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Megawatts vs. Negawatts: How a Little Can Do a Lot
Marketing Green Juice: How Much Is Too Much? In early September, Florida Power & Light (FPL), the biggest utility in Florida and a front-runner in renewable energy generation, suspended its Sunshine Energy Program, a green electricity scheme, under pressure from the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). The controversy started with news that the scheme, which encouraged FPL customers to voluntarily pay an extra $9.75 per month to support renewable energy, was spending roughly three-quarters of the $11.4 million FPL collected from customers on marketing, administrative and management costs. That did not go well with the PSC, which ordered the program shut and is now auditing the utility’s books. FPL says it hired Green Mountain, a Texas-based retailer, to manage the Sunshine Program. Green Mountain claims that 48 percent of the money collected from consumers went to buy renewable energy – considerably higher than PSC’s 20 percent estimate in June, when it started looking into the records. FPL insists the program was not such a waste of money, claiming it avoided about 500,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions at a relatively low cost. The lesson, if there is one, is that when outsourcing, better keep an eye on where the money goes and what you get for it, even if it is coming out of someone else’s pocket. & doi:/10.1016/j.tej.2008.10.012
Megawatts vs. Negawatts: How a Little Can Do a Lot With the rising cost of fuels and conventional generation technologies, energy conservation and peak load management has gained added significance. But when it comes to utilities, the supply-side bias is hard to overcome. And that appears to be what frustrates conservation advocates who believe utilities and organized wholesale markets should move beyond giving mere lip service to the demand side. November 2008, Vol. 21, Issue 9
A case in point is the current debate in North Carolina about the appropriate role of energy conservation. Under a legislation passed in 2007, the state’s utilities are obliged to meet 3 percent of their projected growth through 2012 from renewable resources or energy conservation measures. The law does not say how these goals are to be achieved, leaving utilities with significant latitude. In early September, Progress Energy released its latest forecast for demand growth, which came under attack as giving inadequate attention to the demand side. John Runkle, an attorney for the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN), a consumer advocacy group, said, ‘‘With a good energy efficiency program, you don’t need any more power plants,’’ adding ‘‘That’s tens of billions of dollars (saved) these days.’’ Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress, replied that the company will promote energy efficiency, but it will be done in tandem with the pursuit of renewable energy as well as planning for new generation. ‘‘We don’t have the luxury of waiting 10 years to see if energy efficiency gets us there,’’ Hughes countered. NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren says utilities must push for more overall reduction of energy usage from all customers, adding that his group will challenge both Progress and Duke Energy in their growth projections. ‘‘We’re going to continue to intervene and be at the table. We’re going to continue to press the case that the utilities are not addressing demand reduction.’’ Another indication of the growing significance of negawatts is apparent at PJM Interconnection, where customers are encouraged to bid negative load into the wholesale market in direct competition with megawatts. PJM claims to have approximately 6,000 MW of demand response (DR) from some 35 curtailment service providers (CSPs), intermediaries who aggregate the loads of some 7,000 customers. This negative load, while not large in absolute terms relative to the 164 GW size of the PJM market, is nevertheless critical in introducing an element of price elasticity into what would otherwise be a virtually inelastic demand. & doi:/10.1016/j.tej.2008.10.013 1040-6190/$–see front matter
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Megawatts vs. Negawatts: How a Little Can Do a Lot With the rising cost of fuels and conventional generation technologies, energy conservation and peak load management has gained added significance. But when it comes to utilities, the supply-side bias is hard to overcome. And that appears to be what frustrates conservation advocates who believe utilities and organized wholesale markets should move beyond giving mere lip service to the demand side. November 2008, Vol. 21, Issue 9
A case in point is the current debate in North Carolina about the appropriate role of energy conservation. Under a legislation passed in 2007, the state’s utilities are obliged to meet 3 percent of their projected growth through 2012 from renewable resources or energy conservation measures. The law does not say how these goals are to be achieved, leaving utilities with significant latitude. In early September, Progress Energy released its latest forecast for demand growth, which came under attack as giving inadequate attention to the demand side. John Runkle, an attorney for the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN), a consumer advocacy group, said, ‘‘With a good energy efficiency program, you don’t need any more power plants,’’ adding ‘‘That’s tens of billions of dollars (saved) these days.’’ Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress, replied that the company will promote energy efficiency, but it will be done in tandem with the pursuit of renewable energy as well as planning for new generation. ‘‘We don’t have the luxury of waiting 10 years to see if energy efficiency gets us there,’’ Hughes countered. NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren says utilities must push for more overall reduction of energy usage from all customers, adding that his group will challenge both Progress and Duke Energy in their growth projections. ‘‘We’re going to continue to intervene and be at the table. We’re going to continue to press the case that the utilities are not addressing demand reduction.’’ Another indication of the growing significance of negawatts is apparent at PJM Interconnection, where customers are encouraged to bid negative load into the wholesale market in direct competition with megawatts. PJM claims to have approximately 6,000 MW of demand response (DR) from some 35 curtailment service providers (CSPs), intermediaries who aggregate the loads of some 7,000 customers. This negative load, while not large in absolute terms relative to the 164 GW size of the PJM market, is nevertheless critical in introducing an element of price elasticity into what would otherwise be a virtually inelastic demand. & doi:/10.1016/j.tej.2008.10.013 1040-6190/$–see front matter
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