Energy Exchange

One Year After Superstorm Sandy, Slow But Steady Progress Toward A Common Goal

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 29, 2013

Source: Iwan Baan

By: Rory Christian, Director of New York Smart Power, and Mary Barber, Director of Smart Power Initiatives

It was only a year ago that the most devastating storm the Northeast has ever seen slammed into the region. Hurricane Sandy pummeled the states of New York and New Jersey, destroying homes and businesses and knocking out electricity for millions of families for days, weeks and – in some cases – months.

The unprecedented situation shined a much-needed spotlight on the vulnerability of our century-old energy infrastructure, placing the issue front and center for the region’s state and local leaders, electric utility companies and regulators, particularly as climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events.  Utilities in the region have since begun to fortify flood-prone substations among other reinforcements to the power grid, but improvements that are ‘status quo’ are only part of the solution to future challenges.

Ensuring the adoption of technologies and policies that move the U.S. power grid into the 21st century, making it more resilient, flexible and smarter, can simultaneously accomplish today’s goals while preparing for future challenges – some of which may not yet be apparent.  EDF is working closely with stakeholders to find innovative and pragmatic solutions to help modernize our aging energy infrastructure, an improvement that is crucial to resiliency, safety and storm recovery. Read More »

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How Smarter, More Flexible Energy Can Help Communities Weather Future Storms

By Andy Darrell / Published: August 27, 2013

Last week, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force released a Rebuilding Strategy, which aims to rebuild communities affected by Hurricane Sandy in ways that are “better able to withstand future storms and other risks posed by climate change.”  From an energy perspective, the main goal of these recommendations is to make the electrical grid smarter and more flexible.  This effort would minimize power outages and fuel shortages in the event of similar emergency situations in the future.

The Task Force is led by President Obama and chaired by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan.  The recommendations put forth in the report were developed with Governor Cuomo, Governor Christie, and a number of federal agencies and officials from across New York and New Jersey, representing an unusual opportunity to make changes that will help communities weather future crises.

This key idea – smarter, flexible energy – is central to resilience, safety and quick recovery in a storm, as well as reducing the harmful pollution linked to climate change in the first place.  This has been a key theme of EDF’s efforts to help the Northeast region respond to Sandy.

When the power grid went down on most of New York City following Hurricane Sandy, a number of buildings were able to keep their lights on thanks to existing microgrids and on-site, renewable energy sources.  The Task Force report lays out a path forward for taking these isolated success stories to scale and making these clean technologies available to everyone.

Read More »

Also posted in Climate, Grid Modernization, Investor Confidence Project, On-bill repayment / Tagged , , , , | Read 1 Response

Pushing Energy Efficiency Finance Beyond Theory To Practice

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 30, 2013

By: Matt Golden, Senior Energy Finance Consultant, Environmental Defense Fund

New Energy and Loan Performance Data Project Uses Latest in Data Science to Help Capital Markets Engage in Efficiency Lending

Environmental Defense Fund’s Investor Confidence Project (ICP) and the Clean Energy Finance Center (CEFC), in partnership with state and local lending programs, financial organizations and a range of additional stakeholders, are collecting, aggregating and analyzing loan performance and energy savings data from energy efficiency upgrades in residential and commercial buildings.

The Energy and Loan Performance Data Project represents the first concerted effort to combine data from some of the largest US energy efficiency programs in an attempt to develop an actuarially significant dataset to help engage the capital markets.

Nearly 40% of US energy is consumed by both residential and commercial buildings.  Realizing all of the available cost-effective energy efficiency savings would require roughly $279 billion of investment, resulting in more than $1 trillion in energy savings over ten years.  However, currently, only 1% of all US investments are made in energy efficiency projects.  Our goal for this project is to help lay the foundation that will enable organizations to tap into this vast potential market.

Read More »

Also posted in Energy Efficiency, General, Investor Confidence Project, On-bill repayment / Tagged , , | Read 7 Responses

Audrey Zibelman’s Appointment Strengthens New York’s Clean Energy Commitment

By Elizabeth B. Stein / Published: June 28, 2013

One of the ways you can tell that in idea is gaining real momentum is by looking at the people being tapped to lead it.  Last week, New Yorkers got a good idea how serious their leaders are about clean energy when the State Senate confirmed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s appointment of Audrey Zibelman, an internationally-recognized expert in energy policy, markets and smart grid innovation, to the New York Public Service Commission (PSC).  The PSC regulates the state’s public energy utilities, and once Ms. Zibelman assumes office, Governor Cuomo will designate her as chair of the PSC.

Ms. Zibelman was president and chief executive officer of Viridity Energy Inc., a pioneering smart power company she founded after more than 25 years of electric utility industry leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. Previously, Ms. Zibelman was the executive vice president and chief operating officer of PJM, the Regional Transmission Organization that operates the world’s largest wholesale electricity market and serves 14 states throughout the eastern United States.

Ms. Zibelman’s is not a symbolic appointment.  It is a welcome sign of New York State’s commitment to building a smarter, modernized energy system that enables wider use of renewable energy and energy efficiency and offers greater resiliency to extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy. Change takes both leadership and expertise, and EDF believes that Ms. Zibelman will provide both. Read More »

Also posted in Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy, Utility Business Models / Tagged | 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, Energy Efficiency, On-bill repayment / Tagged | Comments are closed

WATCH: NYC Clean Heat Video

By Abbey Brown / Published: June 4, 2013

EDF’s US Climate and Energy Program takes to the airwaves

A lot has been happening with NYC Clean Heat lately.  We have converted over 1,200 boilers to the cleanest available fuels and we have reduced over 150 tons of soot pollution, or particulate matter (PM2.5), from the air.  That number is equivalent to removing over 800,000 light-duty passenger vehicles from the road for one year, or over 13 billion miles traveled!

And now we’re taking to the airwaves.  We created a video to showcase our achievements and create a new outreach tool to propel us to our next accomplishment.

Source: NYC Clean Heat

To give you a little background, NYC’s Department of Health estimates that achieving our goal, reducing soot pollution by replacing highly-polluting No. 6 and No. 4 heating oils to the cleanest available fuels, will result in over 120 lives saved each year and prevent hundreds of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions.  Approximately 1,500 buildings still need to complete conversions by the end of the year, and, roughly 2,000 permits for No. 6 oil are set to expire before March 2014, representing 232 tons of soot pollution.  Here’s an astonishing fact – only 1% of all buildings in NYC use these heavily polluting heating oils, yet burning these oils creates more soot than all of the cars and trucks in NYC combined.  The problem is grave, but the solution is within grasp. Read More »

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