Electrical Utilities/Power Generation: GLRPPR Sector Resources

Conference: 2013 ACEEE National Conference on Energy Efficiency as a Resource

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:25:02 GMT

The ACEEE National Conference on Energy Efficiency as a Resource is specifically designed to focus on the issues related to utility-sector energy efficiency policies and programs. It brings together industry leaders to discuss the latest developments in the use of energy efficiency as a key resource for meeting customer and utility system needs and for addressing other critical economic and environmental objectives. This conference will highlight important advances being made in the design and delivery of customer energy efficiency programs, and in the regulatory mechanisms that help make them possible.

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Resource: Ohio's Energy Efficiency Resource Standard: Impacts on the Ohio Wholesale Electricity Market and Benefits to the State

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:25:32 GMT

Energy efficiency is still the lowest-cost energy resource to meet burgeoning demand and can be deployed much more quickly than new capacity can be constructed. While natural gas prices have reached historically low levels and an abundance of shale gas has been discovered in the Marcellus Formation, neither of these phenomena preclude the need for investments in energy efficiency. The value proposition to businesses and manufacturers, participants and non-participants alike, is unequivocal: energy efficiency reduces customer energy costs, both directly through facility efficiency improvements and through downward pressure on market energy prices. Energy efficiency also reduces risks associated with volatile energy markets and, ultimately, enhances the competitiveness of Ohio's businesses.

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News: EPA Delays Implementation of Power-Plant Emissions Rule

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:59:24 GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed indefinitely a much-anticipated final rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

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News: DOE Wireless Metering Challenge

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:29:12 GMT

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office announced plans to issue a new Wireless Metering Challenge to spur the development of low cost electric metering devices that can serve growing interest in panel level sub metering being seen throughout the commercial sector. Key features of the challenge specification include a low cost target, essential requirements for electrical energy measurement, and wireless data transmission to an onsite collection point. Draft specifications for the wireless metering device are now available for review.

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Resource: Engaging as Partners: Introducing Utilities to the Energy Efficiency Needs of Multifamily Buildings and Their Owners

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:21:59 GMT

CNT Energy and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) examine the factors that contribute to effective energy efficiency program design for multifamily buildings. The report provides an introduction for utilities and other energy efficiency program administrators to the multifamily housing sector, the market for energy efficiency within it, and the interests and concerns of sector stakeholders as related to energy efficiency. It outlines nine strategies that can help utilities design and implement energy efficiency programs that will attract multifamily building owners and achieve deep energy savings. It also provides examples of successful programs funded by utility-customers that demonstrate how effective energy efficiency program design benefits building owners, tenants, and utilities. Long-term benefits to multifamily building owners include direct savings on utility bills, reduced maintenance costs, and decreased tenant turnover.

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Resource: CARMA - Carbon Monitoring for Action

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:37:18 GMT

CARMA is a database containing information about the carbon emissions of over 60,000 power plants and 20,000 power companies worldwide.

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News: Water use in electricity generation: the sobering facts that make a case for wind and solar power

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:38:06 GMT

Did you know it takes 100,000 gallons of water to produce a single megawatt hour of electricity? Well according to a new report out today, it does -- unless you're using wind or solar power that is. So maybe, with much of the world battling more regular bouts of drought and water shortages it's something policy makers need to start taking more notice of?

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Resource: The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:36:52 GMT

This report challenges the underlying notion of the Clean Energy Standard: that "clean" can be measured by a single emission rate, ignoring land and water impacts and ignoring a technology's full life cycle. This report analyses six fuels used to generate electricity --- biomass, coal, nuclear, natural gas, solar (photovoltaic and concentrating solar power), and wind (both onshore and offshore). Water impacts, climate change impacts, air pollution impacts, planning and cost risk, subsidies and tax incentives, land impacts, and other impacts are all considered.

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News: Intel, Dow Cut Water Use, Spend Millions on Public Infrastructure

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:16:09 GMT

Intel is spending more than $200 million on public infrastructure, including water and wastewater facilities, at its operations in Ocotillo, Ariz., and has partnered with the nearby City of Chandler to implement water usage technologies that benefit both the company and the local community, according to a report by CH2M HILL. The report examines how water and wastewater costs affect business decisions across five industrial sectors: semiconductor manufacturing, thermal power generation, mining, chemicals, and oil and gas. It says an increasing demand for water resources is prompting companies to seek technological innovations and create partnerships to improve efficiency -- both at their facilities and in the surrounding communities -- and cut water-related costs.

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News: Illinois Coal Power Will Cost 'Up to 100% More than Wholesale'

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:41:54 GMT

The first-year cost of power from the Prairie State Energy Campus, a massive new coal-fired power plant project in Illinois, is 40 percent to 100 percent more than the current cost of power in the Midwest wholesale market, and is expected to remain higher for the next 10 to 13 years, according to an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report produced at the behest of anti-coal groups. The report, "The Prairie State Coal Plant: the Reality Versus the Promise," contends that developer Peabody Energy sold the project as a cheap source of power to public power entities representing 217 municipalities and 17 electric membership cooperatives in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. However, the PSEC project, a 1,600-megawatt, coal-fired electrical power station and coal mine, is now well over budget with construction costs ballooning from the projected $4 billion to an estimated $4.9 billion, the IEEFA says. Capital costs are included in the price of electricity from the project. The coal plant has elicited protests for years with critics saying the facility will emit an estimated 10 million tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants each year. However, the plant's owners have long argued the coal plant is more efficient and cleaner than other coal power stations and includes the best available environmental controls, including scrubbers that will remove most sulfur dioxide from the emissions.

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