What does the future hold for utility electricity efficiency programs?

This study develops projections of future spending and savings from electricity efficiency programs funded by electric utility customers in the United States through 2030 based on three scenarios. Our analysis relies on detailed bottom-up modeling of current state energy efficiency policies, demand-side management and integrated resource plans, and regulatory decisions. The three scenarios represent a range of potential outcomes given the policy environment at the time of the study and uncertainties in the broader economic and state policy environment in each state. We project spending to increase to $8.6 billion in 2030 in the medium scenario, about a 45 percent increase relative to 2016 spending. In the high case, annual spending increases to $11.1 billion in 2030 and remains relatively flat in the low case ($6.8 billion in 2030). Our analysis suggests that electricity efficiency programs funded by utility customers will continue to impact load growth significantly at least through 2030, as savings as a percent of retail sales are forecast at 0.7 percent in the medium scenario and 0.98 percent in the high scenario.     

Focusing and improving traditional energy efficiency strategies

Energy efficiency can get us about half of the way to long-term climate goals. Traditional energy efficiency strategies — vehicle and appliance efficiency standards, building energy codes, utility energy efficiency programs and Energy Star — can provide about half the achievable efficiency savings (i.e., savings of about one-quarter of projected 2050 energy use). However, these strategies can benefit from a variety of improvements, and other programs and policies addressing buildings, transportation and industry can achieve substantial additional savings. These efficiency policies can be combined with strategies involving no- and low-carbon energy sources to put the United States on a trajectory toward meeting long-term energy and climate targets.     

Non-energy benefits: Workhorse or unicorn of energy efficiency programs?

Non-energy benefits of energy efficiency programs have been studied as early as 1993, and there have been hundreds of papers and reports published since then, many of them finding that NEB are significant. Yet many U.S. states do not include NEB in their cost-benefit analyses. This article tries to provide some insight into this mismatch between the findings of NEB research and policy by analyzing the empirical basis of such research.     

Pursuing innovative finance models to enable beneficial energy and water infrastructure and systems

This paper explores how large-expenditure financing programs and other funding resources can be utilized to enable effective investment in projects with energy and water co-benefits that otherwise may not be done. It identifies current and potential practices, partnerships, and arrangements that could enable various aspects of the project development process to be more effective, leading to better individual projects and more beneficial overall investment in the energy-water sector.     

The public benefits of leasing energy efficient equipment

Utility-led leasing solutions can overcome several key barriers to customer adoption of new, efficient products that are overlooked by traditional energy efficiency programs or non-utility leasing programs, as a program proposed by Puget Sound Energy illustrates. By encouraging the installation of energy efficient equipment, a utility-led leasing program would generate significant benefits in terms of bill savings, enhanced comfort and quality of life, avoided energy costs, avoided capacity costs, and avoided emissions.     

Seeking energy equity through energy storage

Numerous states have adopted legislation and policy measures aimed at achieving greater equity across essential energy services on which underserved communities rely to meet basic needs. Equity is highlighted in the Biden-Harris January 2021 Executive Order No. 13,985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities” (Exec. Order (2021)). When applied to the energy & utilities sector, ”energy equity” refers to the condition in which energy is provided to all in a consistent and systematically fair, just, and impartial manner regardless of race, geography, social standing, or economic position.Following this definition, energy equity is fundamental to healthy and prosperous social and economic systems, and contributes to regional and national security and stability. Data show that underserved populations generally suffer disproportionately from power outages, high energy prices, and polluting energy generation facilities. Numerous policy measures that include energy storage (i.e., residential, commercial, and utility scale batteries, and other technologies) can help provide energy equity to all populations. These policy measures address procurement mandates, replacement of peaker units, financial incentives, ownership policies and community projects, integrated resource planning and pilot programs, resilience, and long duration energy storage.     

DSM照明节电工程示范

DSM照明节电示范项目是在政府节能主管部门支持下首次采用市场化运作,由市场配置节电资源的DSM节电示范工程,2003年7月在上海市和河北省2个示范地区正式启动,2004年10月结束。文章简要介绍了项目的目标和任务、项目的管理体制、项目的市场障碍,项目的运作机制和项目的实施效果。     

Consumer willingness to pay for community solar in New Jersey

Clean energy policy and technology are important in reducing the impacts of greenhouse gases. Understanding location community solar and expected benefits is vital for successful policy optimization. We assess public preferences for community solar programs with attributes such as land-use array, proximity, reduction of fossil fuel generation, environmental quality, and energy cost savings in New Jersey. There is preference for development of community solar in commercial areas, followed by landfills, and farmlands.     

Consequences of large customer opt-out: An Ohio example

Opt-out policies allow large customers to withdraw from participation in utility sector efficiency programs. Our analysis shows these policies impose high costs, including increased utility system investments due to higher demand, increased air pollution within the state and surrounding regions, higher health costs because of the increased air pollution, and lost bill savings opportunities for large customers, leading to lost economic growth. We examine the consequences using Ohio as an example.     

Solar-plus-storage economics: What works where,and why?

This paper explores the economics of solar-plus-storage projects for commercial-scale, behind-the-meter applications. It provides insight into the near-term and future solar-plus-storage market opportunities across the U.S. We explore the impacts of location, building load profile, technology cost, utility rate structure, and policies on solar-plus-storage economic viability, and identify which factors are most significant to project economics. While savings from storage-only projects are largely derived from demand charge reductions, solar combined with storage also provides significant energy charge savings. A common assumption is that load profiles with peaks are likely candidates for savings from storage, due to the opportunity for demand charge reduction. Our results indicate that potential for savings from combining solar with storage is independent of building load variability, likely due to the energy cost reductions from the solar. Systems are more often economical under time of use and demand charge rates, particularly when demand charges are >$10 per kilowatt. Where systems were found to be economical, expected lifetime savings averaged between 7%–10%, with savings of 30% in numerous cases. Near term markets exist for solar-plus-storage in locations such as California and New York. As technology prices drop, the number of building types that can benefit increase, and additional markets appear in Colorado, New Mexico, and Alaska. All data from the study and interactive modeling results are available at: https://openei.org/wiki/Solar+Storage.     

U.S. energy,climate and nuclear power policy in the 21st century: The primacy of national security

This paper analyzes global and regional energy and CO₂ trends and concludes: 1) Domestic U.S. policies alone will not insulate the U.S. from the impacts of climate change; 2) The U.S. should triage climate change as a global threat by focusing on regions where CO₂ emissions are most acute; and 3) The U.S. civilian nuclear enterprise should be elevated in U.S. energy and climate policy in order to meet global climate and national security objectives.     

The role of U.S. nuclear power in the 21st century

In the 20th century, the U.S. established itself as the global leader in nuclear science, engineering and technology, in large part because of policy principles established in the 1940s and 1950s. However, with 20% of its current nuclear fleet at risk of premature closure, limited nuclear construction projects on the horizon and increased competition from state-owned nuclear programs in China and Russia, America’s 20th century legacy of leadership may not be sustained in the 21st century.     

美国能效电厂机制建设经验与借鉴

能效电厂是节约能源、提高能效的有效措施。介绍美国能效电厂组织框架体系的3种类型。其基本做法是综合资源规划、电费附加、售电量与收入脱钩、能效评估测量与认证、需求侧响应等。分析比较能效电厂不同主体下成本收益情况,对我罔开展能效项目提出了相关建议及措施。     

Decarbonization of electricity requires market-based demand flexibility

To effectively decarbonize the electric sector, utilities will need to address the growing load shape challenges driven by the variability of many renewable resources. Behind-the-meter solutions, such as energy efficiency, demand response, electrification and storage, will play an important role in grid stability, but only if they can deliver changes in demand that meet the time and locational needs of the grid. This article will discuss how smart meter interval data, combined with open source methods and software, provide transparent measurement of savings load shapes (resource curves) that enable the integration of demand flexibility into energy, capacity and carbon markets, and as a transmission and distribution resource. This allows utilities to procure demand flexibility in the same way they procure other resources by leveraging a price signal and pay-for-performance to drive innovation and attract private investment.     

燃气分布式能源的多目标敏感性分析研究

为了获取对燃气分布式能源能效、经济、环保影响较大的参数,进而指导项目的建设与运行,建立燃气分布式能源系统在热力性能、工程经济性、环保性能方面的能效计算与敏感性分析模型。以某国际机场燃气分布式能源为例,对其进行能效分析与敏感性分析,分析结果表明,提高发电效率、制冷系统COP(制冷系数),有利于一次能源节约率的大幅提高; 天然气价和冷价对系统经济性的影响较大,在燃气分布式能源项目的设计应用中需充分考虑; NOx和SO2对减排量收入的影响非常突出,CO2对环境影响方面更为突出。     

Future energy goals for Maryland: Greenhouse gas reductions

Legislative requirements in Maryland set very robust goals for the implementation of energy efficiency by utilities. Significant energy savings has been achieved in all customer sectors and efficiency gains have been made over time in equipment and building construction. Looking forward, utilities should implement programs to promote energy efficiency with a greater emphasis on GHG reductions. Feasibility studies need to occur, but flexibility is key given changing codes and standards and market transformation.     

Electrical Energy Losses in Power Systems

Today's power system engineer is perplexed by the pressure to ``do something' about wasted energy. His need is to know where losses exist in system components, how he can measure them, what are the theoretical savings, and what he can do about them. An introduction to this mushrooming subject is given, typical loss data on electrical equipment are provided, and measurement problems are discussed. System design criteria for reducing losses are examined. A check list for decreasing losses, comments on operating losses, and discussion on future savings and trends are included.     

江苏省能效资源潜力及能效电厂研究

介绍了江苏省能效资源潜力分析方法和工业电机等8类挖掘能效资源的DSM方案,并从成本效益的角度进行了全面分析,得出10年后江苏省能效资源可实现年累计节电量42373GWh,削减高峰负荷15335MW．具有较好的经济效益和社会效益。最后提出了能效电厂的概念．并设计了江苏省第1个能效电厂的组成方案。     

Developing a legal framework for energy storage technologies in the U.S: The case of pumped underground storage hydro

The Energy Act of 2020 authorizes $1 billion over five years from 2021 to 2025 to support energy storage development in the United States. In addition, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Orders 841 and 2222 opened the wholesale energy markets for distributed energy resources, including energy storage. The statute and orders pave the way for novel energy storage technologies to participate in electricity markets as the qualifying facilities, thereby expanding opportunities for energy storage development. However, the existing policy, legal, and regulatory regime, including these much-welcomed newcomers, fails to recognize and support the entire spectrum of benefits that some forms of energy storage create. In this paper, we focus on Pumped Underground Storage Hydro (PUSH), a variant of pumped hydro storage (PHS), which currently provides over 90% of the world's energy storage capacity. PUSH operates with the same principle as PHS; however, it is an entirely underground variant of PHS. In addition to becoming competitive in the wholesale electricity market, PUSH facilities can be developed as community infrastructure in the postindustrial landscape, particularly in abandoned underground mines. Given federal energy law and policy development, this paper identifies how communities with abandoned mines, technically feasible for PUSH facilities and operating as municipal-owned utilities or cooperatives, can participate and take advantage of federal legislation. We further look into the implications through the lens of technical, economic, and social aspects of energy justice. We consider energy justice as a conceptual framework that seeks to explain the occurrence of injustice within energy system decisions and outcomes and how policymakers can respond to these injustices. We use it as a conceptual tool for understanding policy formulation and detailing the energy system's missing ethical and justice dimension. We argue that as a technically mature technology, PUSH facilities can act as a potential means to speed up the energy transition in the United States. The federal and state law along with utility market structures are vital in shaping the potential opportunities and barriers for energy storage facilities like PUSH. We show that although it supports PUSH development, there are gaps in the current market structure, specifically in the regulatory framework, when seen through the lens of justice and valuation of just energy services. These gaps limit the realization of utility-scale energy storage technology's potential to fully contribute to a decarbonized energy system that is more resilient and more just than the incumbent system.     

爱尔兰能效与节能状况

提高能源效率是爱尔兰可持续能源政策的重要组成部分。能源效率是国际公认的减少对化石燃料依赖的最有成本效益的方法。能源效率是爱尔兰发展绿色经济的强大基础。爱尔兰需要紧急采取重点突出的集体行动,建设高效低碳的能源系统。论述了爱尔兰住宅、商业和工业的节能经济潜力和提高能源效率的政府措施。