by Matt Golden on February 10, 2010
Near-real-time rate and usage information will help Californians manage electricity use and reduce costs
Late last year the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) quietly handed down a set of policy decisions that will have a profound impact on energy management here in California.
The provisions set forth in the document – which was developed in response to regulatory obligations imposed on all states by the federal Energy Information and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 – will guarantee access to electricity rate and usage information for most of the state’s utility customers, and for third parties that have been authorized to receive the information. With the widespread deployment of smart grid and smart meter technology, this data will give utility customers and energy efficiency businesses the tools they need to monitor and control household electricity, leading to lower energy bills for millions of California homeowners.
“Data access is the key to maximizing the effectiveness of smart grid technology,” said CPUC Commissioner Dian Grueneich, who has been a tireless advocate for making energy efficiency a cornerstone of state energy policy. “These rulings will play an important role as we strive to transform the way Californians think about and use energy.”
The CPUC decision is part of an ongoing process that was launched to align state energy policy with EISA requirements, and with federal requirements pertaining to American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for electricity grid modernization.
The CPUC set a goal for the state’s three largest power companies (Southern California Edison Company, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric Company) to make usage information available to customers and authorized third parties by the end of this year. Ultimately, the three utilities will be required to install smart meters for all customers and make usage and price data available on a near-real-time basis. Four smaller utility companies were excluded from the ruling on the basis that doing so would “both increase the costs and diminish the benefits of the EISA requirements.”
The decision states that next phase of the proceeding will be to “consider rules to provide customers and third parties with access to usage and price data consistent with Energy Information and Security Act of 2007 standards, the general public interest, and state privacy rules.”
by Shana Fong on January 4, 2010
2009 was a fantastic year for progress and support of green building. Some of our favorite green building trends of the year were:
- The increase in net zero energy building. Check out the Palo Alto historic retrofit we did here: Palo Alto Net Zero
- Energy efficiency retrofits finally get financing support. CA has set aside over $3 billion, most of which will come from utility rebates.
- Property assessed clean energy loans (PACE) gain popularity and are implemented in several states and municipalities.
See Greentech Media’s Top Ten in Green Building in 2009.
by Shana Fong on December 9, 2009
In a speech on Tuesday, December 8 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama singled out residential energy retrofits as one of the keys to near-term job creation for American workers. This is a big opportunity – 17 of our nation’s construction workers are out of work, and more than 20% of our nation’s carbon emissions come from residential buildings. With home retrofitting, we can put those workers back to work while making millions of US homes more energy efficient, helping homeowners everywhere save energy – and carbon and money – in the process. For more details and a transcript/video of the President’s speech, click here.
by Marcia on November 30, 2009
A well-constructed climate bill would boost the economy by $111 billion by 2020 and create 2 million jobs, according to researchers at Yale, Berkeley and the University of Illinois. The study is based on the climate and energy bill that passed the House in June and a similar measure under consideration in the Senate. It found that all 50 states would gain from a federal policy and Midwestern states would stand to gain more than coastal ones. TreeHugger (11/19)
by Shana Fong on November 18, 2009
Why do we love HOME STAR, aka Cash for Caulkers? Because it’s good for America.
And we’re not the only ones – all across the country, companies large and small are voicing their support for the HOME STAR program that was recently proposed to President Obama by venture capitalist John Doerr. And now that it was covered by the New York Times last night, we’re hoping that the Obama administration will see the program as we see it: enabling a long-term industry with hundreds of thousands (and potentially millions) of new, sustainable jobs that cannot be outsourced, that helps the U.S. achieve our energy and climate goals.
Why does HOME STAR matter?
- Jobless recovery and unemployment stats are daunting; nationwide unemployment is at 10.2%, with the construction industry being one of the hardest hit at 17%.
- The program has the potential to be as successful out of the gate as Cash for Clunkers. However, it is much more than a way to get old homes retrofitted — it’s the ticket to creating new jobs to offset job losses.
- It dovetails nicely and contains the same highly vetted language found in the Waxmen-Marky Bill and Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP), Recovery Through Retrofit and ARRA investments for worker retraining.
- Through HOME STAR, $23 billion would go to support 5.9 million home energy retrofits and create more than 500,000 and up to over 1 million new jobs.
This is the piece of the puzzle that we’ve been waiting for. It’s a win-win for helping American families.
by Shana Fong on November 9, 2009
Riding on the recent success of the Cash for Clunkers program that gave U.S. consumers an incentive to replace their gas-guzzling cars with fuel-efficient ones, the president is considering a program that would encourage Americans to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
John Doerr, a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, proposed creating a Cash for Caulkers program to encourage Americans to improve their homes’ efficiency. Doerr made the suggestion at Monday morning’s meeting of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB).
In addition to creating energy savings, Doerr suggested that retrofitting more than 100 million American homes would also create “high-wage, permanent jobs that will not be out-sourced.”
“Just as the Cash for Clunkers program mobilized American car dealers to promote their fuel-efficient cars, so could a Cash for Caulkers program engage private enterprise, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, to put private capital to work,” Doerr said.
Read the full article here: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/02/cash-for-caulkers-program-infrastructure-bank-proposed/
by Marcia on
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There is good news for people looking to green jobs to replace some of those in the recession. Clean-tech jobs often pay well, according to a report by PayScale and Clean Edge. Most of the jobs required a bachelor’s degree, and a large portion are engineering jobs. The New York Times/Green Inc. blog (10/15)
