Energy Matters Update - October 25, 2007

Volume 4, Number 7

Member utilities make clean-and-affordable energy news

PSE and EWEB efficiency programs honored;
PGE contributes $50K to help low-income consumers

Two NW Energy Coalition member utilities have been cited for their “exemplary” energy efficiency programs by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, while another is digging deep to help Oregon’s low-income energy consumers.

ACEEE, the prestigious Washington D.C.-based nonprofit research group, put Washington state’s largest utility, Puget Sound Energy, at the top of its list of exemplary residential lighting programs. Eugene (Ore.) Water & Electric Board’s power-use programs claimed the top spot in the category comprising municipal programs, multi-utility collaborative and multi-sector programs.

In addition, long-time Coalition partner Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance was cited for its exemplary Energy Star® residential lighting program.

Meanwhile, Coalition member utility Portland General Electric gave an extra $50,000 to Oregon HEAT, the Portland-based non-profit organization that assists low-income energy consumers. The donation is meant to help soften the impact of suspended Bonneville Power Administration “residential exchange” payments to customers of investor-owned utilities.

Puget gets aggressive

ACEEE honored Puget Sound Energy for its Energy Efficiency Services division’s residential lighting program. The program uses utility incentives to transform the market from conventional incandescent bulbs to high-efficiency Energy Star® qualified compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs and pin-based CFL fixtures. PSE targets its residential electric customers through a wide range of retail partners, advertising, promotion, utility marketing and educational materials.

"Our game plan for meeting customers' growing energy demands includes aggressive energy efficiency programs -- especially CFL lighting," said PSE vice president for Energy Efficiency Services, Cal Shirley. "Not only is it the right thing to do for the environment, but conservation costs less than building new power plants or buying energy on today's wholesale market, which saves our customers money."

Program achievements for 2006 include:

• Providing incentives toward the purchase of nearly 1.6 million CFLs
• Providing incentives for more than 24,000 CFL-based fixtures
• Combined program annual electricity savings of nearly 55,000 megawatt-hours
• Network of 165 participating retailers 

EWEB program broad and varied

Eugene Water & Electric Board's Energy Management Services was recognized for its long history of offering a broad range of conservation services, and for the variety of energy efficiency measures it provides its customers.

In the past 30 years, EWEB has invested more than $97 million in local home and business energy efficiency through its many conservation grants, rebates and low-cost loans. Those efforts have saved EWEB customers a cumulative 52 average megawatts of energy – more than annual output of all of EWEB's hydroelectric projects in Oregon.

According to Mat Northway, Energy Management Services Manager since 1984, those conservation savings reduced wholesale power bills by a total of more than $149 million – money that otherwise would have gone to BPA and other wholesale power generators.

"Instead, that money stayed in the community and lowered our cost of energy,” Northway said. “And those 52 average megawatts of efficiency improvements already installed continue to save at the rate of an additional $15 million each year." 

EWEB has identified an additional 54 average megawatts of cost-effective conservation available in the next 20 years and is now developing a strategy for delivering them.

The energy efficiency awards were announced Oct. 2 at a national energy efficiency conference in Berkeley, Cal. For a full listing of honorees, go to http://aceee.org/utility/exemplary_programs/0709exemplary-programs.pdf.

PGE contribution

Portland General Electric’s $50,000 donation to Oregon HEAT provides needed help to low-income Oregonians just as winter heating season hits.

Bonneville Power Administration suspended its “residential exchange” payments to residential and small-farm customers of investor-owned utilities when a federal court ruled the process for determining the payment illegal. The residential exchange spreads the benefits of low-cost federal power to homes and farms that aren’t served by the publicly owned utilities that get Bonneville power at cost.

Without those payments, the average residential customer’s bill has increased nearly $11 per month.

Including the special donation, PGE has provided nearly $480,000 this fiscal year to Oregon HEAT, the state's largest nonprofit organization providing energy assistance to low-income Oregonians. Oregon HEAT works with 34 local community service agencies to provide help to Oregon families in crisis and is itself a member of the NW Energy Coalition.