Special CUB Conference Preview: The Customer Side of the Meter

As the 5th annual CUB Policy Conference draws closer, we are excited to preview each of the day’s six breakout sessions. We are starting with The Customer Side of the Meter: Efficiency and Demand Response, which will take place after lunch, from 12:45-2pm (you can view the entire schedule on the conference website.) We thought this a good place to start because it’s a useful snapshot of the variety of challenges utilities face in meeting the energy needs of the next decade.

Energy efficiency and demand response sit at opposite ends of the spectrum of utility economics: efficiency reduces the need for added supply of energy, and demand response programs harness technology to make energy demand responsive to varying supply in order to avoid overloading the grid and reduce costs as a result. But both energy efficiency and demand response have direct impacts on the customer, and utilities must anticipate those impacts when mobilizing new programs.

The newly finalized federal Clean Power Plan assumes that states can achieve energy efficiency at a rate of 1.5% of retail load. That may seem like a small number, but even with all the great work of the Energy Trust and some of the best efficiency programs in the country, Oregon has only been able to achieve that rate within the past two years. The Clean Power Plan’s efficiency mandate will be challenging for many states that do not have the support infrastructure and political will that has allowed Oregon to achieve strong results.

Additionally, the Pacific Northwest has used up most of the “low-hanging fruit” methods to build energy efficiency. We have done great work with fuel efficiency, energy building codes, the public purpose charge that established and funded the Energy Trust, efficient appliances and incentives pioneered by NEEA, Governor Kitzhaber’s 10-year Energy Plan, and the power purchasing standards developed by the NW Power and Conservation Council. But in order to continue down the efficiency path, we will have to invent and invest in the next generation. What is the next step in the evolution of appliances, of lighting, and of commercial building efficiency programs? Are there other areas ripe for development that we should be exploring?

In the case of demand response, there are a few intersecting issues to consider. The burgeoning smart grid industry has made some headway with various pilot programs, but customer engagement has been a major challenge. By and large, utility customers have passively demonstrated that they don’t want to pay more attention to their electric and gas usage; many agree that moderating energy usage is a good thing, but they don’t want to expend extra effort or attention to do so.

The obvious solution to this challenge is to build smart appliances that talk to the meter and smart meters that talk to the grid without the need for customer mediation. One example is commercial freezers: these can be pre-chilled in the middle of the night when energy load is low, so that when it gets hot during the day, they don’t require extra power to keep running. Water heaters can operate in a similar way: by superheating the tank and then mixing hot water with cold water to produce the mix requested at the tap. Electric vehicle chargers, as another example, can charge only when the wind is blowing, thereby reducing pressure on the grid. But this requires the appliance to interact with the grid so it knows the optimal time to consume energy.

The above examples by their very nature, along many others, give some degree of control over local service to the utilities. The challenge here is to ensure that customers are willing to hand over that control. One method is to institute time-of-use rates, but this measure is regressive and has a disproportionate impact on low-income customers. Customers can also be positively incentivized through rebates, or direct compensation in their utility bills. Either way, computerized systems make these measures possible and practical. Once computerized systems are in the mix, utilities must confront the ever-widening chasm that is grid security. But we suspect that this particular topic will be beyond the scope of this panel.

Discussing these and other issues of customer-side energy management, CUB is pleased to welcome Scot Davidson, Vice President, Program Delivery at Enhabit; Carol Dillin, Vice President, Customer Strategies & Business Development at Portland General Electric; Mike Hoffman, Senior Energy Analyst at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Lisa Schwartz, Energy Efficiency Team Leader, Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and John Wellschlager, Account Executive, Bulk Marketing at Bonneville Power Administration. Charlie Grist, Conservation Resources Manager at NW Power & Conservation Council, will be moderating.

Stay tuned to our blog for more special conference preview articles in the coming weeks! In the meantime, you can view our full schedule and roster at www.cubpolicycenter.org/conference. We encourage you to register by October 2nd to take advantage of early bird pricing!

CUB is still welcoming sponsors and community partners to get involved in Utility 2025: Building the Northwest’s Energy Future. For information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Pamela White, Development and Communications Director, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (503) 227-1984 x10.

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