In an era of dramatic change, utilities across the U.S. are increasingly focused on engaging customers and finding new revenue as people demand more control over their electricity use.

One potentially valuable way of doing this is through e-commerce, or allowing customers to shop for energy products online — from light bulbs to thermostats to cashing in on energy efficiency rebates — directly through the utility.

Simple Energy, a small Colorado-based firm using software to “fundamentally change how energy … and people engage,” offers a variety of platforms for utilities to connect with ratepayers. Last year, it launched Marketplace, which aims to improve upon a staple of utility offerings: the efficiency rebate.

Utilities offer discounts on energy-saving products like LED lights or smart thermostats to encourage ratepayers to reduce energy use, which also helps utilities meet state-level efficiency targets. The challenge is that these discounts have traditionally been offered as post-purchase, mail-in rebates — a type of transaction that has not kept pace with today’s panache for online shopping.

Despite being offered what amounts to free money, consumers rarely take advantage of these kinds of rebates, studies show. Only 7 percent of consumers took advantage of an appliance rebate in the prior year, according to a 2014 study by Nielsen. Participation for other energy-efficient equipment was even lower, at 4 percent.

Read more (Midwest Energy News)

Dive Brief:

• With the clock running out on President Obama’s administration, the White House is pushing out dozens of new rules that include land management, executive bonuses, private sector pay and energy efficiency.
• According to The Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Energy is finalizing almost a dozen new rules that would impact furnaces, commercial boilers and portable air conditioners.
• Obama in 2013 targeted appliance standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3 billion metric tons by 2030, and since then the new rules have largely been a bipartisan effort with significant impacts.

Dive Insight:

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to roll back regulations he believes are stymieing economic growth, and so the White House is trying to win the battle through volume.

The Washington Post reports it can take the Senate up to 10 hours of floor time to reverse a Presidential rule, and insiders expect lawmakers will do just that with about a half dozen of the administration’s final rules.

Read more (Utility Dive)

Michigan’s 2008 law requiring utility spending on energy efficiency programs continued to exceed targets in 2015, surpassing goals for cutting electric and natural gas use by roughly 20 percent and proving to be a good investment for ratepayers.

According to a state report released Wednesday, ratepayers will ultimately see $5.2 billion in savings since the program started. In 2015, utilities spent $262 million on various energy efficiency programs that will generate $1.08 billion in lifecycle savings for ratepayers. Or, for every dollar spent in 2015, customers are expected to see $4.35 in benefits.

Moreover, the savings were obtained at a cost of $13.55 per megawatt-hour, “significantly cheaper than supply-side options such as new natural gas combined cycle generation at $56.40/MWh,” the report says.

“When compared to building and operating power plants these programs are the smartest investment by far,” Sally Talberg, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commissions, said in a statement.

Utility plans vary across the 64 different electric and gas plans filed with the state. The state’s Energy Optimization program targets efficiency savings at 1 percent of retail sales for electric providers and .75 percent for gas. Those targets were surpassed in 2015 but are slightly lower than 2014 savings.

Read more (Midwest Energy News)

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to drastically alter the U.S.’s direction on climate and energy. His promises include actions like “canceling” the Paris agreement and dismantling the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as repealing restrictions on domestic energy development. Trump infamously tweeted that global warming is a “hoax,” and has selected Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, an outspoken climate skeptic, to lead his EPA transition team. Trump also made specific (and ambiguous) promises about energy and climate on his Web site and on the campaign trail, such as canceling funding for the United Nations Green Climate Fund and lifting restrictions on fossil fuel development. He has sworn to make some of these changes early on, even within his first 100 days in office. But what can he actually accomplish from the get-go?

The president-elect will not have as much power as his declarations suggest. Many of his plans will take a huge amount of time and energy—and sometimes, the cooperation of Congress. He is also likely to encounter countless lawsuits and bureaucratic roadblocks that will frustrate his efforts. “I don’t want to dismiss the impact of Trump’s victory, it will slow down action [on] climate change,” explains Jason Bordoff, professor of professional practice in international and public affairs at Columbia University, “But I would say that for many of the things he’s promised, we will only see an impact on the margin—it’ll pale in comparison to Trump’s rhetoric.”

Other experts agree. “He may be announcing a bunch of things on his first day, it’s totally possible for him to sign a bunch of executive orders that say he’s going to do things,” says Jody Freeman, a professor of law at Harvard University and director of its Environmental Law and Policy Program, “But it’s very difficult to effectuate everything without going through the process.” That said, the U.S.’s course on energy and the environment will inevitably shift under the Trump administration.

Read more (Scientific American)

With future federal clean energy policies in doubt, proactive clean energy policy will likely be left largely to states in the next few years. Fortunately, a New York policy proposal could show the way forward on energy efficiency for utilities.

Though energy efficiency is the most cost-effective clean energy resource in America, existing policies and programs still leave significant value on the table for residences and businesses. One major barrier to more large-scale energy efficiency has been traditional evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) of utility savings, which can be slow to adapt to new technology and often encourages utilities to focus disproportionately on easy-to-obtain, shallow savings.

The New York Public Service Commission, seeking innovative solutions in its Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding, instead opted for an outcome-oriented approach to measuring and incentivizing efficiency performance. An outcome-oriented metric would focus on the policy goal of reduced energy use overall, putting a smaller emphasis on the administratively intensive business of attributing savings to specific actions.

New York’s Clean Energy Advisory Council added detail to the commission direction when it released its Energy Efficiency Metrics and Targets Options Report on implementing the New York Commission’s orders last month. The report represents a radical departure from program-based efficiency regulation, and highlights both opportunities and implementation challenges.

Read more (Greentech Media)

LONDON: The COP22 climate conference, held in Marrakech earlier this month, marked a transition from high-level commitments to concrete actions to tackle the effects of climate change quickly, effectively and at scale. Accelerating adoption of Energy Efficiency (EE) technologies, and LED lighting in particular, have been identified as key elements in achieving the ambitious commitments under the Paris Agreement and transitioning to a low carbon global economy.

A series of key events during COP22, which was held from November 7-18, helped to further highlight the opportunities, as well as the remaining challenges, in scaling up EE technologies, and in particular LED lighting. The first such event ‘What do Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) need to succeed? Energy Efficiency’ was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency project, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) on November 12.

The event highlighted how EE is the most sustainable, cost-effective, and accessible way of reducing carbon emissions whilst providing a wide a range of other social and environmental co-benefits. However, although many countries NDCs mention energy efficiency, they generally lack clear strategies and commitments on how to practically achieve the targets. By raising the profile of this issue, the session presented specific examples where governments and industry organizations have collaborated to successfully implement energy efficiency strategies for appliances and lighting systems.

Particularly in Africa, adoption of energy efficient lighting solutions both for grid connected as well as off-grid applications is key.  Energy efficient lighting for Africa and beyond, an event run by UNEP and the Clean Energy Ministerial, highlighted the crucial role and potential for new policies to drive the transition to LEDs throughout Africa and save over 60 TWh annually by 2030, equivalent to thirty 500MW power plants. Additional benefits also include increased grid stability and the potential of connecting 20 million additional households with the electricity grid.

Read more (The Climate Group)

As another round of global climate talks has concluded, many observers wonder whether the 2016 election means the end of greenhouse gas regulation in the United States. More specifically, what happens to the Clean Power Plan?

Even before the election, the Clean Power Plan was already years away from being finalized. Implementation of the rule is currently stayed as it moves through the courts. Even if it sails through the courts unscathed and the original compliance schedule remains in effect, states would not have to meet their first targets for curbing power plant emissions until two years after the next presidential election (2022).

When it comes to environmental regulation, it’s best to take the long view. Rulemakings made pursuant to authority under the Clean Air Act are generally litigated and take years to develop. They often span across multiple administrations. Take the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the Environmental Protection Agency program to limit emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. It took decades to evolve. There were multiple years when the EPA didn’t act or the rulemaking just sat in courts.

Read more (ACEEE)

Hundreds of businesses such as Starbucks, General Mills and Hewlett Packard are asking President-elect Donald Trump to follow through on U.S. commitments to combat climate change. They argue it’s good for business.

More than 360 companies and investors made their plea in an open letter to Trump, President Obama and members of Congress. They called on Trump to “continue U.S. participation in the Paris agreement,” which he has threatened to scrap, and invest in the “low carbon economy at home and abroad.”

The signatories also include DuPont, eBay, Nike, Unilever, Levi Strauss & Co. and Hilton. They issued the letter Wednesday during a major U.N. climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, where representatives of nearly 200 countries were gathered to hash out the details of the Paris climate deal.

Read more (NPR)