This Week in Energy Efficiency – March 25, 2013

Internal

Pulse Energy congratulated its customers for their Earth Hour efforts, particularly the City of Vancouver, Royal BC Museum and Library Square. This year’s success coincided with Vancouver’s selection as Global Earth Hour Capital by the World Wildlife Fund.
Source: Pulse Energy

Utilities

Peco Energy has proposed installing its 1.6 million smart meter installations by the end of 2014, five years ahead of current plans. Moving $282m in capital expenditure forward, as requested, should save $58 million from avoiding meter system duplication.
Source: Philly

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) will convert the pilot of its ‘Complete Energy Solutions’ into a full three-year program, after the first 400 small and medium businesses saved 8GWh. Complete Energy Solutions pays for comprehensive energy-efficiency retrofits, using an innovative whole-building approach.
Source: Fierce Energy

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today announced that it was named a top utility for smart grid implementation by GreenTech Media and GTM Research, leading analysts of clean energy markets and technology. This marks the second year in a row that PG&E received a North American Networked Utility Award.
Source: PG&E

Atlantic City Electric was ranked the most effective of the 31 utilities affected by Hurricane Sandy last October. A review by J.D. Power and Associates interviewed 5,900 customers in January in 15 states affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Source: Atlantic City

Pacific Gas & Electric named Tim Fitzpatrick as its new vice president of corporate relations and chief communications officer. Fitzpatrick will oversee PG&E’s external and internal communications and its advertising department, after leading corporate communications for Florida’s NextEra Energy since 2008.
Source: PG&E Currents

Institutions, Cities & States

A Distributed Energy Financial Group analysis found that participation in prepaid electricity service results in an average reduction in energy usage of 11%. The savings are achievable without a significant outlay by the customer in equipment, representing an average residential saving of $192 in the Oklahoma area studied.
Source: DEFG

North America

Employment in energy efficiency is expected to increase in 2013, according to the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP), led by growth in the commercial and industrial sector, an area which is ripe for energy efficiency improvements. AESP surveyed its members who projected a 63 percent increase in the number of employees involved in energy efficiency and demand response activities in 2013.
Source: Fierce Energy

International

Driven by a unified effort to showcase Russia’s economic strength during the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup, the country is aggressively pursuing much needed infrastructure investments in their electrical infrastructure. These investments are projected to grow their smart grid market from $5.5 billion in 2012 to $15.7 billion in 2017.
Source: Zpryme

London has been chosen to host the United Kingdom’s ‘catapult’ centre leading the Technology Strategy Board’s Future Cities strategy, with up to £150 million (~$223 million) funding to support the development of smart city technologies. Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that the London catapult will be launched later this year, and will be tasked with looking at ways to integrate services across a number of areas including health, transport, energy and
public safety.
Source: ComputerWorld UK

German utility E.ON SE has extended the contract of Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen by five years, part of a wider reshuffle of the company’s board that will see some executives replaced. Mr. Teyssen will retain his position through 2018, leaving him to steer one of Europe’s largest utilities through an environment of low energy demand, power plant over-capacity and weak power prices.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Melbourne has reduced and offset its emissions to become a certified carbon-neutral city under Australia’s National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). The city has also launched several programmes to reduce its energy consumption and emission production as part of the Net Zero Emissions strategy.
Source: CleanTechnica

Please send story suggestions or comments about This Week in Energy Efficiency to Peter J. Cavan