Weighing in on Smart Grid Stimulus

CNT Energy's Director of Policy and Evaluation, Anthony Star, wrote up a great piece for GE's smart grid blog on how the new funds have made "getting dynamic pricing right... more important now than ever."

There are several reasons that I am nervous about this large increase in the availability of dynamic pricing. One of our key findings has been that it is essential to think about dynamic pricing from the consumer’s point of view.

The article goes on to describe how our organization feels an effective dynamic pricing program should be run. It took us a long time and a lot of effort to figure out the best methods. The smart grid funds mark a time when a lot of different utilities across the country will be introducing dynamic pricing to their customers. If it is done right, then a lot of people (just like our Power Smart Pricing customers) will benefit from finding a new way to think about their electricity use. If not, preconceptions and apprehension about something new and different can bring the opposite effect.

Read Anthony's GE post "Why Getting Dynamic Pricing Right is More Important Than Ever."

DOE Smart Grid Funding is Announced

This morning the Department of Energy announced the recipients of the $3.4 Billion allocated for 100 smart grid projects through the ARRA. Overall the funding will lead to the installation of 18 million smart meters, 1 million in-home energy management displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, as well as advanced transformers and load management devices.

While this is a major day for the smart grid on a national scale, it is unfortunate that neither of the major Illinois utilities were among those chosen to receive funds. The competition was incredibly fierce. Of the 400 applicants only 100 projects will see their projects funded through the grant.

Alongside the $3.4 billion set aside by the federal government, $4.7 billion in private funds will contribute to a total of $8.1 billion. This is quite an investment for an emerging field. Smart grid projects are still new and today is a day that will surely mark its true arrival.

Many of the projects include a dynamic pricing option where customers will pay for electricity on a rate that varies across each day and provides incentives to manage peak electric demand. Some projects even include a real-time pricing model like Power Smart Pricing where that rate will be based on the wholesale electricity market prices.

Here in Illinois we have seven years of experience of how to get the consumers, environmentalists, citizen watchdog groups, utilities, and governments all on board with dynamic pricing. This was not achieved by a chanced interaction between a group of like minded people. All parties had their input, and thus a mutually agreed upon consumer-centric approach has been successful. Nationwide roll outs of these programs need to be handled with care, and they need to focus on making it easy for the consumer.

Click on the map to open a pdf.

For more details, you can see lists of the smart grid projects by category (pdf), by state (pdf).

10/24 Energy & Environment Links

Debate Follows Bills to Remove Clotheslines Bans

As much a cultural clash as a political and economic one, the issue is causing tensions as homeowners, landlords and property managers have traded nasty letters and threats of legal action. 

U.S. Green Building Retrofit Market to Hit $15B by 2014: Report

Just days after the White House outlined its strategy for bolstering the home energy retrofit market, a new report from research and publishing firm McGraw-Hill Construction predicts the market for nonresidential green building retrofits is set to soar and represents a better opportunity for designers and builders than new construction.

Financial Innovation We Can Believe In?

It's fairly well-established that people could save money over the long run by making their homes more energy-efficient—better insulation, say—or even, in some cases, putting solar panels on their roofs to generate their own electricity. But many of these upgrades never happen, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the incentives are misaligned, if, say, the landlord owns the building but the tenant pays electricity and heating costs. And sometimes homeowners are dissuaded by the high upfront capital costs.

Solar Gets a Hand from Auto Manufacturers

An interesting story out of the New York Times Environment and Energy blog called Green, Inc discusses the great fit between the expanding solar industry and the struggling auto industry. As the solar industry is looking to expand their manufacturing capabilities with the rise of consumer and industrial demand, the auto industries well documented difficulties through the recession give access to an eager and well trained manufacturing workforce.

On Tuesday solar start-up, Skyline Solar announced that Cosma International will produce the metal components of their solar panels. Cosma's other clients include: GM, Ford, Honda, and Toyota. This comes after a similar announcement that Clairvoyant Energy and Xtreme Power Inc. are converting an idled Ford plant in Michigan to produce renewable energy components.

Clearly the solar industry has a long way to go to fill the gap in lost manufacturing, but its a heartwarming story to see the ingenuity and ability of a trained workforce in action. Car manufacturers will bring the expertise of handling a large supply and production efficiencies to lower costs. The car industry's misfortune presents quite an opportunity for the younger solar industry, and this trend should only continue to the benefit off all involved.

For more go to the Green Inc article.

White House Unveils "Recovery Through Retrofit"

The goal of the Recovery Through Retrofit plan is to expand home energy retrofit programs and energy efficiency. The report sites the barriers that have prevented the field from expanding and reaching more of the 130 million homes in the United State that could use a boost in efficiency. The key to the new initiative is to overcome these barriers to help homeowners make cost effective investments in their homes.

A common reason many people do not make the investments is the initial cost. One proposed solution is to take the cost of the home energy improvements and incorporate them into property taxes each month. Turning the payments into a monthly obligation would allow for a scenario where the monthly energy cost savings would be offset the change in property taxes.

Additionally, the report covers a collaboration between the Department of Labor, the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency to establish national workforce certifications and training standards. The goal would be to expand the home energy retrofit workforce and to build a foundation of strong consumer confidence.

This is great step towards expanding the cost effective solutions that can help alleviate the strain that energy bills place on so many families. The real challenge will be catalyzing consumer action in making a smart investment in their home. The proposed changes should initiate job creation in a field that needs a rapid expansion in both quality assurance and opportunity to homeowners.

To learn more read the report and executive summary here.

Here is a link to additional commentary from The New York Times.

Does the Smart Grid Need "Smart" Consumers?

As we get to watch the initial development and deployment of the smart grid, many people are trying to predict what it will ultimately look like. There are many eager stakeholders surrounding the issue from all sides. Entrepreneurs are looking for their niche, environmentalists are looking to reduce carbon emissions, and consumers are looking to make life a little cheaper to navigate.

While there is still much uncertainty, pilot projects and studies are setting some guidelines. Researchers have found that one of the keys to energy and cost savings comes from giving residential utility customers access to a dynamic pricing plan (real-time market based pricing, hourly day-ahead pricing, or time-of-use rates).  However within all the possibility of new economic development and efficiency, there are skeptics fearing that investment into a smart grid might not bear its potential due to consumers who would not be able to respond to the new dynamics. Power Smart Pricing customers are pivotal pioneers in proving that it does not take sophisticated technologies or a certain passion to achieve the milestones a complete smart grid offers.

We have used the Ambient Price Light and now twitter to get our customers price information, and we are actively seeking out new opportunities. Data from past summers has shown that energy consumption has been diverted away from peak times and lessens the need for electricity generation to come from the least efficient and dirtiest sources reserved for critical power peaks. Power Smart Pricing customers are now saving 17% since the beginning of the program in 2007 compared to what they would have paid had they stayed on the standard flat rate.

Power Smart Pricing customers have all made the decision on their own that this type of program is a better option for their household. They have used their own factors to weigh its benefits, but in the end they are just ordinary people doing as they always do. Our customers deserve all the credit, and they are shaping the expansion of the smart grid whether they know it or not.

Check out this interesting discussion on the topic of "Smart Consumers."

Team Illinois in 2nd Place at DOE Solar Decathlon

With two days left of the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, Team Illinois is currently in second place behind Team California. As of this post, Team Germany narrowly sits behind them with just a couple categories remaining to be scored.

The Solar Decathlon brings teams from all over the world to the National Mall in Washington, DC to literally build a home on the Mall. The houses are scored in 10 contests: Architecture, Market Viability, Engineering, Lighting Design, Communications, Comfort Zone, Hot Water, Appliances, Home Entertainment and Net Metering.

Team Illinois is made up of students from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. The Gable House is constructed using wood from a 100 year old barn that's outfitted with highly efficient solar panels. The combination of design and energy generation allows the house to generate 4 times as much energy as it consumes.

Take a tour of the home through its construction in the video below.

Check back to the DOE Solar Decathlon website for tons of media and up to the minute scoring.

Also check out UIUC's Gable Home page for more information on their house.

Consumer Electronics Rising Fast

As Massachusetts is considering to become the second state (after California) to incorporate energy efficiency stipulations for televisions and other electronic devices like DVD players, it reveals an interesting pattern in the average American's energy consumption. Consumer electronics are becoming more and more prevalent throughout our homes and now represents 15% of our household energy usage. According to the International Energy Agency this number is expected to triple over the next couple decades.

There are not just more gadgets, but they are getting bigger and more sophisticated.  This is the same path that many of our appliances have taken. Refrigerators used to be smaller while still using more electricity. A New York Times article from a couple weeks ago has an excellent chart showing the change in efficiency in our appliances since 1990. Advancements in energy efficiency has allowed us to store more cake... and it eat it too!

In 1990, refrigerator efficiency standards went into effect in the United States. Today, new refrigerators are fancier than ever, but their power consumption has been slashed by about 45 percent since the standards took effect. Likewise, thanks in part to standards, the average power consumption of a new washer is nearly 70 percent lower than a new unit in 1990.

Energy efficiency has long been seen as the most cost effective way to lower our energy costs. It also provides a way for us to keep doing the things we want without having to pay more for them. If you want to watch ultra-sharp big screen TV all day that's your choice. Would it bother anyone if it cost less?

The aforementioned New York Times article.

Google PowerMeter Annouces Partnership with TED

Google's online energy management software, PowerMeter, will now be compatible with The Energy Detective series of display devices to watch your real-time energy usage. The move shows that Google is continuing to expand their software in both platform availability and ability. It also gives TED devices a much needed boost in relevance.

Unfortunately the TED devices cannot be set up to display the price of a real-time pricing program (or one that uses day-ahead prices). Their office claims that the expanded service could be available "soon." However, the device would still be an excellent way to manage your household energy usage. If you continued to check prices through our already available channels while then using TED to get up to the second usage data, then you could be assured that the steps you are taking to conserve your usage are working.


Currently you have to wait until your billing period is up to examine your hour by hour usage through Ameren's Energy Saving Toolkit, but this product would be a dramatically more effective tool to make the most cost cutting changes. Some Power Smart Pricing customers have said they like the program because it's feels like a game to see how much they can save and how much they can shift. With a TED device you could get a high price notification or receive the Daily Price Report from twitter and know exactly which hours you should conserve and then get the immediate feedback that you are doing it properly.

The cost of the device ranges from $100 - $250. It has to be attached to your circuit breaker and wired into your home so unless you are comfortable with that kind of work you will probably want to hire an electrician. Ultimately the cost seems small enough that if you actively used the newly available information, along with the price signals from Power Smart Pricing, that you could make up that initial investment in a relatively short amount of time.

For more on the TED-Google Partnership.

For more information on a TED device.

The Ted Store.

10/4 Energy & Environment Links

Lemnis Lighting’s LED Bulb: It Dims But Costs $40

Standard-household-sized LED bulbs have long raised a common complaint: They don’t dim easily. Yeah, some can be dimmed by controlling the current instead of the voltage, or by making them flicker at high speeds undetectable by the human eye, but homeowners can’t just plug them into their normal light sockets and expect their dimmers to work. But that looks to be changing, with the launch of an LED bulb to replace a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb from Netherlands-based Lemnis Lighting on Friday.

Start-up crunches data for home energy efficiency tips

When it comes to saving money on utility bills, good data beats out fancy energy displays any day, say the founders of energy efficiency start-up Opower. The Arlington, Va.-based company on Thursday officially launched its energy efficiency recommendation service, after months of operating in stealth mode. Opower, previously called Positive Energy, has signed on with 18 utilities in the U.S. to provide customer usage information and recommendations on how to lower consumption of electricity and heating fuel.

Chumby One improves on predecessor

Two-years after the first Chumby helped kick-start widgets in Wi-Fi gadgets, a new version looks likely for November. First spied on blurrycam in August, the Chumby One has a new hard shell, FM and Internet radio, and a faster processor.

IL Solar Tour Kick Off

This weekend the American Solar Energy Society is kicking off their National Solar Tour which includes many homes in Illinois. The tour will highlight solar options available with an additional focus on energy-saving techniques and sustainability. It will surely be a great place to talk to members of your community about the benefits and more importantly the things to watch out for when purchasing solar energy equipment.

Solar power can be a great addition for people who are on a real-time pricing program because those times that have the highest prices will generally occur when energy output from the sun is also at its peak, hot summer afternoons). As every home is a bit different, this tour provides a great way for you, as a homeowner, to seek out some very useful information.

For more information and to find a tour near you go to http://ases.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=549&Itemid=35

In Southern Illinois there you might be able to join this one (mostly along the Southern Illinois wine trail).

There are also a few around the Champaign-Urbana metro area, including the passive solar Smith House that has been covered on the blog.

Illinois Solar Energy Association www.illinoissolar.org