GE's Kitchen of the Future

GE has long had its hand in developing the emerging technologies that can take advantage of added integration with a smart grid. CNET recently wrote a story outlining what GE's vision is for the kitchen of the future. It describes how an internet-enabled network of appliances, homes, and utilities will expand the possibilities for enhanced energy saving and consumer, as well as utility, cost reduction.

One interesting aspect of the article is how much of the innovation relies on electricity price signals from the wholesale electricity market. As Power Smart Pricing participants, it is easy to see the benefit of a refrigerator that will wait to make ice or not use its defroster during high priced times, but most residential utility customers do not have access to the variable rates that would enable this technology to lower their monthly bills.

We are firm advocates of electricity pricing choice. We know that not all customers can benefit from real-time pricing, but most in fact can. Given the current low prices of electricity in 2009, over 99% of our customers are saving with Power Smart Pricing. This figure is significantly bolstered by the 27% average participants have been able to achieve this year. Considering the billions of dollars going into the implementation of Smart Grid technologies, its significant to note what households on Power Smart Pricing have been able to achieve in many cases without much more than picking up the telephone.

We are incredibly grateful for the efforts our customers have made and we are actively spreading your achievements nationwide to firmly give you the recognition you deserve as pioneers in this emerging field. It is clear that these new technologies along with real-time electricity pricing can save energy and money, but the biggest influence factor of all is simply the availability of a dynamic rate. The real opportunity lies with the average person in the average household. No assembly required.

CNET's Kitchen of the Future article is here.

Cash for Refrigerators

Business Week has put out an article this week outlining an upcoming federal rebate program that will give rebates and discounts on Energy Star rated appliances. Without a catchy title, people have declared the new incentive program "Cash for Refrigerators" (after the very popular Cash for Clunkers program).

The program includes $300 million set aside for consumers to purchase all kinds of energy efficient appliances from washers, dryers, refrigerators, and more...! Rebates will be given out in an amount ranging from $50 to $200 at the time of purchase.

Unlike the CARS program, buyers will not be forced to scrap their old appliances. But no worries because Ameren's Act On Energy portfolio includes a refrigerator recycling program. After you set up your pick up date, Ameren will come to your home and take your old working appliance and recycle it for you. If that's not easy enough, Ameren will give you (as in pay you) a $35 credit on your bill.

For more on "Cash for Refrigerators", read the Business Week article here.

Back from the State Fair & In the News

Power Smart Pricing joined the Ameren Act On Energy tent at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. It was a lot of fun, and passing customers learned a lot about phantom load, appliance recycling, and of course Power Smart Pricing. Many thanks to all the organizers who put in the work to make such an interactive and engaging area to match the fun and energy of the Fair. It was a great success.

While away Power Smart Pricing was featured in the Belleville News-Democrat. The story highlights the low prices our customers have been able to enjoy and turn into savings in the first half of 2009. With natural gas prices hitting a 7 year low, it seems that a lot of energy prices are following a similar trend.

Bill inserts are continuing to go out and some customers are receiving specials letters in the mail. Keep up the work of telling your friends and neighbors about your experiences with the program and don't forget about out Home Depot Refer-a-Friend campaign!

More from the Belleville News-Democrat here.

Continued Coverage from Danville Article

One of the blogs that we have followed on the blog roll called Knowledge Problem wrote up a quick summary of the Danville article. In following the comments we decided to address some of the missing gaps of information and expand further on the benefits of our variable pricing program.

Here was are response:

I should say upfront that I am one of administrators of the Power Smart Pricing program. I am also a daily reader of KP. Great work.

As far as savings are concerned, the average savings for our entire customer base is 13% since the beginning of the program in Jan 2007. Over time the savings levels has fluctuated as power prices change, but we’ve had a very good run lately. In 2009 with the wholesale market price for electricity being so low, the average savings for customers has jumped to 27%. Ameren’s flat rates went down a bit in June which has cut into those savings a bit during the summer but since summer power prices haven’t increased as much as in past summers, the numbers continue to look really good. Not paying a risk premium for a flat rate is what’s making the program attractive to customers.

We hear your concerns about the participation fee and do agree is one disincentive to participation. The history of the fee is that the legislation that enabled this program required utilities to spread the costs of it between participants and residential non-participants. Since Ameren doesn’t yet have smart meters, there was a need to figure out how to pay for the interval recording meters that get installed for participants on the program as well as the program administration costs. Absent this program, Ameren charges $5 a month for this type of meter. The $2.25 fee was a negotiated reduction with the rest of the costs being spread out across the residential rate base via a rider (currently about 6 cents a month). Long term we hope that the cost of meters gets dealt with in different ways as AMI/Smart metering plans get determined. If it were a common cost, the incremental cost of this program would be substantially lower

With the mention of fuel pricing, we have unbundled utilities in Illinois that don’t own their own generation but rather procure power for flat rate customers via the Illinois Power Agency (and some legacy contracts from our ill-fated reverse auction). Therefore the fuel price risk isn’t really a factor or concern to the utility.

We also do like automation to help customers, but it of course comes at a price. We’ve been really proud of what our participants do without automation, they have a good elasticity of demand to price. (see: http://www.cntenergy.org/real-time-electricity-pricing.php for the evaluation reports) We are working in areas where internet usage isn’t that high

Our organization is definitely one that centers on environmental policy, but this program has really proven to attract all types of customers. Most are looking to save some money and are not that concerned with energy consumption or its environmental impacts. In fact, most of our customers don’t even use computers on a regular basis. Automation would help to a degree, but our customers have shown that simple price signals have been able to work on their own. See the evaluation reports at: http://www.cntenergy.org/real-time-electricity-pricing.php. Our participants don’t think of themselves as advanced or cutting edge. It’s simply people realizing that variable pricing is a better option for them.

I write our blog over at http://www.powersmartpricing.blogspot.com. Come over and check it out if you want to follow our program a little more. For example, we are particularly excited about our new use of twitter to broadcast prices.

Check out the original Knowledge Problem post here.

And.. the follow up.

PSP In the Danville Commercial-News

The Commercial-News wrote an article about Power Smart Pricing. There are some informative quotes from Jim Chilsen, CUB Communications Director. The Citizen's Utility Board (CUB) is a watchdog group that advocates consumer protections among a wide range of issues. His attribution to the article is a great source.

One clarification on the article would be to explain that Power Smart Pricing can be great option for many high winter users even some with electric heat. Some Ameren Utility customers have access to a space heat rate that in my cases is a better electricity pricing option than Power Smart Pricing.

However the customers that do not receive this special rate are highly recommended into learning more about Power Smart Pricing. The lowest prices of the year traditionally occur during the cooler fall, winter, and spring months so therefore customers with high winter usage are likely to save on their bills.

Check out the story here.

Any customers from the Danville area interested in writing a letter to the editor to add any additional information about being a customer on the program?

Write a comment to the post or email us at info@cntenergy.org. Thanks!

Get Price Report Texted to Your Phone

Follow Power Smart Pricing on twitter and set the service to text your phone. Each evening at 6pm you will receive a text message that tells you the low and high price for electricity for the following day. It might be advanced technology, but it's a simple way to lower your bills and help lower peak demand.

For example: Thu, Aug 06: Low @1.3 cents from 3am-4am, High@ 3.6 cents from 3pm-4pm.

Prices this summer have been really low so it can be easy to ignore prices. However you don't want to forget about the RTP Supplier Charge. During your billing period, the hour that has the highest overall system pick gets flagged and your usage during this hour is charged an extra amount. This charge is assessed to all customers (not just Power Smart Pricing accounts), but customers with hourly prices have the ability to lower the amount that they are charged by lowering their electricity usage during these hours.

A higher price for electricity is a good indication that a particular hour could be the system peak for your billing period, but there is not a direct correlation. System peaks generally occur between 2-5pm so the same things you are doing to lower your monthly bills will help you lower your RTP Supplier Charge.

Use twitter to keep up on which hours are most likely to carry the system peak. Again, its easy, and its information that will come straight to your pocket!!!

Follow us at www.twitter.com/powersmart. Sign up for an account if you don't already have one and indicate that you would like to receive our messages on your mobile phone.

All LEED Projects to Provide Performance Data

Buildings are responsible for around 70% of the energy use in the United States. They also provide opportunities for low cost energy efficiency improvements that can often be paid for in direct energy cost savings in a short period of time. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) sponsors an award called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) that certifies excellence in building design and its performance.

CNT Energy's building has received the highest rating, Platinum, for the reconstruction we did in 2005. Since then we have monitored its performance to make sure it has achieved the goals that it was expected to, and track how our daily use in the building has effected the results. We have done this out of curiosity, and in our belief that performance monitoring and maintenance should be an active part of a certification for LEED buildings.

In the release of the new standards for LEED 2009, the USGBC has declared that certified buildings must report back their energy and water use performance for the first 5 years. This will not only make sure that building operators are achieving the results the building is modeled for, but it will also provide a lot of data so the USGBC can make the best changes to their certification that maximize the designs that have the best results.

A buzz word in the energy efficiency world is the "Snackwell Effect." Like the popular cookie a few years back, it has less calories but the consumers would end up eating more of them and the healthy snack lost its edge. Some families that change their lightbulbs to CFLs have a tendency to leave them on all day because they're energy efficient. Of course, at the end of the month the bill won't look any different. Actively monitoring performance will help the building owners get the most out of their LEED certified investment.

For more information check out this BuildingGreen.com article.