Energy Exchange

How’s Your Electric Bill Treating You? Time To Give It Some Thought

By Jamie Fine / Published: July 1, 2013

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

When was the last time you really gave a lot of thought to your electric bill?

If your answer is “not very often”, then you’re not alone. In fact, the typical household thinks about their electric bill only six minutes a year.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) now has the opportunity give people another way to control household energy bills by creating a system where changing the time you use electricity can save money. This won’t mean you’ll need to invest more time thinking about energy use, but you’d be well-served to think about the timing of it.

Last week, the CPUC held a public workshop inviting stakeholders — PG&E, SCE and, SDG&E, along with consumer, industry, and environmental groups — to present and discuss their proposals for revising the system of charges for residential electricity use. I had the pleasure of presenting EDF’s proposal for a time-of-use (TOU) pricing system: For customers looking for another option for saving money on their monthly bill, EDF sees TOU as the best pricing policy for both people and the environment; customers uncomfortable with this option would be able to “opt out” and choose another pricing structure.

Currently, the standard “tiered” rate charges customers higher prices for higher electricity usage. The approach is intended to send the message: “The more you use, the more you pay.” Read More »

Posted in California, Demand Response, Grid Modernization, Time of Use, Utility Business Models / Read 1 Response

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 »

Posted in Grid Modernization, New York, Renewable Energy, Utility Business Models / Tagged | Read 1 Response

On The Road To Better Data

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 28, 2013

Source: Bulk Transporter

This blog post was written by Jason Mathers, Senior Manager of EDF’s Corporate Partnerships Program.

The International Energy Agency weighed in last week as bullish on the future of natural gas as a transportation fuel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the IEA “expects natural gas use in road and maritime transportation to rise to 98 billion cubic meters by 2018, covering around 10 percent of incremental energy needs in the transport sector.”

Three factors are behind this increase in the use of natural gas for transportation, according to Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA’s executive director. These are the fuel’s “abundant supplies as well as concerns about oil dependency and air pollution.” The cost factor is particularly a driver for commercial fleet operators where current fuel prices have become more favorable for natural gas over diesel.

In the U.S., all new trucks fueled by diesel or natural gas must meet the same standards for emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. Natural gas engines for medium- and heavy-duty trucks have surpassed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s stringent standards for particulate matter emissions by as much as 80 percent and for nitrogen oxides by up to 35 percent. Cummins Westport, the leading producer of natural gas engines, is investigating the feasibility of reducing NOx emissions from its spark-ignited natural gas engines to levels significantly below the current federal emissions standard.

Natural gas trucks have the potential to deliver tangible greenhouse gas emissions benefits over their petroleum-based counterparts. This certainty that natural gas vehicles are able to consistently deliver on their potential climate benefits in part depends on minimizing methane leaks caused by vehicle operations, refueling and maintenance. Read More »

Posted in Natural Gas / Comments are closed

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 »

Posted in Climate, Energy Efficiency, 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 »

Posted in Climate, EDF Climate Corps, Energy Efficiency, 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

Read More »

Posted in Climate, Energy Efficiency, Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy, Washington, DC / Tagged , , | Read 1 Response