By Bart King
I write in an office behind my house, and the comings and goings of my two cats are for the most part the only changes in my work environment. Thus, I was startled when a stranger knocked on my door a few weeks ago.
It was a technician who had come to install a demand response device on my home air conditioner. About a month earlier, I signed up for Georgia Power’s Power Credit program, which gave me a $20 credit on my electric bill in exchange for the right to control my home’s air conditioner on the hottest days of the summer.
So, next August, when the mercury is pushing into the high 90s, Georgia Power will remotely activate a load-control switch, and instead of running for 15-minute “on” cycles, the compressor will only run for 5 minutes at a time. The information pamphlet says my house may be a couple degrees warmer on the handful of days the switch is used, and I’ll get an additional $2 for my trouble each time.
If enough people sign up for the program the utility can control the peak demand for electricity on the hottest days, reducing the risk of a brownout and relieving the need for additional power supply—most of which, as we know, is generated by burning fossil fuels.
As good as this sounds, I learned from a Georgia Power representative that the company is having to maintain an outdated radio signaling network to operate the devices over the remainder of a 3-year pilot program. Furthermore, less than 4% of their customers are participating. Similarly, Georgia Power installed a new radio-transmitting meter on my house this year and dared to call it a "smart meter" in letters they mailed to me and my neighbors. The meter saves the company from sending a reader to the house every month, but does nothing to improve the efficiency of the grid or my home energy usage.
In Georgia, we seem to be a long way from realizing the benefits of the smart technologies I read about on a daily basis. For instance, a Department of Energy-sponsored report on advanced grid technologies said if the U.S. grid became just 5% more efficient, it would equate to eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars. A different report estimated that smart grid capabilities could save between $46 billion and $117 billion over the next 20 years. So, when will I get one of these Internet-connected devices that monitors the energy use of my appliances, tells me how to cut costs and allows me to integrate my own power sources with the grid?
Talking to the installation technician, Ronnie, I learned he actually works for Good Cents, which contracts with Georgia Power and scores of other utilities across the U.S. and Canada to install and manage demand response and smart grid systems. Back before the EPA’s Energy Star program rose to prominence, the Good Cents home efficiency program was employed by more than 300 utilities. These days Good Cents provides a range of efficiency services to utilities and is one of the companies that could grow dramatically if federal smart grid initiatives find their way through Congress.
Ronnie’s brother, Lynn England, happens to be the retired CEO of Good Cents and a current board member. Ronnie gave me his phone number, and he was nice enough to spend about an hour talking with me about the power industry. Before joining Good Cents, England worked for Georgia Power, and he is sympathetic to a utility company’s need to turn a profit. But he said in the late 1990s and early 2000s, utilities stopped pursuing efficiency programs developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Today only a handful actively promote what was once called conservation or demand-side management.
Here in the Southeast, England said it’s difficult for companies to justify introducing renewable energy, because the cost of traditionally-generated power is relatively cheap compared to other regions of the country. Nonetheless, he said all utilities should do the analysis, before building new generating capacity. He explained that efficiency programs can shift the peak demand spikes into the valleys, flattening the demand for power over time and reducing the need for costly, fossil-fueled back up systems. This ability to shift peaks and avoid power congestion is the greatest promise of the smart grid.
England said Good Cents is hopeful the Obama administration’s energy plan is going to put incentives in place for customers and create requirements for utilities to drive down overall peak energy use.
“It’s an exciting time because there is going to be a push to take us back to the idea of working with the utility to keep it profitable,” England said. “But at the same time we’re going to figure out how to make it more cost effective for the customers and make it greener.”
England didn’t say so, but to do this, I suspect we will need to decouple utilities, so that their revenues are not linked to the amount of energy they sell. Massachusetts is one of several states that are in the process of decoupling utilities—which, unfortunately, might be reason enough for the conservative Georgia Assembly to discount the idea. The Solar Energy Industry Association published a paper this week stating that decoupling would allow utilities to encourage customer-owned renewable energy systems that otherwise would cut into company profits.
The Georgia Power representative I spoke with last weekend at the Green Expo here in Athens didn’t know when a true smart grid would arrive in the South. However, I must mention that the utility, which is owned by the environmentally notorious Southern Company, is showing signs of a turnaround. They are converting a coal-fired plant in the state to biomass and working with the Electric Power Research Institute to reduce coal use at a plant in North Carolina by incorporating a solar thermal system. Also, rumors are the company is beginning to test photovoltaic panels for use in future installations.
Meanwhile, the resurgence of efficiency programs is already underway, according to England. Good Cents grew 60% last year—despite the housing slump and economic downturn—and expects to do the same this year. “We’ve got better technologies today and that’s great, but a lot of how to do this was explored in both the 1970s and 1980s,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations this week proposed $4.5 billion in the economic stimulus bill for “smart grid activities.” So, maybe the grid here in Georgia still has a chance to smarten up.
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Bart King is News Editor of SustainableBusiness.com. This column is available for syndication.
Contact bart@sustainablebusiness.com.
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