Doing Energy Efficiency the Oregon Way
Posted on November 24, 2009 by oregoncub
Tags, Climate and Conservation
Last week, CUB Executive Director Bob Jenks gave a talk to the NW Energy Coalition Fall Conference in Seattle as part of a panel on encouraging utility investment in energy efficiency. He noted that, despite the resolution made between regional policymakers and stakeholders to spend at least 3 percent of utility revenues (all utility revenues from both public and private utilities)—a resolution made 13 years ago—today the region as a whole only allocates slightly more than 2 percent, according to the Bonneville Power Administration. Bob said, “After 13 years, even with what we know about climate change, the region has not risen to the challenge it set for itself.”
The very next day, at CUB’s 25th Anniversary event, Bob noted that, for Oregon, “the utilities here tonight have risen to the challenge. NW Natural, PGE and PacifiCorp all will be double the regional average next year.” A big reason for that difference is the creation of the Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO).
The ETO is an independent, non-profit organization that was created to administer energy efficiency programs for Portland General Electric and Pacific Power. Created as part of the electricity restructuring legislation (SB 1149) in 1999, the ETO combined the separate energy efficiency offices that had previously existed in each utility. This did two things. First, it made running energy efficiency programs much more efficient (and cheaper for ratepayers) because there was one central operation rather than isolated utility offices. Second, it removed the inherent conflict of interest from utilities, namely helping their customers use less of the product they are in business to produce and sell.
Because of its success with the electric utilities, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas have also turned their energy efficiency programs over to the ETO, providing customers with ability to access gas and electric efficiency programs with a single phone call.
In addition, the ETO operates with tremendous oversight, transparency and accountability—far greater than previous efficiency programs did under any one utility. Energy efficiency used to be discussed as part of obscure processes with scant review. Now, the ETO is required to give quarterly reports to the Public Utility Commission, has public board meetings, and open meetings of advisory councils. Ratepayers get great bang for their bucks with an entity that is mission-driven and consumer-focused.
The ETO’s programs have been more successful than even the most optimistic advocate could have dreamed. Since opening their doors in March 2002, the ETO has helped save electric and natural gas ratepayers more than $440 million in energy costs. In 2008 alone, Oregon households and businesses saved nearly $144 million. In energy terms, the ETO has delivered total electric savings and renewable generation of 285 average megawatts (enough clean energy to power 221,000 Oregon homes) and total gas savings of 8.9 million therms, enough to heat approximately 18,300 Oregon homes with natural gas.
PUC Chairman Lee Beyer recounts how many people at the national conferences he attends tell him that we in Oregon have figured out something significant by managing energy efficiency delivery through an independent entity like the ETO. Bob Jenks, in his 25th Anniversary remarks, called the ETO “one of CUB’s proudest achievements.” And it’s not only local folks who are talking this way. Take a look at what a writer at the national energy policy website Grist are saying:
Meanwhile, the Energy Trust is achieving the holy grail of energy geeks: they are helping utilities actually meet growing demand with efficiency, not new power plants. The customers get programs that reduce their utility bills and their carbon footprint. And I love it because it gives me a massive dose of that heroin-like drug—hope.
As Oregonians we’re proud that we figure out common sense solutions that work for everybody: the bottle bill, land use planning, and the beach bill. Those Oregon solutions work because they represent shared values and protect the Oregon we love. The ETO is a proud addition to that tradition.
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03/21/17 | 0 Comments | Doing Energy Efficiency the Oregon Way