This article is about the consumer side of that. It’s also a compare-and-contrast piece between Volvo’s approach and one espoused in the electric industry. And it’s a case for why trying to get consumers to change their behavior voluntarily isn’t always the best option when we’re trying to get to a more sustainable future.
“What?” you say. “Shelton Group’s all about creating behavior change – it’s one of the three things your group does besides telling corporate sustainability stories that build brands and marketing products that are more efficient and sustainable!” Yes, sometimes the faster path to change is simply to take away the less sustainable option and force the change.
Read more (Shelton Group)
FirstFuel’s Brian Bowen argues customer engagement is not about measuring minutes of thought or effort. It’s about achieving outcomes.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “Most utility customers spend just 8 minutes per year thinking about their electricity bill.”
That 8-minute stat comes from Accenture, and it actually refers to online interactions between customers and their utilities. Accenture’s study is a much broader and more comprehensive report on customer engagement with utilities, but skeptical conference panelists often pick out this one stat, looking to throw cold water on the latest “big idea” in energy — like the suggestion that everyday consumers will suddenly embrace time-of-use rates or that Grandma will use blockchain technology to sell excess solar power to her neighbor. How could any of that happen when customers spend so little time interacting with their energy provider?
It’s an effective one-liner in front of an audience, but it’s one of those quick stats that doesn’t address the full picture on engagement.
Customer engagement is fundamentally not about measuring minutes of thought or effort. It’s about achieving outcomes, things like improving customer service, generating system-level savings and facilitating customer choice. Instead of fretting over the average user’s limited online attention span, utilities should instead focus on delivering the right type of service to fit a customer’s preferences and deliver their desired results. For some consumers, 8 minutes per year is more than enough to build a strong relationship with their utility, and innovative utilities are making the most of their online interactions with customers in a number of different ways.
Read more (Green Tech Media)
This month, Renovate America marks an important milestone: 100,000 American homes have now used our innovative financing option, HERO, to make energy and efficiency improvements. It’s a cause for celebration, and an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned.
The idea behind HERO is simple: to help homeowners invest in their homes to save energy or water, or to make their most valuable investment — their home — safer and more resilient to extreme weather. It’s a form of financing called PACE, or Property Assessed Clean Energy, and it gives homeowners access to private capital to make improvements that advance public-policy objectives, like expanding access to clean-energy technologies, improving neighborhoods and stimulating growth.
HERO is offered in partnership with local governments, and homeowners who use it pay back their financing through an additional line item on their property taxes. Eligibility is primarily based on equity in the home and the homeowner’s tax and mortgage payment history.
Home improvement needed improving. The first thing we learned when we launched HERO just over five years ago is that people needed more than financing. They needed peace of mind, and better control of the process as they made an investment in their homes to save energy or water.
Our first step to empower homeowners was to guarantee contractors wouldn’t be paid until the homeowner signed off that the project was done to their satisfaction. Next, we set up a daily check on contractor licenses and offered investigative and dispute resolution support. And eventually, we required all customers to speak by phone with our staff to make sure they understood the terms of their financing before they signed their documents. Seniors 65 and older get extra care.
Read more (The Energy Collective)
Many utility demos don’t produce results. Here are five tips to fix that.
When it comes to trying out new things, many utilities are notoriously slow-moving and risk-averse, and many of their pilot projects can be ineffective as a result. So how do you change an industry that moves slowly but is nonetheless undergoing a major energy and digital transformation?
According to the researchers at Rocky Mountain Institute, there are a variety of strategies — from better utility and stakeholder collaboration to a focus on new technology that can scale — that could help with the problem. RMI recently published a report that digs into a handful of possible solutions that utilities, regulators, tech companies, customers and environmentalists can use to try to get the energy sector to evolve more quickly and effectively.
RMI decided to tackle the topic in a report after working with New York utility Con Edison, which was looking to launch some demonstration projects with new technology, explains RMI’s electricity practice manager, Mike Henchen. “A lot of utility projects are not that effective, and a lot of projects are just pilots, and a lot don’t lead to full-scale deployments,” he said.
RMI collected lessons learned and best practices from Con Edison, as well as Arizona Public Service and Avista Utilities, to put together ideas on how utilities can become more innovative. Here’s what they came up with.
1) Change is coming, so deal with it intelligently: With the introduction of distributed energy technologies — solar panels, batteries, electric car chargers and smart thermostats — the power grid is already transforming. Utilities need to fully embrace and plan for this change, and need to develop road maps and support from leaders for how to navigate these changes.
Henchen said at some utilities “an old guard” exists that is more skeptical of the need for transformation. “Every organization has its skeptics,” said Henchen. A road map helps to get everyone on board.
At the same time, regulators owe utilities clear and consistent messaging around their own strategic priorities for innovation. Successful DER providers also need to understand the varied business models and regulatory environments utilities have around the country in order to offer effective solutions.
Read more (Green Tech Media)
As households ramp up air conditioners to stay cool this summer, many will find themselves with higher energy bills. Paying these bills will be easier for some than for others. Low-income households, who spend on average three times more of their income on energy bills than other households, will undoubtedly find it more difficult to adjust to higher bills in both the summer and winter months.
Many households can address high energy burdens by taking advantage of energy efficiency programs run by their utilities. These programs provide multiple benefits beyond energy and bill savings, such as fewer shut offs, healthier homes, less outdoor pollution, and more local jobs.
To better understand the scope and reach of low-income energy efficiency programs, ACEEE completed a new baseline assessment of the electric and natural gas programs that specifically target low-income households in the largest US cities. The assessment complements previous ACEEE research that explored best practice elements for low-income utility programs. This paper examines total investments in these programs, energy savings impacts, customer participation, and utilization of best practices for more than 70 utilities’ low-income programs. The paper also includes data tables that chronicle this information for each utility.
Read more (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)
New appliance standards that states can adopt in the near term have the potential to save
consumers and businesses billions of dollars while conserving energy and water resources.
Appliance standards boost local economies since consumers and businesses spend most of
the economic savings on other goods and services. The energy and water savings from
standards can improve electric system reliability and defer or reduce the need for new
energy and water infrastructure, which lowers utility rates for consumers. And the energy
savings from standards also result in reductions in emissions of air pollutants, which can
provide public health benefits while helping states meet clean air standards and greenhouse gas emissions targets.
Appliance, equipment, lighting, and plumbing product standards are a proven, successful
policy at the state level.1 At least 18 states have enacted appliance standards at various
times. These state standards have not only benefited the residents of those states, but have also helped spur national standards. Most of today’s national standards, which cover
products ranging from refrigerators to commercial air conditioners to electric motors,
started out at the state level. Even when state standards do not become national standards, adoption by just a few states can be sufficient to affect national markets. By going first, states have driven changes to national markets that have delivered very large savings.
States now have the opportunity to build on this legacy and once again take the lead in advancing new appliance efficiency standards to save energy and water, lower utility bills for consumers and businesses, and reduce air pollutant emissions.
Read more (ACEEE)
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, Mayor Bowser and DC United announced a $25 million private clean energy financing deal for the installation of state-of-the-art energy and water efficiency measures, an 884 KW solar array, and stormwater retention systems at DC United’s 20,000-seat Audi Field soccer stadium. The measures are being funded through the Department of Energy and Environment’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (DC PACE) program, DC’s innovative green financing solution, which operates through a public-private partnership, allowing local lenders to fund environmentally beneficial projects at no cost to taxpayers. This deal, done through a relationship with locally-based EagleBank, marks the nation’s largest single PACE note issued to date, and the first issued for a stadium project.
“We know that cities throughout the U.S. will be leading the fight against climate change, and this deal is an example of how Washington, DC can think globally while acting locally,” said Mayor Bowser who recently signed an executive order committing DC to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. “This deal will not only allow us to green Audi Field, it will also create new opportunities for local businesses and high-quality green jobs for DC residents.”
Read more (DC.gov)
Check the PACE fact sheet and numbers (DC PACE News)
Two states in the Southeast U.S. are moving to step up their energy efficiency mandates by taking lessons from programs in Arkansas.
Widely believed to be the first initiative in the Southeast to decouple utility revenues from power sales, Arkansas’ success to date is serving as proof that such regulations can benefit ratepayers and utilities while creating new energy efficiency jobs.
Mississippi and Louisiana are the latest states to seriously consider such incentives aimed at utility programs that can save electricity and natural gas ratepayers’ money. The catch: much as they do with plans to generate more power with new generating plants, these states are assessing how best to allow utilities to profit by cutting customers’ energy usage.
Read more (Southeast Energy News)
A national association of businesses focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grids, energy storage and other technologies is pushing Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates to embrace what it calls “a transformational change” in how energy is consumed and generated in the state.
“Evolving consumer preferences, dynamic new technologies and aging infrastructure are causing the energy system as we have known it to modernize,” says a memo by Advanced Energy Economy, delivered Friday to the campaigns of GOP nominee Ed Gillespie and Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic nominee. “And with this change comes opportunity.”
The policy paper by the group, which represents about 1,000 businesses in 27 states, outlines priorities aimed at creating jobs in Virginia in energy efficiency, solar and wind generation, and energy storage, among other emerging industries.
Gillespie’s campaign said the GOP nominee will be putting forward “a detailed, substantive plan to address energy priorities in the commonwealth to ensure our energy policies help foster economic growth.”
“As governor, he’ll help lead efforts to diversify Virginia’s energy portfolio for more affordable and reliable energy,” spokesman David Abrams said in a statement.
Northam said in a statement that revenue in the clean energy industry has grown from $500 million to $2 billion over the past three years.
“It’s clear to everyone that the future is in renewable energy,” Northam said. “In just the last year alone, our solar jobs have increased by 65 percent, making us one of the fastest-growing markets in the country.”
As part of President Trump’s resolution to cut government spending, the White House has proposed drastic budget reductions for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) -and for its clean-energy office. These may affect the State Energy Program (SEP), which has yielded broad-ranging health and economic benefits.
Depending on the outcome of congressional negotiations, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) might have a 60-percent reduction in funding for 2018. This would be only $636 million as compared to $2.069 billion in 2017, according to the 2018 budget documents.
However, it is entirely possible the final decision may reflect the priorities of other stakeholders- including citizens, politicians, lobbyists, business and workers.
One program that might be defunded due to the budget cuts is the SEP. The SEP provides grant funding and technical assistance to states and territories to improve energy security, advance energy initiative, and decrease energy waste.
Read more (Clean Energy Finance Forum)
