Energy Exchange

Decoding the Final Decision in the AB 32 Lawsuit

By Tim O'Connor / Published: May 20, 2011

A Superior Court in San Francisco issued a final judgment today in a lawsuit filed in 2009 by environmental justice (EJ) groups concerning California’s groundbreaking 2006 law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which sets limits on global warming pollution in the state.

As expected, the ruling establishes a new timeline and preconditions for continued implementation and final approval of the AB 32 cap-and-trade regulation. The ruling confirms the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) ability to use cap-and-trade and should not force a delay in the planned launch of the program on January 1, 2012, as long as the agency meets its California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements laid out by the court.

The judge found that CARB did not adequately complete its legally mandated review of alternatives to cap and trade and must do so, then gain approval by its board and the judge prior to proceeding with implementation. Even before today’s ruling was issued, CARB had assured the public that it was significantly bolstering its analysis. EDF is eager to be part of the public process to review and comment on the updated analysis and believes the new documents will further illustrate the proven, far-reaching benefits of using market forces to limit pollution.

It’s worth noting that the California Department of Public Health evaluated the potential impacts of a cap-and-trade program and found that the regulation was not likely to cause any adverse impacts to public health and welfare – especially if money raised from the program gets reinvested in California communities to help protect against the impacts of climate change, an essential element of the state’s plan.

In a press release issued shortly after the ruling was announced, CARB said that it will appeal the ruling, a legal procedure that will likely allow it to continue working on the regulatory design and finishing touches before the new analysis is final.

Posted in General / Comments are closed

Shining a Light on Energy Efficiency: EDF Climate Corps reflects on three years of results

By Victoria Mills / Published: May 17, 2011

As any energy manager knows, it’s one thing to find energy-saving projects that are worth doing, and quite another to get them implemented.  Over the last three years, EDF Climate Corps fellows have uncovered almost a billion kilowatt hours of potential energy savings, representing $439 million in net operating savings.  But our biggest question has always been, “Will the companies move forward with those energy-saving investments after the fellows leave?”  Thankfully, the answer is yes:  so far, companies report that they are implementing projects accounting for 86 percentof the savings identified by EDF Climate Corps fellows.

This year, as we looked back on three years of results, we noticed that many of the projects that got implemented first were lighting projects.  For example, Hospital Corporation of America will roll out a lighting retrofit program across the organization, and eBay recently upgraded the lighting in a 60,000-square foot building on its San Jose campus.  Other companies are employing devices to make sure the lights are on only when people need them:  AT&T will installoccupancy sensors in its 250 largest central offices, and Sungard is optimizing the lighting timers in its New York City office.

This is no surprise if you’ve ever looked at the ROI on lighting projects.  The upfront costs tend to be relatively low – zero in the case of delamping or switching timer settings – so payback time is short.  And lighting projects are pretty straightforward to identify.  You can often spot ways to cut lighting costs just by walking through a building, and use a $50 light logger to document when the lights are on and don’t need to be, as our fellow at AT&T did.

Beyond lighting, EDF Climate Corps companies are also implementing upgrades to HVAC systems, office equipment, and data centers.  Eaton is moving forward with an air circulation improvement in a North Carolina plant that could yield an annual electricity reduction of 2.5 million kWh.  eBay is currently installing power management software for all of its PCs.  And Cisco has raised temperatures in some of its research labs, which could save the company about $1.8 million and 18 million kWh of electricity annually.

But if we’ve learned anything about energy efficiency over the last three years, it’s that it has as much to do with changing behavior as changing lightbulbs.  And EDF Climate Corps fellows have contributed to several projects that integrate energy and environmental data into a range of business decisions.

For example, Compass Group North America created a web-based toolkit for its food service clients, illuminating choices they can make to cut their carbon emissions.  And Diversey has introduced several decision-support tools with the help of its EDF Climate Corps fellow, including one that factors energy and carbon emissions into capital expenditures, and another that tracks savings from avoided travel.  As the firm’s global travel is 10 percent of its carbon footprint, Diversey estimates $6 million in annual savings from reduced travel that can be invested in other energy projects.

Putting the facts about energy use and greenhouse gas emissions into decision-makers’ hands is a powerful way to spotlight the business and environmental benefits of energy efficiency, and move energy-saving projects forward.  Another bright idea brought to you by EDF Climate Corps.

Sign up to receive emails about EDF Climate Corps, including regular blog posts by our fellows. You can also visit ourFacebook page to get regular updates about this project.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Comments are closed

Malfunctioning Smart Meters Demonstrate Their Intelligence

By Jamie Fine / Published: May 16, 2011

The digital “smart meter” replacement of antiquated analog meters in California has caused quite a stir.  These devices have been making headlines since installations began en masse in 2006 because of concerns about health risks related to the wireless technology they use to transmit data and coincidental bill increases.  While an independent contractor hired by the California Public Utilities Commission found that the initial bill increases were due to summertime rate hikes and unusually high summer temperatures, PG&E’s smart meters are in the news again for billing errors. 

This time there are faulty meters generating billing errors when hot weather makes them run faster than normal.  While some skeptics may feel that the meter malfunctions validate their concerns, in fact, it demonstrates a key smart meter benefit: for the first time ever, meters have the ability to alert utilities that they aren’t working properly. 

When Bad News is Good News

In this particular instance, PG&E remotely compared the meters’ clocks with real time. It identified roughly 1,600 out of 2 million meters made by Landis & Gyr that were malfunctioning.  Its other 2 million meters made by General Electric don’t appear to have the problem. 

This is transformative: PG&E can now monitor millions of meters in real time to comprehensively identify and ameliorate problems. 

This isn’t possible with old analog meters, which is one of the many reasons why they’re being replaced. Before smart meters, electricity users who suspected erroneous billing had little evidence to make their claims.  Now the utility can proactively identify and address problems. 

To Put Things in Perspective

While it is inconvenient when any technical device, including a smart meter, is malfunctioning, the rate of problems with analog meters is much higher.  Consider this comparison:

  • Roughly 1,600 out of 2 million meters were found to have internal clocks that run a bit fast in rare hot conditions.  That’s a meter failure rate of 0.08%, or less than one 10th of a percent.  This failure rate is believed to be within industry norms.
  • According to PG&E, analog meters have a failure rate in the range of 3%, which means they fail at rates about 40 times greater than suggested by these faulty smart meters.

PG&E estimates that the overcharge for failed smart meters is less than $40/year, about $3.33 per month.  Again, it is the intelligent meters that enabled PG&E to quantify and correct the problem.  All of the customers with faulty meters will be repaid in full and receive replacement meters.  They will also get $25 for being inconvenienced and receive a free home energy audit.   

Advantages of Smart Meters

Once smart meters have been fully deployed, utilities will be able to remotely and in real-time monitor all meters in their service territory, isolating malfunctions with precision and speed.  What does that mean for consumers?  More reliable service and quick resolution when problems arise. 

You might wonder why EDF, an environmental advocacy group, is commenting on this.  Smart meters are key to delivering the environmental and public health benefits of the smart grid. 

EDF will soon be releasing a smart grid evaluation framework targeted at the plans that PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison owe the state by July 1, 2011.

We will then be publicly evaluating those plans for their ability to deliver benefits including: increased effectiveness and reduced costs of energy efficiency and other electricity conservation programs; integration of electric vehicles and intermittent renewable electricity generation resources, such as rooftop solar panels.

Stay tuned.

Posted in Grid Modernization / Read 3 Responses

Clean Energy: Getting Past Cute

By Andy Darrell / Published: May 13, 2011

Source: Wired Business Conference

Did Bill Gates just call the solar panels on my house cute?  “If you’re interested in cuteness, the stuff in the home is the place to go” was the line most often quoted from his talk at the Wired Business Conference in New York City.  Headlines declared that Bill Gates thinks clean energy is ‘cute’ and Gates seemed to suggest that people who were serious about energy should be looking to innovation in nuclear and other technologies. 

That set off a firestorm of responses among clean energy advocates who point out, correctly, that the cost of renewables is coming down, the clean energy market is growing, and many countries are leaping ahead of the US in terms of public investment and incentives. 

According to a UN report released May 9, renewable resources are plentiful and could provide as much as 77% of the worlds’ energy by 2050.  According to the report, renewable energy investments globally could be in the trillions of dollars by 2030.  The brake, according to the UN, is not technology.  It’s governance and policy that stand in the way.  To get beyond cute, we need advances in policy that create an energy market friendly not just to fossil fuels but to renewables too.

But what does it mean for policy to support clean energy?  A couple of weeks ago, Deutsche Bank released a report that says: “there has been a very substantial growth in [clean energy] investment in China, and something of a shift away from Europe and the US as the centers of clean energy investing.”  The implication is that America is being left behind.

But here’s the kicker.  Deutsche Bank then says: “clean energy private investment is still dominated by the US.”  To me, that’s America’s ticket to leadership in the trillion-dollar market of the future.  Create the rules of the game that allow clean energy to compete and innovation has a shot at taking clean energy well past cute, all the way to super-model status. 

Today’s rules of the game make it hard to plug renewables into the grid on parity with fossil fuel sources.  Buildings can waste nearly half of their energy – yet utilities aren’t rewarded for “buying” efficiency.  We can produce electric cars that cost less than three cents a mile to drive (compared to more than 13 cents for a gasoline-powered car), but where do we plug them in?  How many households and businesses can easily figure out their energy run rate – and the most cost-effective steps to cut bills?  Shouldn’t there be an iPhone app for that?

It’s time to take private investment in clean energy to scale.  For that to happen, government has to rewrite the rules of the game so that:

  • Clean energy can plug into the grid, both for distributed sources (which work really well in some places, like cities) and for utility-scale renewables (which could work well in other places, like deserts).  No need to disparage one or the other – let them compete fairly and openly for market share in different places.
     
  • Information is transparent and accurate.  Make it easy for buyers to see the energy footprint of homes and CFOs to track energy usage floor by floor.  Yes, there ought to be an iPhone app for that too – not just an opaque monthly bill.  Map the pollution created by power plants.  Disclose hydraulic fracturing fluid.  Hidden information kills free markets.
     
  • Efficiency has a market.  Let utilities “buy” efficiency just like they “buy” new power plants and innovators will find ways to aggregate efficiency across cities and real estate portfolios to meet that demand.
     
  • Cars can be electric – and be “batteries.”  Electric vehicles can be batteries for intermittent renewables like solar and wind.  They can also be the least expensive cars on the road today.  If we could easily plug them in, who wouldn’t want that?
     
  • Subsidies give way to rules that create a level playing field.  Governments currently dole out massive subsidies to the oil and gas industry.  They subsidize renewables too, but comparatively less.  Worldwide, some reports suggest that governments pay over $300 billion in subsidies for fossil fuels and a mere $55 billion for renewables.  Frankly, waiting for more and more subsidies alone is a losing strategy, especially in times of fiscal constraint.  What if we focused instead on getting the rules right, so that renewables could plug in and compete on more even footing?  And what if we focused on getting information into the marketplace so that local and regional renewable opportunities were clear to end-users? 

How important is it to get this right?  By 2030, the global population will reach 10 billion people – that’s a billion more than originally expected.  Most will live in explosively growing mega-cities, especially in fast-growing economies in China, South Asia, and Latin America. 

Can we provide so many people an economic future without destroying the planet?  Only if we take down the barriers to private sector innovation and rewrite the rules of the market to let clean energy in. 

Here’s something else Gates said: “If we don’t have innovation in energy, we don’t have much at all.”  If we don’t have innovation in policy, we won’t have enough innovation in energy.

Posted in Climate, Energy Efficiency, Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy / Read 1 Response

California Victory: Court of Appeals Backs Improved Pollution Standards for Cars

By Tim O'Connor / Published: April 29, 2011

Earlier today, a federal court rejected a legal attack on new clean car standards that will help protect our air quality and our pocketbooks.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled in favor of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) green light for clean car standards adopted by California and 13 other states and the District of Columbia.

Environmental Defense Fund intervened in defense of EPA’s action, supporting California’s pioneering leadership.

“This is a major victory not only for California but for the millions of Americans who are working together to unleash smart policies that will save families money at the gas pump, reduce dangerous pollution and break our dependence on imported oil,” said EDF president Fred Krupp.

California adopted the new standards in 2004. They were later adopted by Arizona, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

The federal government, the involved states, the U.S. auto industry and the United Auto Workers Union reached an agreement on the standards last year. The EPA finalized a national clean car program on April 1, 2010 that built on the foundation forged by the state clean car standards, creating integrated national standards to provide benefits across the country.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Automobile Dealers Association sued to to block EPA’s green light for the California clean car standards but the court ruled that neither have legal standing to challenge EPA’s action.

According to the Court’s decision, “[b]ecause the Chamber has not identified a single member who was or would be injured by EPA’s waiver decision, it lacks standing to raise this challenge.”

The Court also relied on the overarching national standards, writing, “[e]ven if EPA’s decision to grant California a waiver for its emission standards once posed an imminent threat of injury to the petitioners — which is far from clear — the agency’s subsequent adoption of federal standards has eliminated any independent threat that may have existed.”

“It is time for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to stop obstructing made in America clean air solutions that are a trifecta for saving money, energy security, and a safer environment,” Krupp added.

“This is a major victory for Americans who are tired of pouring out their hard-earned money at the gas pump,” said Vickie Patton, EDF’s General Counsel. “Cleaner cars will save their owners money – as much as $3000 over the life of their vehicles. Cleaner cars also reduce dangerous air pollution, and help break our nation’s dependence on imported oil.”

Posted in General / Comments are closed

Dramatically Cleaner Air Within Reach For New York City

By Andy Darrell / Published: April 22, 2011

Source: Inhabitat

At a standing-room-only speech in Harlem yesterday,  Mayor Bloomberg launched the update to New York City’s sustainability initiative PlaNYC.  That plan has two bold goals:  achieving the cleanest air of any big city in America and cutting greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030.

I’m thrilled that the Mayor announced a dramatic step forward for clean air. The Clean Heat Campaign will phase out New York City’s most polluting heating fuels – heating oil no. 6 and no. 4 – through a combination of clear deadlines and a campaign to encourage buildings to upgrade to cleaner fuels and efficiency.

The stakes for public health are high.  About 10,000 buildings burn heating oil so dirty that it causes more soot pollution than all of the cars and trucks in New York City combined.  The new regulation finalized yesterday will eliminate the dirtiest of the fuels, number 6 oil, by 2015 and the next-dirtiest grade by 2030. 

We think the health and business case for upgrading to clean heat is so compelling that these deadlines can be beat.  To get information into the market, EDF launched a web page that maps the buildings in the city burning dirty oil, provides a step-by-step guide to upgrading to clean fuels, identifies incentives, and tells success stories from  individual buildings.  We’re committed to do what we can to make the transition to clean fuels as quick and affordable as possible. 

Though clean heat got a lot of well-deserved media attention, PlaNYC includes other big steps forward:

– Commitments to clean energy, including one to “develop a smarter and cleaner electric utility grid for New York
City” – an idea that we think holds real promise to help expand the market for solar, efficiency and other clean energy sources;

– A new energy efficiency finance non-profit, using federal stimulus dollars to make local loans; and

– For the first time, the plan addresses food, recycling, and solid waste. 

Around the world, cities are struggling with soot, smog, and climate impacts from how we make and use energy.  Just two years ago, the planet’s population switched from primarily rural to more than 50% urban – by 2030, nearly 5 billion people (60% of the world’s population) will be living in cities.  How those cities make and use energy will define our planet’s ability to solve climate change – and will dramatically affect public health.   Today, with this announcement, I see hope for the future.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, New York / Tagged | Comments are closed