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EnergySelected Results through ConsensusSee below for short articles on selected projects from RESOLVE’s Energy Practice.
Putting the ‘Fifth Fuel’ FirstIn his inaugural address last January, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter vowed to “create a New Energy Economy… in Colorado.” At the Western Governors Association (WGA)’s Energy Efficient Buildings Workshop in Denver this past July, Gov. Ritter called on over 125 participating home builders, developers, manufacturers, policy makers, legislators, utilities, financial and academic institutions, consumers, environmental advocates and other interested citizens to address climate change and meet growing energy demand by tapping “the richest sources of new energy,” conservation and efficiency. Several western states have already begun moving in this direction. Gov. Ritter capped his first 100 days in office by issuing a “Greening of State Government” executive order and signing several energy-related bills into law. Colorado and other western states have set their own energy efficiency goals reflecting the WGA’s regional goals, and several states have either required or established incentives to encourage the use of energy efficiency building standards. Oregon and California have taken steps to decouple utility profits from total sales of electricity; other states are also looking at ways to remove disincentives that penalize utilities for encouraging customer efficiency. Energy efficiency is sometimes called the “fifth fuel” to reflect its comparable importance to oil, coal, gas, and renewables as a resource for meeting energy demand. Kate Marks, Energy Program Manager for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), says that nowadays, “more and more legislators are thinking of efficiency as the first fuel.” Or, as Gov. Ritter told workshop participants, “the cheapest watt of electricity is the one that isn’t consumed at all.”
NCSL’s Marks agreed that it was valuable “to hear from builders and developers about how policymakers’ ideas actually play out at the project level.” For example, when Marks brought up the idea of energy efficient mortgages (EEMs) in a breakout session, others with experience in the field pointed out that “EEMs sound good, but don’t necessarily work in practice because lower rate mortgages are available.” Legislators like Kentucky state representative Tanya Pullin, who participated in a panel presentation, appreciated the feedback. After all, she said, “We’re not doing this for the next election; we are doing this for the next generation.” Contacts: Paul De Morgan and
Jennifer Peyser Re-thinking the Transmission Paradigm to bring Clean Energy to Markets
“Progress in expanding the transmission system has been excruciatingly slow,” said WGA Chair Freudenthal. “If we do not pick up the pace and expand the grid, we will miss a golden opportunity to gather and deliver abundant renewable resources that are currently constrained by their location.” Other panelists echoed this theme: the West is easily on its way to meeting policy goals for generating a substantial proportion of its electricity needs from wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The bottleneck – literally – remains a transmission system that was not designed for resources in remote locations. The WGA’s previous renewables transmission summit focused on wind, but this year’s meeting involved the geothermal and solar industries, along with utilities, independent system operators (ISOs) and organizations representing regulatory and legislative as well as non-governmental interests and perspectives. Surveying the 200 participants, WGA Executive Director Pam Inmann remarked on the “incredible array of talent and leadership in the room… You and your colleagues are the people who will enable the West to rise to the challenge of increasing renewable energy generation.” Governors Freudenthal and Ritter were joined on a panel by Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Marsha Smith and utility presidents Pat Vincent (Public Service Company of New Mexico) and Paul Bonavia (Xcel Energy). Panelists emphasized that it is not just a matter of building more transmission lines, but what FERC Commissioner Wellinghoff described as a “change in the paradigm” from “thinking about pockets of resource development” to “developing entire resource areas.” Wellinghoff described four FERC initiatives that address how transmission lines are financed and how the capacity is assigned to resources characterized by their size, remote location, and immobility of their fuel sources. Gov. Ritter emphasized the importance of the summit’s outcome. “By integrating renewables across the West, we minimize the necessary ‘firming’ [relying on other resources to ensure consistent power generation] we have traditionally associated with renewable development. This saves the utilities and our consumers money, and increases reliability of the grid.” Noting the lead time necessary to get transmission infrastructure in place, Governor Ritter concluded, “Time is of the essence.” Contacts: Katie Kalinowski "Outlook" is Good for Renewable EnergyIn an unprecedented consensus document reflecting the best information available to the biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind energy industries, renewable energy resources have the realistic potential to supply a third or more of America’s energy needs by 2025, according to a forecast released on May 1, 2007 by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). “This is the first time in the industry’s 30-year history that a consensus has been reached” on the overall potential for renewables, says ACORE President Michael T. Eckhart. Based on projections developed for ACORE’s November 2006 national policy conference, the Outlook on Renewable Energy in America outlines a scenario in which – given the political will and corresponding policies – renewable energy could provide over 600 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generating capacity by 2025, and supply 30-40% of America’s transportation fuel needs by 2030. RESOLVE facilitated the work of ACORE, five other nonprofit organizations, nine trade associations, and four government agencies in crafting the consensus document over a four-month period. In his March 21 testimony to the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Innovation, Eckhart underscored the economic, environmental, and national security benefits to the U.S. as well as to the global community of realizing such a scenario. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised ACORE’s work and acknowledged the need “to work in partnership with non-governmental leaders to harness the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of all stakeholders.” In March 2008, the State Department will host the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008), the third in a series of global ministerial-level events on renewable energy. Contact:
Paul De Morgan and Katie Kalinowski Duke Energy Pioneers Collaborative Approach To Energy EfficiencyOver 180 representatives of Kentucky’s utilities, energy consumers, government agencies, and environmental organizations came together last November for a statewide “energy efficiency summit” organized by Duke Energy and the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Energy Policy. The brainchild of Duke Energy CEO and President James E. Rogers, Utilities and Energy Efficiency: the Fifth Fuel was the first in a series of collaborative engagements being planned to create and implement energy efficiency action plans for each of Duke Energy’s service territories.
Duke has named Ted Schultz Vice President for Energy Efficiency, a new department of more than 40 people devoted entirely to advancing the utility’s energy efficiency efforts in new and creative ways across its five-state service area in Kentucky, the Carolinas, Indiana and Ohio. “Market conditions are driving the need to make energy efficiency a fundamental part of our nation’s energy plans going forward,” Schultz told participants at the Kentucky meeting. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher also addressed the action-oriented summit, announcing a $500,000 solicitation for building intellectual capacity and making energy efficiency expertise available to all Kentuckians. Fletcher noted that “the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency can only be achieved by everyone working together.” Schultz agreed, stressing the importance of “working with a diverse group of folks… [who] represent non-profits, environmental concerns, business and industry and others.” Along with feedback from customers and regulators, Schultz described this collaborative input as “fundamental to our efforts to decide how best to grow existing programs and develop new approaches.” Duke began working with RESOLVE staff last summer to plan and organize the Kentucky conference. A similar one-day summit will be held in Indiana on February 12. Under Rogers’ leadership, Duke, EPA, Edison Electric Institute and others are working with RESOLVE to conceptualize and build support for implementing NAPEE on a national scale. The NAPEE leadership group is forming an advisory committee that will identify three to five energy user sectors to target in 2007, with the idea of creating sector-specific collaboratives to identify and implement energy efficiency strategies much as Duke is doing within its service territories. Contacts: Jennifer Peyser Leadership Forum First Step Towards Implementing Western Governors' Clean, Diversified Energy Resolution
Created by the governors in 2004, CDEAC was charged with finding ways to achieve 30,000 MW of clean energy by 2015, increase energy efficiency 20% by 2020 and ensure secure, reliable transmission for the next 25 years. CDEAC gathered input from over 250 stakeholders, eventually presenting the governors with a series of resource-specific and system-wide recommendations. At their annual meeting last June, the governors voted unanimously to adopt a policy resolution based on the CDEAC recommendations. Governors Richardson (NM), Schwarzenegger (CA), Freudenthal (WY), and Hoeven (ND) serve as lead Governors on this initiative. “Transmission is crucial to attaining the Western Governors’ goal of 30,000 MW of clean energy by 2015,” suggested NWCC Transmission Workgroup Chair Charlie Smith. Concurring with the necessity for “physical, economic and institutional changes” to transform the western electricity grid so that it can accommodate the Western Governors’ renewable energy goals, Carl Linvill, formerly with the Nevada Governor's office and currently Director of Energy Planning & Analysis at Aspen Environmental Group, notes “it is clear that differences in stakeholders’ perceptions of the problem will require a continuing dialogue such as the one we had in Denver.” “Vision, planning and hard work are all needed to move our nation toward a smarter energy mix with more renewable energy like wind power,” says Bob Sahr, Chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. “It was an honor to work with top leaders from government, associations and industry to lay the groundwork … that will set the stage for the future development of western renewable energy.” Contact: Katie Kalinowski |
Eric Borsting, Chair of the National Association of Home
Builders’ Construction Codes and Standards Committee, reminded
participants that “building green and building affordable
housing should not be mutually exclusive efforts,” and
emphasized the need for voluntary programs to address the
region’s existing housing stock. “It was great that we were at
the table,” he added. “We need to understand each others’
business better before we start making policy.”
Taking the initiative to figure out how to build the
transmission lines that will bring renewable energy to western
markets, Governors Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming and Governor Bill
Ritter of Colorado provided leadership and engaged other key
decision-makers at a two-day summit (September 27-28 in Fort
Collins, CO) co-sponsored by the Western Governors Association (WGA),
the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC), and the
Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). Among many actions the
summit participants encouraged as a result of the meeting were
the creation of regional renewable energy zones, and planning
across state lines for new transmission.
One of the largest electric companies in the United States,
Duke is a leading signatory of the National Action Plan on
Energy Efficiency (NAPEE). Co-sponsored by the US Environmental
Protection Agency and Department of Energy, NAPEE calls for
creating a sustainable, aggressive national commitment to energy
efficiency. Rogers, who co-chairs the NAPEE leadership group
along with former National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners President Diane Munns, has described energy
efficiency as “a fifth fuel” – as important as coal, nuclear,
natural gas, and renewable power. “Every dollar we spend to help
consumers use energy more wisely reduces our environmental
footprint,” Rogers has been quoted as saying.
The Western Governors Association (WGA) kicked off efforts to
implement the recommendations of its Clean and Diversified
Energy Advisory Committee (CDEAC) this July with a leadership
forum in Denver. Using action plans developed by event co-host
the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC),
Implementing Transmission Recommendations in the West
brought together over 150 people representing the governors,
legislators, wind developers, utilities, environmentalists,
independent transmission operators, and other stakeholder groups
to strategize about how to implement the proposals of CDEAC’s
wind and transmission task force reports. The event was
co-sponsored by Bonneville Power Administration, Energy and
Environmental Research Center, Interwest Energy Alliance,
Horizon Wind Energy, National Grid, National Association of
Regulatory Utility Commissioners, National Association of State
Energy Officials, National Conference of State Legislatures,
TransElect, and WestConnect. RESOLVE facilitates the NWCC,
helping members to craft the action plans and plan the
leadership forum.
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