Energy Exchange

Is EnergyRM’s Metered Energy Efficiency Transaction Structure A Game Changer?

By Scott Hofmeister / Published: July 8, 2013

Source: EnergyRM

At EDF we are always on the lookout for innovative clean energy financing models, especially those that complement On-Bill Repayment (admittedly, one of our favorites). When we heard about EnergyRM’s recent financing approach – which uses a combination of an Energy Service Agreement (ESA), innovative measurement and verification (M&V) and utility bill repayment – we had to find out more.

EnergyRM’s Metered Energy Efficiency Transaction Structure (MEETS) went live on the Bullitt Foundation headquarters building last month. The promise of MEETS, developed by Rob Harmon’s EnergyRM, was quickly all over the news, including the New York Times.

Quick Factoid: The name Rob Harmon may be familiar to energy enthusiasts – he pioneered the Renewable Energy Credit (REC) 15 years ago. The REC served to catalyze the renewables industry. Harmon hopes his newest innovation will do the same for the efficiency market.

MEETS relies on EnergyRM’s DeltaMeter, a proprietary energy modeling software, to report energy savings in real time. The DeltaMeter seeks to address a perennial Achilles heel of many energy efficiency transactions: measurement and verification of energy savings. EDF is addressing this same problem head-on by working with stakeholders to establish protocols and standards for efficiency projects through the Investor Confidence Project. This complex problem, which has traditionally been part science and part art, has been impervious to a silver bullet solution. Lots of interested folks are itching to take a look inside the DeltaMeter black box and see how EnergyRM plans to solve it. Read More »

Also posted in Grid Modernization, On-bill repayment / Read 1 Response

On-Bill Repayment in California: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

By Brad Copithorne / Published: July 2, 2013

This commentary originally appeared on EDF’s California Dream 2.0 Blog

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) issued a proposed decision with the final implementation rules to create the nation’s first On-Bill Repayment (“OBR”) program for commercial properties. If properly constructed, the program is expected to allow building owners to finance clean energy retrofits with third party capital and repay the obligation through their utility bills.

The good news is the CPUC’s proposed decision contains the vast majority of the program elements necessary to create a flourishing financing market for energy efficiency and renewable projects. The CPUC ordered robust disclosure to tenants and property owners of any OBR obligation in place, required a centralized program administrator to reduce expenses for market participants, required an equitable share of partial payments between the utility and the lender and agreed that nonpayment of an OBR obligation will result in the same collection procedures from the utility as nonpayment of an electricity charge.

Unfortunately, constructing a successful financing program is much like building a boat. A boat with 90% of its hull in place will not travel very far. The proposed decision appears to also have a potentially fatal flaw. The CPUC has required all subsequent owners and tenants of a property to provide consent to ‘accepting’ the OBR obligation, but does not specifically state what will happen if the consent is not given.

OBR can work for lenders when it significantly reduces risk and simplifies the underwriting decision. ‘If the lights are still on, then the lender is getting paid’ is a simple rule that will provide significant comfort to ratings agencies and credit committees. Downtown office buildings and suburban shopping malls are foreclosed on a regular basis, but in almost all cases the lights stay on. If an OBR obligation is sure to be paid — even after a foreclosure — the availability of investment and cost of financing will improve dramatically. Read More »

Also posted in California, On-bill repayment, Renewable Energy, Utility Business Models / Read 2 Responses

Energy Capital Of The Nation Turns To Clean Energy

By Elena Craft, PhD / Published: June 27, 2013

This commentary originally appeared on EDF’s Texas Clean Air Matters Blog

Last week, the City of Houston announced that it would increase its purchase of renewable electricity to cover half of its energy use. The city will use almost 623,000 megawatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources per year—equivalent to the energy used by 55,000 residential homes annually. The purchase makes Houston the largest municipal buyer of renewable energy in the nation. While Houston’s latest renewable energy purchase may seem at odds with its reputation as an oil and gas hub, it’s exactly the sort of common-sense decision we expect from a city that’s touted as the energy capital of the nation.

Houston is in good company among other Texas cities. The City of Austin already gets 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. To make the switch, the city leveraged Austin Energy’s GreenChoice program, one of the nation’s most successful utility-sponsored and voluntary green-pricing programs. The program is part of Austin’s Climate Protection Plan, which establishes a 35 % renewable portfolio goal for Austin Energy by 2020. In San Antonio, the municipally owned CPS Energy has emerged as a leader in clean energy. Through its New Energy Economy initiative, CPS Energy is growing its network of smart meters and expanding its installed solar capacity, among many other sustainable initiatives. Today, CPS Energy uses more solar energy than any other Texas utility, while still having the lowest electric rates among the top 10 largest cities in the United States. Read More »

Also posted in Climate, General, Renewable Energy, Texas / Read 1 Response

“Heck Yes”– Millennials Respond to the President’s Call

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 27, 2013

This commentary originally appeared on the EDF Climate Corps Blog

By: Katie Ware, EDF Senior Marketing Communications Specialist

The environmental community is abuzz with reactions to President Obama’s wide-ranging Climate Action Plan. His speech introducing the plan Tuesday sparked immediate conversations about the Keystone XL Pipeline, the coal industry, the transportation sector and half a dozen other hot button environmental issues.

For me, his speech hit home in the first minute. Addressing the crowd at Georgetown University, he said he wanted to speak directly to my generation “because the decisions we make now and in the years ahead will have a profound impact on the world that all of you inherit.”

Confident, connected and open to change (says Pew), we Millennials are 95 million strong. We elected and then re-elected Obama looking for precisely this type of bold action on issues we feel passionately about.

“Someday our children and our children’s children will look us in the eye and ask did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem and leave them a cleaner, safer, more sustainable world. I want to be able to say yes we did. Don’t you want that?” he asked.

My answer to the President is, heck yes, and my peers are with me. Read More »

Also posted in Climate, EDF Climate Corps, General / Comments are closed

President Obama’s Plan To Accelerate The Transition To A Clean Energy Economy

By Jim Marston / Published: June 25, 2013

Source: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Today President Obama took an important step toward meeting the promise of his inaugural address to “respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” The headline, of course, is the commitment to take serious action to address the most significant challenge our generation faces – climate change. And, with it, the extreme weather and public health burdens that are already making life harder for vulnerable regions and people nationwide, and that stand to become so much worse as the root cause remains unaddressed.

In his Climate Action Plan announced at Georgetown University, the President laid out his vision for putting in place common sense policies that will cut harmful carbon pollution while driving innovation, cutting energy waste and energy bills, creating jobs and protecting public health.

Most Americans would be shocked to know that there are no current limits on carbon pollution from power plants. By setting the first standards in history for carbon pollution from power plants in the United States – which produce 2 billion tons of this pollution each year, or about 40% of the nation’s total – the President will help modernize our power system, ensuring that our electricity is reliable, affordable, healthy and clean. And we can do this in a way that can give industry the flexibility it needs to make cost-effective investments in clean energy technologies.

A modern, intelligent, interactive electricity system will help minimize problems that arise from extreme weather events and other disruptions and maximize renewables, efficiency and consumer choice. Since the President took office, our country has seen the beginnings of a revolution in the energy sector – technological innovations have put us on track to energy independence and clean, homegrown energy resources constitute a growing share of electric generation capacity. Reducing wasted energy and using more clean energy offer enormous potential for our health, economy and climate, including:

– Little to no harmful pollution = improved public health

– An unlimited, homegrown energy supply = less reliance on foreign oil

– Economic development = more jobs

– Stable energy prices = lower electric bills and improved economic stability

– A more reliable, resilient energy system = less costly, scary blackouts

– A global leadership position in the multi-trillion dollar clean energy economy = reclaimed pride and competitiveness for America’s manufacturers

Also posted in Climate, Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy, Washington, DC / Tagged Climate Action Plan, climate change, President Obama | Read 1 Response

NYC’s Storm Preparedness Means Rethinking How We Make And Use Energy

By Andy Darrell / Published: June 20, 2013

Source: Metamatic/Flickr

This commentary, authored by Andy Darrell, originally appeared on EDF Voices.

Last Tuesday, I caught a ferry from the lower Manhattan waterfront (just south of the substation that shorted out so dramatically in the midst of Hurricane Sandy) to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled his vision of a New York that will be far better able to withstand the battering from giant storms that, thanks to climate change, are likely to arrive with increased frequency and fury.

The Mayor began by noting some stark facts:

“We expect that by mid-century up to one quarter of all of New York City’s land area, where 800,000 residents live today, will be in the floodplain.”
“[Wi]ithin FEMA’s new 100-year flood maps there are more than 500million square feet of New York City buildings – equivalent to the entire city of Minneapolis.”
“About two-thirds of our major substations and nearly all the city’s power plants are in flood plains today.”
“A day without power can cost New York City more than a billion dollars.”

A lot of media attention in the wake of the speech focused on Bloomberg’s call for levees and seawalls to keep rising waters at bay. But embedded in the address was also an ambitious but practical rethinking of how New York City makes and uses energy. The plan frames a future in which solar, wind and microgrids play a much larger role in the city: Read More »

Also posted in Climate, New York, On-bill repayment / Tagged Superstorm Sandy | Comments are closed