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July’s National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) newsletter, Connecting Point, kicks off with a spotlight on Pulse Energy’s work with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). NRECA is the national service organization for more than 900 not-for-profit rural electric cooperatives and public power districts.
Source: Pulse Energy
Utilities
ComEd today announced its energy efficiency programs have saved customers more than $400 million on their electric bills over the past five years. New this year for small businesses, ComEd will cover up to 75 percent (increased from 50 percent) of recommended energy efficiency upgrades offered through its Small Business Energy Savings Program.
Source: Marketwatch
RealEnergyWriter’s Elisa Wood interviewed Ed White, VP of Customer and Business Strategy for National Grid US. The utility, which serves 7 million electric and gas customers in the Northeast states, is promoting the idea of greater “energy productivity” – the amount of economic activity we can wring out of each unit of energy.
Source: GreenBiz
An Idaho electric cooperative, Clearwater Company, has come up with nearly a dozen ways to help its consumer-members save energy, and the tips appear to be producing savings and smiles across the co-op’s service territory. Within a year, the co-op’s 2012 Touchstone Energy Cooperatives ACSI survey showed a score improvement from 75 to 81, which officials believe is largely attributable to this campaign.
Source: Electric Co-op Today
Southwestern Pennsylvania’s two utilities, Duquesne Light and West Penn Power, told state regulators they’ve satisfied the first phase of Pennsylvania’s energy efficiency and conservation mandates and reduced their total energy consumption by 3 percent over the past four years. Much of their success was attributed to programs that incentivized customers to swap their incandescent lights with energy efficient options.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) have executed a contract that will extend the operation of Efficiency Smart – AMP’s successful energy efficiency program – beyond its initial three-year contract term. Launched in January 2011, Efficiency Smart provides a broad range of energy efficiency services for AMP member utilities.
Source: American Municipal Power
Utilities – Business
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed a major LIPA reform bill that will, for all intents and purposes, do away with the beleaguered Long Island Power Authority, a not for profit municipal electric company that owns the retail electric system on Long Island and provides electric service to over 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Cuomo said that the restructuring bill he created would place Public Service Enterprise Group, headquartered out of Newark, New Jersey, in almost complete control of LI-based electrical services.
Source: CBS Local
Xcel Energy Inc. would move its headquarters out of Minneapolis if the city creates a new municipal utility to serve residents in place of Xcel, CEO Ben Fowke has said. Fowke told the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s editorial board, “There is not a utility in the nation that has their headquarters in a city that has municipalized.”
Source: Denver Business Journal
FortisBC has received approval from the BC Utilities Commission for our Advanced Metering (smart meters) Infrastructure (AMI) project. However, in an email sent out by the company Tuesday afternoon, FortisBC officials say the BCUC’s decision is lengthy and “we have a responsibility to our customers to properly review it before making a commitment to moving forward with the project.”
Source: Castanet
Institutions, Cities & States
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced an expanded energy-efficiency program that will enable building owners to pay over time rather than up front for projects that cut energy use and utility bills. “Clean Fund expects to finance roughly $100 million in qualified projects over an initial three-year period,” said John Kinney, chief executive of Clean Fund, which has financed similar projects in California and other states.
Source: JS Online
Northern Washington’s Community Energy Challenge will receive accelerated funding from the Northwest Clean Air Agency to continue its residential and commercial energy efficiency programs. The funds come from BP’s Cherry Point refinery to offset its carbon dioxide emissions.
Source: The Bellingham Herald
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) presented UC San Diego with a $7.2 million check representing energy efficiency incentives earned through implementation of 30 energy efficiency projects from 2010 to 2012.Through the 30 projects implemented during a three-year period, UC San Diego has saved more than 21 million kilowatt hours (kWh), 2.1 million therms and reduced more than 2 megawatts (MW) of demand.
Source: The Sacramento Bee
North America
More states are adopting policies that enable electric utilities to promote energy efficiency as a sustainable business, according to IEE, an Institute of the Edison Foundation. Electric efficiency budgets in 2012 totaled $6.9 billion, a 27 percent increase above 2010 levels, and the IEE predicts that electric efficiency budgets will exceed $14 billion by 2025.
Source: Fierce Energy
The GridWise® Alliance and the Smart Grid Policy Center announced the release of the first Grid Modernization Index (GMI), which evaluates and ranks states based on their progress in modernizing their electric systems with smart grid technologies. California, Texas and Maryland led the ranking, with Delaware and Pennsylvania rounding out the top five.
Source: PR Newswire
International
The Energy Information Administration’s recently released International Energy Outlook 2013 projects that world energy consumption will grow by 56% between 2010 and 2040. Renewable energy and nuclear power are the world’s fastest-growing energy sources, but fossil fuels are expected to supply nearly 80% of world energy use through 2040.
Source: EIA
As part of its New Energy Consumer Handbook, Accenture released a special report on small and medium businesses (SMBs) – the untapped energy consumer. The research highlights that there are 125 million SMBs globally, who are seeking “new opportunities to reduce operational costs while still fueling growth.”
Source: Pulse Energy
The British public was glued to its television screens for the first appearance of its future king, causing an 800MW suppression of electricity supply according to National Grid. “To put it into context there was a 1000MW drop during the Murray final recently,” said a National Grid spokesperson.
Source: Utility Week
Toshiba Transmission and Distribution Europe S.p.A. (TTDE), an Italian Toshiba Group company, has signed an agreement for the joint development of energy management systems optimized for the eurozone with ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. The agreement covers wide range matters including energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, smart grids, electric storage for the grid and electric mobility.
Source: BusinessWire
Please send story suggestions or comments about This Week in Energy Efficiency to Peter J. Cavan