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Conserving energy provides the most effective investment in the
energy technology market today. Besides being cost efficient (any
saving falls directly to the bottom line), many like to quote the
saying that the “Greenest” kilowatt of energy is the one never used. To
accomplish these savings, consumers have a growing set of choices to
save energy, either through conservation measures where they choose to
reduce non-critical loads, or through higher efficiency equipment and
control systems. Lighting
Lighting is one of the largest areas energy demands in the residential
and commercial markets and thus remains one of the prime targets for
the introduction of improved technology. This market for products is
also significant, with the general illumination market (office,
residential and basic commercial lighting applications such as ceiling
or wall mounted, desktop and floor based fixtures) averaging over $70
billion in annual sales.
Compact fluorescents and LED lighting are just some of the advanced
technologies that have made their way into the market. Besides saving
money for consumers through reduced energy bills, their use is also an
effective way for utilities to reduce the growth of demand. For that
reason, many utilities participate in rebate programs to encourage the
greater use of these products in order to reduce their peak demand
throughout their region.
White Tags
White tags
are to energy efficiency as a renewable energy credit (REC) is to
renewable energy—a means to quantify an amount of energy saved from
investment in either equipment or process changed. Two states have
already included White Tags into their Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS) programs due to the real environmental benefit that energy
efficiency brings to the energy mix.
Quantifying and packaging the savings involved in an energy efficiency
program, facilitates the monetization process needed to help pay for
the development and expansion of energy efficiency programs. This has
proven to be a very successful and necessary component in the development
of renewable energy programs, so many feel that this type of product
will similarly help the development of the energy efficiency market.
Green Buildings
Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is gaining visibility in
the last few years, especially through the recent development of the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. At the
heart of the LEED program is the Green Building Rating System®—a
voluntary, consensus based national standard for developing
high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Through the LEED program, “green building” can be defined through a
common measurement standard to promote integrated, whole-building
design practices, and to provide a complete framework for assessing
building performance and meeting sustainability goals, including energy
efficiency. Including thermal energy storage systems in the design
helps buildings qualify for points in the “Energy & Atmosphere”
section toward the overall total score of the building. A higher score
ensures not only lower overall operating costs of the building, but
corresponds to a healthier building environment, and thus a greater
demand for space in the building by potential tenants.
Metering
The measurement of the use of energy is the most fundamental issue in
managing energy use. The supply side of the industry is based on the
exact measurement as to how much and when energy is produced. The
demand side of the power industry has always had less accurate
knowledge as to their energy usage, but that was not a significant
issue in the prior regulated market.
High energy prices and the slow but inexorable movement towards
deregulation of retail energy markets has been making the metering of
the demand side ever more important. For many years it has been known
that an important issue with energy efficiency programs (both
governmental and corporate) is the verification of those savings. All
of these efforts rely on the deployment of advanced energy metering
technologies.
Demand Response
Demand Response (DR) programs create a dispatchable and verifiable
reduction in system load. Demand Response refers to customers ‘selling’
load back to the system in response to a market signal. The goal of
these utility-run programs is to provide an additional and flexible
resource for the system-operator during peak demand periods so as to
prevent wholesale power price spikes or blackouts—isolated or system
wide. End-use customers (large commercial and industrial customers) are
paid a capacity-based ($/MW) monthly fee for participating in the
program, plus an energy-based ($/MWh) fee for the amount of power not
used. Demand response programs directly reduce prices and price
volatility and enhance customer choice. They provide options for
consumers to alter their usage during peak demand to both protect
against losses, and provide a means to even generate revenue if their
load is flexible. Integrated into a regional market, these programs can
be self-sustaining since they align the needs of the system operator
(more resources) with those of load serving entities (a market to sell
the timely resource) and customers (minimize their cost of electric
service).
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