bill later this year. “I am very interested in the low-income home weatherization program,” he said. “And I’m going to put in some legislation to move it up.”
Over in the main part of the Capitol, lawmakers have been locked in a bitter stalemate over energy policy, with Republicans pushing for increased oil exploration, including expanded offshore drilling. Democrats, meanwhile, insist that drilling should be limited to existing leases on federal lands. Both sides say efforts to produce energy from renewable sources should be vastly increased, but they disagree on how to do so.
Mr. Reicher offered an array of ideas to a mostly receptive panel of lawmakers. In addition to weatherizing 10 million homes for low-income Americans, which he said would cost about $2 billion annually, he also said Congress should establish a mechanism called the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard that would set efficiency resource targets for electricity and gas suppliers over a given period of time.
He also called for a national “renewable portfolio standard” to increase the amount of electricity produced by sources other than fossil fuels. Some two dozen states have a hodgepodge of such requirements now for their utilities. This issue has divided Congress deeply in recent years. Other proposals included a greater focus on boosting fuel efficiency, the improvement of electric cars and increased tax incentives for the construction of energy-efficient buildings.
Perhaps Mr. Reicher’s most intriguing comment, though, was his observation on the role that information technology will play in helping solve the nation’s energy problems. “The increasing interplay between energy hardware and information software — and the corresponding rise of the Internet and the connectivity it brings — adds to the potential to make and to use energy more productively,” Mr. Reicher said. “From smart meters and smart appliances to smart homes and a smart grid, we are poised to significantly advance our ability to monitor and manage energy.”
Presumably Google foresees a role in helping consumers or companies do this. It’s already aggressively pursuing investments in what it calls “Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal.” Mr. Reicher directs climate and energy initiatives at Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, which has been capitalized with more than $1 billion in Google stock to address the issues of climate change, global poverty and global health.
News Updates: Wind in Ellis Co, net metering in Wyandotte? the state of the grid, wind forecasting
July 15, 2008
Wind project moving forward in Ellis County. Most KS wind folk know the contentious history of the Ellis County wind project. Wind developer Iberdola is now one step closer to making that project work. County commissioners will hear the proposal July 28 (Hays Daily News).
Net metering to come to Wyandotte County? If the legislature can’t put together a statewide net metering policy, that may not stop some Kansas utilities, like BPU (KMBC 9).
Wichita man featured in WSJ story about not using AC. (WSJournal) Quotable:
Troy Newman, of Wichita, Kan. Last summer, his home energy bills hit an unacceptable $300 a month. So he has installed dark curtains on his south-facing windows and limited his family’s use of heat-generating appliances. All summer cooking, for instance, is done on the outdoor grill. Much of the laundry is hung on a clothesline.
On hot afternoons, Mr. Newman runs a hose to the roof and douses the shingles for 20 minutes, which he swears lowers the temperature inside. “I don’t know if it’s all that good for the life span of the roof,” Mr. Newman says, “but when it’s 110 degrees, I really could care less.”
Though he recently added 1,200 square feet of living space to the house, Mr. Newman says his energy bills are at least $100 a month lower than they were last summer.
Great post from Climateer Investing on the state of the U.S. electrical grid. Including links to video!
Best places in the county for renewable energy (Forbes). KS is prominently mentioned. Definitely check out the maps feature. Slick.
Utah moves to a four day work week for state employees (LATimes). Hmm.
Wind forecasting. Pretty much just for dorks, but an interesting FERC ruling on wind forecasting. (FOr non-dorks, wind forecasting helps integrate intermittent power into the grid.) (Energy Legal Blog).
The Pope REALLY gets going on climate change. He’s spoken on the topic before, but he is definitely kicking it up more than a notch (WSJ Environmental Capital blog).
—Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
Walk the Talk: More on the no air conditioning saga… or, how much can you afford to spend on green building?
July 14, 2008
Several folks have written in to ask whether or not my husband and I have air conditioning yet, during our remodeling process (see Living without AC isn’t SO bad…)
Answer: Kind of. Once we finally found a new sheetrocker to put the ceiling back up, we went to turn the AC on again. (Is it a good idea to have the AC on when there’s no insulation yet in your ceiling? No. But how else are you going to get the drywall mud to dry when it is 98% humidity out?)
Click, and…. the AC didn’t work. I thought fine, I wanted to put in a programmable thermostat anyway, next to the cost of the ceiling I won’t even feel it, so have the AC guy come on out and fix the whole mess.
He did. He also managed to discover a hole the size of a small elephant in the heat exchanger (we have a combined heat/ AC system). “Ma’am, you’re lucky you didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning this winter.” And if we didn’t depend so much on our woodstove - well, who knows.
So he got the AC to limp along - which beats having a brand new programmable thermostat hooked up to nothing, right - but… Well. Yeah. We can’t ever use the heater portion of the unit again. We really do need some form of heat back-up to keep our pipes from freezing in the winter, too… dangit…
More or less, we need a whole new system. A heat exchanger is a pretty big deal. The unit is 13 years old. It has a 15 year life. Replacing the heat exchanger now is kind of the equivalent of replacing the alternator on a car that has over 200,000 miles - ie, not really worth it.
This is about the point when I went fetal and crawled under my desk. I did come out at one point, to grab a calculator. Then I crawled back into my little hole and tried to figure out how for the life of me I was going to make all the numbers work. They haven’t gotten back to us with an estimate yet, but I can’t imagine this experience will be cheap.
About this time I crawled out and went to a party (why not). Where I immediately ran into two people who asked after the remodel, heard the story, then more or less exclaimed “I can’t believe it! You’re so lucky! Now you get to upgrade to a more efficient system!”
I smiled, throttled no one, and went home and thought about it. They’re right. And at this point, it looks like we will go with a heat pump system, which is a form of geothermal.
How am I going to pay for it? Still not certain. However, frankly, with the price of fossil fuels going through the roof (and no end in sight), buying an energy efficient system is actually the most prudent move we could make.
Paying the equipment and capital costs up front stinks. No question. Paying the fuel costs on the back end, though - at the moment, those costs are a giant unknown. And I’d really rather not risk that.
Basically, the whole experience has made me think - when it all hits the fan, are you still going to go green? And what does going green mean to you?
There’s lots of green things that we didn’t do on this remodel. Most of that came down to materials. It would have been nice to get all environmentally-conscious surfaces and substances, but we couldn’t do those and make energy efficiency improvements, too. Our resources are limited, so we went with the choices that in the long run, would lower our energy costs.
It’s what was right for us (I hope! We’ll see how that heat pump works out). Our choices might not be right for others.
But - we’re the ones paying for it
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
The dog days of summer are here. Are you ready?
Kansans can save energy – and money – even as air conditioners run hard during July and August. Come learn about new tools and tricks while enjoying a cold slice of watermelon with your neighbors.
Get free CFLs and info on KCPL’s exciting Energy Optimizer Program, which includes a free programmable thermostat to keep your home comfortable and your wallet fat. Local companies will come to your neighborhood to showcase energy solutions to lower your utility bill.
Join us!
- July 15th 6PM- 8PM : Whispering Hills Neighborhood (at the covered bridge - 83rd and Woodland Rd.) Lenexa, KS
- July 22nd 6:30PM- 8:30PM : Brookwood Place Neighborhood (at pool- 87th and Allman) Lenexa, KS
- July 31st 6PM- 8PM : Nottingham Forest Neighborhood (at the pool- 119th and Grant) Overland Park, KS
- Aug. 23rd 1PM- 4PM : Block of: Lowell, 51st to 52nd St. , Overland Park, KS
“We’re excited about the opportunity to give our customers practical, hands-on advice and tools that can both save energy and save them money,” said Susan Brown of The Energy Savings Store, a block party participant. The Energy Savings Store is one of many local companies who will showcase the new energy technologies available to homeowners.
“Although summer energy prices are high, the good news is that you can save green by ‘going green,’ ” said Eileen Horn, Community Outreach Director for the Climate and Energy Project.
Need more information? Contact Eileen Horn at horn@climateandenergy.org.
Do YOU Qualify? New energy grant could help jump start rural Kansas in renewable energy and energy efficiency
July 8, 2008
As the Governor’s office announced last week, the Kansas Energy Office of the KCC has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Governors Association as part of the Clean Energy States Grant Program. From the press release:
“Kansas is a leader in helping America secure a clean energy future,” said Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Co-Chair of the NGA Center’s Securing a Clean Energy Future Initiative. “From our rapidly expanding wind energy industry, to our new efficiency partnerships with utilities, to our first-in-the-nation ethanol plant, the fuel for the future is right here in the Heartland.”
As Ray Hammarlund, director of energy programs at the KCC, explained to CEP, the grant money will be used to help rural Kansas entities apply for existing federal funds to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The focus will be applying for CREBS and 9006 grants.
CREBs stands for Clean and Renewable Energy Bonds - basically interest-free loans for financing qualified energy projects. They are funded by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, through the federal Production Tax Credit for wind and solar. Rural electric cooperatives, municipal electric utilities, and government entities (including tribal councils) are eligible. (If the PTC is not renewed these funds are in jeopardy.)
9006 rural development funds come through the Farm Bill. They provide grants and loans to agricultural producers and rural small business for assistance with renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. Rural areas with populations of 50,000 or less (and that’s most of KS, except for about six or seven counties, right?) are eligible.
The one-time funds are a first step in Hammarlund’s larger plan - to make such applications a long-term part of the Kansas Energy Office.
“These are established federal funds,” he says. “Kansas is not claiming its share. We can’t let that happen.”
Other neighboring states have filed far more applications, and reaped much larger awards per grant.
“Last year Kansas filed 12 applications for a total of $232,000,” Hammarlund says. “Nebraska filed 102 applications for $12 million. Iowa filed 55 applications and was awarded $17 million. Kansas absolutely needs to get in on these programs.”
Part of the grant funds will go to hiring a person to be a go-between Kansas applicants and the federal funding entities. The job will also include analyzing other states’ successful applications, and strategizing how the grant and loan funds can be tailored to Kansas’s own energy situation. Hammarlund is already interviewing candidates for the job.
“Our office has so many great partners who are helping this program off the ground - Department of Commerce, Small Business, K-State Research and Extension - there’s so many,” Hammarlund said. “The key will be getting this expertise centralized, with one person dedicated to tracking it and then helping Kansas applicants take advantage of the fantastic resources that this state already has in terms of energy.”
What does a successful application look like? While Hammarlund wants to wait on some of the analysis before he fully answers this question, he does have a pretty good idea already. Community wind projects are a definite possibility. Solar projects might be right for some communities. Energy efficiency is also important.
“Energy efficiency - saving energy - is always low-hanging fruit,” Hammarlund said. “Some of the smaller areas don’t have as many resources to make these programs happen. Getting grants or loans could really jump start their programs.”
Interested in knowing more, or being one of the communities that applies for these grants? Call the KCC at 785-271-3100 and ask for Ray Hammarlund.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
Walk the Talk: Living without AC isn’t SO bad…
July 3, 2008
According to EnergyStar.gov, heating and cooling costs make up 49% of the average homeowner energy budget. Air conditioning makes up about 15% of that.
According to ACEEE, energy consumption for home air conditioning accounts for almost 5% of all the electricity produced in the U.S., costing homeowners over $15 billion. It also producing roughly 140 million tons of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions per year.
And according to every utility person I have ever talked to, summer is a time of peak load when everyone has the AC running, and this draw is a big part of why additional fossil fuel burning power plants are still on the drawing board.
All this totals up to one really horrible fact - an environmentally responsible homeowner should strive to use their AC as little as possible. You can do this in several ways:
- Seal and weatherstrip your home
- Install a programmable thermostat to raise the AC temperature when no one is home, and to lower it before you return
- Only run the AC when the temperature is over 90 degrees, or later in the summer when it doesn’t cool off at night
- Install an energy-efficient AC, energy-efficient windows, and insulation
- Use fans instead
- Sweat it out.
Or… you can accidentally do as Maril and her husband did. You can start remodeling your kitchen in late June, realize that the whole ceiling (drywall, insulation, the whole schmeer) needs to go and really, you might as well rewire ALL the ancient wiring while you’re at it (firefighters tend not to like bad wiring, there was no hope of just covering that stuff back up) ….
… and then you are living in an uninsulated shell of a house (more like a barn, really), and what’s the point of using your AC then? Why air condition the great outdoors?
And then it becomes July. And then your drywall guy flakes on you and there’s the July 4 holiday and the other folks can’t get to it until afterwards. And then oh yeah, you and your husband both work outside the home. Remodeling when day jobs are involved is not the easiest thing. And did you know that an attic fan doesn’t really work well when there’s no attic? Not kidding.
Thus for the past week or so we have been exploring the sweat it out option.
The good news - you adjust. I’ll admit it, I’m normally a wimp. Usually our AC solution is to keep it at 78 degrees, just to keep the edge off. It’s been a bit above 78 degrees in Kansas lately, you may have noticed.
However, since it’s always cooler outside than inside now (until about 8:00 p.m.), we’re spending lots more time outside. Gardening, walking, messing with the biodiesel, whatever. This is has got to be healthier than sitting around on your rear indoors in the AC, I figure. And you end up actually talking to your neighbors. Imagine.
And really. You do adjust to the lack of AC. You may not be happy about it but you adjust. I had a friend give me a major reality check the other day, too. I griped, and the response was: “Oh yeah? Well right now in Iraq it’s about 120 degrees in the shade.”
I said, oh. Well. I do believe you are right. Gulp.
Then someone else pointed out that when the families started to return to Greensburg after the tornado last year, about that time Kansas would have been heading right into summer, and there sure wasn’t any AC there then. And do you think that everyone in Chapman has AC right now? Probably not.
So! Yeah. What are we griping about, again?
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
News Updates: distributed wind in MN, spies don’t like climate change, jobs and state energy efficiency policies
June 26, 2008
Minnesota does groundbreaking study on how to get small and community wind into the grid. (North American Windpower) Quotable: “The study’s goal was to identify a total of 600 MW of small renewable energy projects that could be operated in the transmission grid with few or no changes required to the existing infrastructure. Dispersed renewable energy involves wind, solar and biomass projects that will generate between 10 MW and 40 MW of power. The second phase of the study will seek to identify an additional 600 MW of renewable energy and will begin this fall.”
Spies coming in from the cold. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) The U.S. intelligence community is much much less than pleased about the prospects of global warming and climate change for their already difficult job (US News and World Report). The full report will remain classified. Quotable:
“We assess that no country will be immune to the effects of climate change, but some will be able to cope more effectively than others,” says Thomas Fingar, who heads the National Intelligence Council, which drafted the assessment, adding that sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia would be the hardest-hit regions. “However, the spillover—from potentially increased migration and water-related disputes—could have a harmful global impact.”
The full report, issued as a National Intelligence Assessment, is classified, and officials say they are not planning to release it. The NIA is distinct from the better-known National Intelligence Estimates by being more speculative and relying more heavily on public sources. Both represent the consensus judgment of the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies and carry great analytic weight in Washington.
In particular, they are concerned about the impact of climate change on agriculture.
Economic impact of energy efficiency. Energy efficiency means jobs. These jobs can help offset economic impacts of fighting climate change thru carbon regulation. Findings from the ACEEE on the economic impacts of energy efficiency at the state level: “The set of studies reviewed in this report demonstrate an average of 23 percent efficiency gain with a nearly 2 to 1 benefit-cost ratio; a 20 percent efficiency gain by 2030 could provide an estimated 800,000 net jobs while a 30 percent efficiency improvement might generate as many as 1.3 million net jobs; and efficiency-led policies, in effect an emphasis on greater energy productivity, would likely increase the nation’s economy (as measured by our Gross Domestic Product, or GDP) by about 0.1 percent by 2030.”
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
News Updates:
June 25, 2008
Tornado recovery - sharing the love. Greensburg KS (hit by a tornado a year ago) and Chapman KS (hit by a tornado a couple of weeks ago) are bonding over their similar situations. Greensburg is helping to offer advice to Chapman. (TCJournal)
Kansas businesses, listen up! (via CEP’s Eileen) The Greater Kansas City Climate Protection Partnership, coordinated by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, has a super-cool carbon calculator for businesses. CHECK IT OUT. You don’t even have to be from KC.
Big box stores moving toward energy efficiency. Office Depot, Kroger, Safeway, WalMart - yes, you just read that right. Saving energy saves money. Energy efficiency is mainstream (WSJ Environmental Capital blog)
Speaking of, Home Depot will now accept CFL’s for recycling (they contain a small amount of mercury). (NYTimes)
Big brains on the future of energy. As very helpfully indexed by Climateer, the Economist magazine has released a new energy issue that you can read online. It is indeed actually readable by the rest of us. The good, the bad, and the ugly, it’s all there.
Overfishing. You read that right too. I just really liked this article. How overfishing oceans relates to Kansas - this article tells the larger story of what happens to communities when they deplete their resources for short-term economic benefit. Ie, they lose jobs and when you lose jobs you have to move and you lose your community and relationships and family connection to place. And then you start figuring out what to do different. I read this and in my head substituted “soil fertility” for “fishing” every time. Cautionary tale (CSMonitor)
Climate drama. One of the consequences of climate change is increased incidences of extreme weather, like droughts and flooding. These all have side effects - depending on the ecosystem, for example, drought can also lead to increased rates of wildfires, disease, etc. In flooding, you can also get undesirable species populating like crazy - ie, mosquitoes. Which carry more disease. Etc.
Along those lines, an unseasonably early “dry” lightning storm set off wildfires all over northern California. Is this specific weather event related to the larger issue of climate change? Maybe. Quotable: “You’re looking at a pattern that’s climatologically rare. We typically don’t see this happen at this time of summer,” said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.” (Yahoo/ AP)
Scientists have discovered that extreme weather related to climate change can intensify normally insignificant disease outbreaks. It was theorized that this could happen, but now a team of researchers believes they have proof. Quotable: “Weather extremes can create conditions in which several fairly harmless diseases converge at once, creating a “one-two punch” that can devastate populations of wildlife or livestock. “When you have these extreme swings it will tend to synchronize these kinds of co-infections, which are likely to be more common with climate change,” said Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota, whose study appears in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.” (Rueters)
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
Midwest flooding. As floodwaters across the Midwest slowly start to recede, two interesting factors have emerged. FIRST: A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program confirms that global warming will result in extreme weather events happening more frequently (AP, Rocky Mtn News).
No one can prove that recent Midwestern floods are related to climate change. They can only point out that their severity and increasing frequency fits the pattern.
However, they can prove that the impact of severe weather events (whatever their causes) can be made much worse by poor land use patterns (CSMonitor). Building in flood plains, fast run-off from farm fields and urban developments, draining of wetlands, etc.
Energy efficiency in Kansas. Fantastic article, Salina Journal. Just read the whole thing. Quotable: “In a document filed earlier this year with the Kansas Corporation Commission, Westar is frank about the significance of its new direction. “If we were to follow that (traditional) approach, we would be building a baseload coal plant, similar to those at LaCygne or Jeffrey, to become commercially operational in the middle of the next decade,” the company said in the document, “Meeting our Customers’ Energy Needs — A Strategic Plan for Uncertain Times.” “… The departure is a shift from the norms that have characterized our industry for decades. We are now entering an era where environmental considerations will weigh heavily in shaping the understanding of and policy for energy development in our country.”
Wind energy operations and management jobs. ND is trying to get community college wind training programs in gear, like we have here in KS (AP). Interesting numbers: “A general rule of thumb is that a two-person operation and maintenance team is needed for every 10 turbines.”
New directions for coal power. A MO facility is one of the first to experiment with a biomass pellet/ coal blend for electric generation (KCStar). And nationally, a feature on Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers (NYTimes Magazine) who is trying to push the industry toward both cap and trade, and less high-impact ways to burn coal.
Westar will soon break ground on another new wind farm (CNNMoney.com).
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
K-State Wind Application Center cooperate to install elementary school wind turbine - Kansan.com.
Quotable: “Ruth Douglas Miller, a member of the Wind Applications Center at K-State, said Walton Rural Life Center was an attractive site for a wind turbine because she believes wind power will provide jobs in rural settings in the future. “When there is a wind farm there is a need for people to operate them,” Douglas Miller said. “And that happens in rural areas. In fact, in big cities we really don’t want to build wind farms. Let’s get these kids excited, say ‘This is cool’ and consider careers in wind.” The turbine was lifted into place by Westar Energy Tuesday morning as students and interested adults looked on.”
Kansas Energy Council member gives reactions to presentation on energy efficiency by Summit Blue - Kansas Health Institute.
Quotable: “Gunn said conservation programs can be effectively administered either by utilities or the state. He said successful programs include strong education and marketing campaigns and often provided consumers with financial incentives. State policies also can play a role. Minnesota requires electric utilities to spend between 1.5 percent and 2 percent of their revenues on energy efficiency and demand-reduction programs. But Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, chairman of the Senate Utilities Committee, said he didn’t think Kansas lawmakers were ready to impose a similar requirement. He said some alternative steps might include setting conservation targets for state government and initiating a consumer education campaign. “Education is so important,” he said.”
To maintain and improve the electrical grid - let alone integrate more renewable energy - the nation desperately needs new transmission lines. There’s some pushback.
California transmission line drama - LA Times
Minnesota transmission line drama - (really well researched story) - Minnesota Post
Landowners receive legal advice on how to develop their wind resources - Garden City Telegram
Quotable: “The afternoon speaker, (Mike) Irvin (KS Farm Bureau Legal Fdn), spent time talking about what landowners wanted to know most about: money. He told landowners to view energy companies not as enemies, but as business partners. He outlined the lifetime of a wind farm in four parts: The pre-development stage, the lease and construction stage, the operation stage, and the remedial stage where the wind farm is decommissioned. The third stage, the operation stage, could last from 20 to 150 years. Irvin said. “This is a long-term venture. It’s going to affect your kids, great grand-kids and their kids,” Irvin said. He also urged landowners to make sure the energy companies pay for everything associated with the wind turbine, including transmission lines and roads. “If you’re going to take something from me, pay me for it,” Irvin said. Irvin outlined the different ways landowners can be compensated for wind energy, including: an up-front, lump sum payment; annual rental payments per turbine, per megawatt or per acre basis; and royalty payments based on a percentage of the revenue of the project. Irvin said land owners should think twice about receiving a lump-sum payment per turbine, because inflation and the cost of living likely will rise. But Irvin also cautioned that turbines, like vehicles, need maintenance. He said if a turbine needs maintenance and isn’t generating revenue, royalty payments won’t mean much. “I’d like to see a royalty mixed with a lump sum payment,” Irvin said. “Protect yourselves.”
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
While the KS legislature is no longer in session - and in fact the legislators are now swept up in the first throes of the election season (all 165 seats are up this November) - Kansas climate and energy policymaking still marches on.
Several groups are meeting over the summer - Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy KEEP advisory group and Kansas Energy Council (KEC) among them. In particular, though, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) is working on two dockets of interest regarding energy efficiency.
The Commissioners released the first of those orders last week. Docket No. 08-GIMX-442-GIV sought to determine the proper benefit-cost tests and evaluation processes for regulated utilities who want to recover their costs for offering customers energy efficiency programs.
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Why is energy efficiency so important? For background on the issue, please check here - but essentially, right now utilities make money by selling more and more power to their customers. This often means that they burn more and more fossil fuels and release more and more carbon dioxide. There is currently little financial incentive for utilities to help their customers save power.
That is what these dockets could do - they could make it possible for utilities to make profits by helping customers save rather than spend their energy dollar. This process is known as decoupling.
The second docket before the KCC will focus specifically on the decoupling process. However, before they got to that one, the Commission needed the first docket to figure out some financial details of this possible regulatory transition.
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If you’d like to read the official order yourself, please click here (.pdf). For links to all of the testimony from all of interested parties who intervened, please click here and then search by the docket number, 08-GIMX-442-GIV. Some of the high points of the order are summarized below.
Kansas already has many energy efficiency related programs (such as interruptible service during peak hours) but right now those are mostly restricted to larger commercial and industrial customers. Energy efficiency programs also allow residential customers the ability to save energy dollars. KCPL in particular has introduced many of these programs.
The KCC staff suggested that since Kansans already pay so little for energy compared to the rest of the country, they wouldn’t see energy efficiency as a high priority. The Commissioners found that Kansas utilities are caught between a rock and a hard place - their loads are growing, but building new generation is incredibly expensive (in part due to the upcoming national price on carbon).
Thus, saving energy makes sense. Since carbon regulation will also result in increased costs to consumers, the KCC found it had a duty to be proactive and “adopt policies that encourage utilities to be responsive to environmental concerns and costs,” in order to minimize the eventual impact on ratepayers.
However, energy efficiency programs must meet certain standards - they have to provide “immediate and dependable energy savings” and prove it through an evaluation process. In addition, all proposed programs have to consider their impact on low-income consumers. Programs also need a strong education component, explaining why energy efficiency is important. Commissioners also required utility bills be revised to better help customers track their energy use and compare it to other similar homes.
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All good things to do. Now, how to analyze the costs? Before the KCC will allow a utility to recover for any approved cost, the utility must meet the burden of showing that that cost was reasonable and prudent. Usually, they demonstrate this by meeting certain cost-benefit tests (the real meat of this docket).
Normally, this wouldn’t be that problematic - but as we all know, the energy world is in a bit of a transition at the moment. Used to be, no one considered the cost of carbon when generating electricity. However, due to the environmental impacts of too much carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere, that has changed.
Environmental impacts in general are not as easy to figure into the traditional math of energy. The KCC has to consider at least five different tests - the participant test, ratepayer impact test, program administrator test, etc. - that to varying degrees either completely ignore environmental costs, or make them central.
The KCC decided for now to allow use of those tests on a case by case basis, with an emphasis on the RIM test and the TRC test. Given the flux of the energy world right now, this will allow for some flexibility. They will also further consider these issues, and have extended the docket for 30 days to allow for more comment, to be followed up with a collaborative workshop process to try to reach as much consensus between the parties as possible.
There are also benefit-costs tests for the evaluation process. The Commissioners decided that this process should both measure tangible resource savings, as well as enforce program accountability. They will also extend the docket for thirty days on some of these more technical issues. They also considered the use of dynamic pricing for consumers - the use of smart meters, etc. - and decided that the costs of the meters had to be justified by tangible savings to consumers.
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Can citizens communicate with the Commissioners? Sure. Here’s their address and contact info, and feel free to drop them a line about your thoughts on energy efficiency.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
Energy and the Citizen: Energy Efficiency Policies
May 30, 2008
The following article will appear in the July/August issue of Greenability Magazine, a new, bi-monthly publication designed to help Kansas and Missouri residents discover “green” lifestyle alternatives for everyday living.
Energy efficiency is key to fighting global warming. The more energy we save, the fewer new power plants we need to build, and the less impact we have on our environment.
In the Midwest, 75% of our electricity comes from burning coal. The combustion process releases carbon dioxide (CO2). When carbon dioxide accumulates in our atmosphere it retains heat, leading to global warming and climate change.
Saving energy makes economic sense, too. Power plant construction, operations, and fuel costs are rising. Experts predict that soon the cost of all electricity will rise. New coal generation costs around 7 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). When federal carbon regulation – a cap and trade system, or a carbon tax - is implemented under the next presidential administration, these costs will rise to at least 9-10 cents per kWh.
The costs of energy efficiency, though, only run about 3 cents per kWh. Utilities and regulators are starting to think of energy efficiency as a fuel source in its own right.
In a transition to a lower-carbon economy, energy efficiency is an important bridge. So why haven’t utilities pursued energy efficiency more aggressively before now?
In part because existing state policies – and the lack thereof - prevent them from doing so. Missouri and Kansas do not yet consistently or adequately allow for the following policies:
Decoupling. What if your electric utility could make a profit by helping you save energy – and money, too?
That’s the principle behind decoupling. Historically, utility regulators have controlled rates so that power companies can only make profits by selling more and more power. This gives no incentive for energy efficiency.
Decoupling is when utility regulators break the link between power consumption and profit. Instead, they establish a rate structure that links power conservation and profit. Decoupling policies would ensure that utilities could depend on recovering their costs for energy efficiency programs, like offering customers home energy audits, programmable thermostats, low-interest loans for EnergyStar appliances, etc.
Energy efficiency, however, does not just take place on the consumer end. Utilities can also take steps to make power plants, transmission lines, and distribution lines more efficient. However, utilities need to know that they can depend on recovering the costs of doing so.
Enforceable state building codes. Since all energy will soon cost more, minimum energy efficiency standards for new construction would help protect consumers from excessive energy bills down the road.
Public benefit funds. Public benefit funds generate income by placing a small surcharge (pennies per month) on every customer’s bill. That money can then go to fund a variety of energy efficiency programs: low-interest loans for homeowners to finance energy efficient appliances or HVAC systems, weatherization programs for low-income families, low-interest loans for schools and churches making energy efficiency upgrades, rebates for purchases of solar panels, etc.
Some state policy solutions are already underway. This spring in Kansas, KCP&L proposed legislation that would allow for utilities to recover the costs of energy efficiency programs. The Kansas Corporation Commission is also holding a docket on the issue in June and July.
Citizens – and ratepayers - are demanding more options for energy efficiency. The question is whether state policies make it possible for the utilities to deliver.
— Maril Hazlett and Eileen Horn, www.climateandenergy.org
Take Action! Let your legislators and utility regulators know that these issues are important to you. Personal phone calls and handwritten letters are especially effective.
To learn how to communicate with policymakers, go to www.climateandenergy.org/passiton
To contact your legislators – go to www.congress.org
To contact the commissioners and chairman of the Kansas Corporation Commission, go to www.kcc.state.ks.us
To contact the Missouri Public Service Commission, go to www.psc.mo.gov
Curious about existing energy efficiency policies in your state? Check out the DSIRE database – www.dsire.org - for a comprehensive listing.
