| This week's sponsor is OpenText. |  | eBook: Smart Customer Communications for the New Energy Era This eBook from FierceMarkets Custom Publishing provides an overview of the convergence of regulatory, environmental and business needs leading to the smart grid becoming not just necessary, but also inevitable. To read more click here to download today.
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Today's Top Stories
1. Retroficiency wins multiple awards for utility energy audit solutions
2. ACCCE claims EPA miscalculated coal plant closings
3. Water takes hit with "business as usual" approach to electricity generation
4. Customer service contributing to satisfaction with utilities
5. APAC driving global electricity generation Also Noted: Spotlight On... Wind industry jobs take hit
Lighting rebates; utilities and climate change and much more... Obama eyes cybersecurity order
In the aftermath of the failed attempt to pass federal cyber security legislation through Congress last month, the White House is preparing to issue an Executive Order to help protect the country's critical infrastructure from dangerous attacks. Feature Retailers harness renewable energy
Harnessing renewable energy sources is a huge part of energy efficiency, and as energy costs constantly rising, the importance of sustainability is going to remain dominant in the industry. Many utilities are embracing these sources and doing their part to invest in renewable energy and offer it to their customers. But utilities aren't the only ones who can make a difference, as large national retailers across the U.S. have started committing themselves to renewable energy and establishing "green" business practices.Slideshow Utilities go retail
Energy is an important pillar of the connected home market, and big box retailers are capitalizing on emerging trends to converge upon the energy market. The proliferation of smart appliances, smart meters, and devices such as smart thermostats as part of the connected home will be further driven by growth in smartphone and tablet applications that allow users to more easily monitor, manage and control these technologies while away. Feature News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Know thy (low income) customer
2. Silver Spring load control tech needs no AMI
3. Smart grid shift driving FANs
| This week's sponsor is University TechWatch. |  | University Clean Tech Directory and Database
More than 400 technologies and startups - mined, vetted and indexed from 200+ U.S. universities - plus continuous database updates
Use discount code "FIERCE2012" for $100 off
See www.universitycleantech.com |
Today's Top News 1. Retroficiency wins multiple awards for utility energy audit solutions
Retroficiency has won the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) Innovative Energy Technology of the Year Award provider for its on-demand Building Efficiency Intelligence (BEI) platform. The platform combines Retroficiency's energy interval analytics solution, Virtual Energy Assessment, and building asset solution, Automated Energy Audit, to enable energy service providers and utilities to cost-effectively evaluate energy efficiency opportunities in minutes. Buildings account for more than 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption, but many efficiency opportunities are not being pursued because of the time-consuming and expensive energy audits. Retroficiency created this Web-based software platform to increase the speed and effectiveness of evaluating buildings, from initial qualification to detailed on-site energy audits so utilities and energy service providers can systematically evaluate thousands of commercial building energy-efficiency measures in minutes regardless of available information. Retroficiency has also been named one of three Utility Technology Challenge winners to share $100,000 in utility pilot-demonstration funds for the testing of their solutions, as well as being hailed one of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by Bloomberg BusinessWeek editors. For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
Retroficiency validates savings using Green Button format
Retroficiency signs utilities for BEI pilot
On-demand efficiency assessments take just minutes |
2. ACCCE claims EPA miscalculated coal plant closings
According to research from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the total number of coal plant retirements nationwide is triple the amount EPA had predicted would be caused by its regulations. The research shows 204 coal units nationally are spread across 25 states and represent 31,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity. According to the research, the states with the most coal-electric generating capacity being prematurely closed are Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. These five states combined have 103 coal units scheduled to close, representing almost 18,000 megawatts. Other hard hit states include Indiana, Colorado and Iowa. Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the "Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012," HR 3409. For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
Court upholds EPA greenhouse gas policies
Court blocks EPA's cross-state air pollution rules Read more about: Coal, American Coalition For Clean Coal Electricity ACCCE
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3. Water takes hit with "business as usual" approach to electricity generation
Huge demands on increasingly scarce water are a major cost burden of "business as usual" electricity generation, according to a new Synapse Energy Economics report prepared for the Civil Society Institute (CSI) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The research focuses on the water impact of various fuels used to generate electricity, including nuclear, coal, wind and solar. Nuclear power has critical cooling requirements that require huge amounts of water. Roughly 62 percent of U.S. nuclear plants have closed-loop cooling systems withdrawing between 700 and 1,100 gallons of water per MWh. Open-loop cooled nuclear plants have even higher withdrawals of between 25,000 and 60,000 gallons per MWh. Coal-fired power plants rely on the same closed-loop cooling systems which withdraw between 500 and 600 gallons of water per MWh and lose most of this via evaporation. Withdrawals for open-loop cooled coal-fired power plants are between 20,000 and 50,000 gallons per MWh. On the other hand, wind and solar photovoltaic power requires little water in the electricity generation process. Concentrating solar power requires water for cooling purposes, but new technologies are placing greater emphasis on dry cooling. Solar power plants with dry cooling use only around 80 gallons per MWh – about a tenth of the low-end estimate for nuclear power and one-sixth of the low end estimate for coal-fired power generation. For more:
- see the report Related Article:
Water utilities have doubts about the future |
4. Customer service contributing to satisfaction with utilities
Overall customer satisfaction with natural gas utilities has increased slightly since 2011, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2012 Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. The study measures residential customer satisfaction with gas utilities across six factors -- billing and payment, price, corporate citizenship, communications, customer service, and field service -- and regions. The following utilities all ranked highest in their respective regions: Citizens Gas, Intermountain Gas Company, MidAmerican Energy, New Jersey Natural Gas, NSTAR Gas, Oklahoma Natural Gas, South Carolina Electric & Gas, and Southern California Gas Company. It's no surprise that when prices are lower, customers are happier. "Each year, as natural gas prices continue to drop, satisfaction with price will continue to be positively affected," said John Hazen, Senior Director of the Energy Practice at J.D. Power and Associates. But utilities are also stepping up their games when it comes to customer services. "Both communication and customer service efforts by utility providers are also contributing to the overall satisfaction increases from last year," Hazen said. In addition to lower monthly bills, when customers are aware of energy-efficiency programs offered by their utility, satisfaction with price is 87 points higher than when they are not aware of these programs. Gas utilities are also improving their ability to resolve customer problems the first time they contact the utility, as the rate of first-call resolution has improved to 76 percent in 2012, compared with 70 percent in 2011. This improvement, along with a 10-point increase in customer satisfaction with the online experience, has contributed to a 14-point improvement in customer service satisfaction from 2011. "Areas such as customer service and communications are very personal to customers and provide an opportunity for utilities to make a significant impact on customer satisfaction," said Hazen. "Utilities that make the most of these opportunities often perform well in overall satisfaction." For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
J.D. Powers utility customer satisfaction report shows utilities have work to do
JD Power reports uptick in customer communications satisfaction
Pepco ranks "most improved" in customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction with utilities continues to decline |
5. APAC driving global electricity generation
Global electricity generation has been increasing steadily over the past decade and will continue to be driven by improving standards of living and GDP, as well as proliferating services and manufacturing sectors. According to Lucintel research, approximately 51 GW of new installations came online globally every quarter from the beginning of 2008 through the end of 2010. Worldwide electricity generation is expected to grow to 28,085 TWh by 2017 -- a compound annual growth rate of 4 percent -- with renewable electricity generation expected to grow to 7,425 TWh during the same time period at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1 percent, according to research from Lucintel. Lucintel projects that more than half the installations will come from the Asia Pacific (APAC) region adding approximately 28 GW every quarter, followed by Europe (8.5 GW), and North America (7.1 GW). Coal dominated these installations, and is expected to continue with approximately 50 GW of new installations every quarter. Quarterly installations of renewable energy are expected to reach 39 percent. For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
Lucintel predicts double-digit growth for global smart grid
Global electric utility industry faces moderate growth
Electric generation robust globally despite challenges Read more about: Lucintel
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Also Noted SPOTLIGHT ON... Wind industry jobs take hit Uncertainty is affecting the wind industry on many fronts, but the area taking the biggest hit is jobs. Major turbine manufacturer, Siemens has announced that it will lay off hundreds of workers. Article Quick news from around the Web >Technology is transforming the utility business model. Article
>Utility rebates are driving LED lighting. Article
>Federal laws restrict utility industry's ability to adapt to climate change. Article
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