An Ignoble Experiment

2. PSE focused on efficiency, environment

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) is providing Congress and state policymakers with a roadmap for success when it comes to removing the market barriers to investments in energy efficiency. ACEEE contends that the 16 policy recommendations contained in their research could save the U.S. approximately $1 trillion in energy bills and 19 quads in energy consumption.

Opportunities to advance energy efficiency while strengthening the economy exist, but market failures and barriers are keeping the country from realizing its full energy-efficiency potential, according to ACEEE.

For instance, information related to energy consumption that is rolled into and buried in monthly utility bills make energy savings and energy consumption hard to identify. Utility regulations may not take into account the different value streams energy-efficiency provides, creating another barrier.

ACEEE contends that there are a number of cost-effective policies (read little government spending) that could promote energy efficiency and improve the economy simultaneously.

Among the menu of policy options, ACEEE is proposing utility regulatory reform.

Investor-owned utilities, as regulated monopolies, are subject to regulation of their rates and business operations in an effort to protect and balance the public interest with the rights of the utilities. IOUs must also make a profit for their shareholders, ultimately by selling more electricity. Given these goals, promoting energy efficiency seems counterproductive to the utility. Reduced sales as a result of successful efficiency efforts are a major threat.

ACEEE contends that IOUs need options to recover the money they invest in efficiency and earn a return on their energy-efficiency investments. Several policies used in tandem, including cost recovery, decoupling, and providing shareholder incentives, can align financial incentives and remove barriers to energy efficiency, according to ACEEE. As a result, ACEEE projects the avoidance of more than $100 billion in new capacity investments by 2030.

For more:
- see the report

Read more about: ACEEE
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This week's sponsor is IEC 61850 Europe 2013.

Further information can be found at: www.iec61850-europe.com

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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3. 10 years of Cape Wind delays getting old

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is doing its part to promote energy efficiency among its customers.

PSE realizes that, ultimately, it is less expensive for customers to upgrade to a new energy-efficient refrigerator or washer than to run old ones. As such, PSE is revisiting its successful program whereby the utility replaced the old refrigerators of 2,300 customers with more efficient models. This year, PSE will replace customers' old refrigerators and clothes washers with more efficient models.

Older refrigerators use up to four times the energy of new energy-efficient model, and PSE is saving customers up to $200 on their energy bills by replacing them. Older washers use up to twice the energy of newer models. Customers can save up to $100 a year in energy costs by upgrading.

The utility will replace refrigerators manufactured in 1992 or before and washers from 2003 or before. The new refrigerators are frost-free so they never need to be defrosted. Both the new washers and refrigerators are Energy Star rated. PSE will also remove and recycle the units it replaces.

For more:
- visit this website

Read more about: Puget Sound Energy PSE, Refrigerators
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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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4. Research assesses resource adequacy planning

Cape Wind, Massachusetts' first offshore wind energy project, is under scrutiny once again as it awaits Department of Energy (DOE) approval on the project's Final Environmental Impact Statement as part of a federal loan guarantee process.

Cape wind project supports are tired of ongoing delays.

The loan guarantee is critical to Cape Wind's financing, as it will lower the cost of the project's debt, as well as ratepayers' financial responsibility.

Project supporters, including clean energy and environmental groups, public health advocates, and business interests, are tired of ongoing delays in the permitting and environmental review process (more than a decade long) and are urging DOE to approve a federal loan guarantee for the project.

A letter from the groups to DOE stated, in part, "Cape Wind will concretely advance the nation's objectives in addressing the challenge of climate change while promoting energy security and economic development. Following an extremely lengthy and rigorous environmental review, the Cape Wind project should proceed for consideration and grant of a loan guarantee without further delay. Such action will help lay the strongest possible foundation for offshore renewable energy development in the United States."

Specifically, supporters contend that the project has been blocked and delays perpetuated by Bill Koch, a billionaire with major financial interests in fossil fuel, and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound -- a group formed by Koch in response to Cape Wind.

For more:
- see the letter
- see this article

Read more about: loan guarantee, Cape Wind Project
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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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5. DOI, BLM approve renewable energy projects

Resource adequacy in the Eastern Interconnection is difficult to assess, according to research released by NARUC on behalf of the Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council.

This is due to differing assessment criteria across vast regions within the interconnection. Although the actual metrics are similar, regions use different tools and assumptions to measure resource adequacy, according to the research, making reliability comparisons across the interconnection difficult.

Overall, the Eastern Interconnection plans to a robust level of reliability, according to report author Astrape Consulting, with most regions anticipating utilizing load-shedding only about once every 10 years. This could, however, still be too high.

Resource adequacy is not just a concern during peak hours. Changing resource mixes will require different types of assessments to address flexibility requirements due to wind and other intermittent resources.

"While distribution related outages occur several hours per year for most customers, most regions in the Eastern Interconnection have not experienced generation-deficiency caused firm load shed events in decades," Astrape concluded.

The financial impact of scarcity events or shedding firm load can be measured in billions of dollars in some cases. The research contends that "resource adequacy assessments should take a comprehensive approach to calculating the trade-off between the cost of additional capacity and the economic benefit provided by those resources."

Risk analysis shows that a range of reserve margins slightly above the economic optimal reserve margin can avoid a number of potentially high-cost scenarios for little additional cost, according to the report.

For more:
- see the report

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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