August 9
Most Consumers Think AI Will Be Valuable for Their Electricity Use
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Sixty-one percent of Americans believe that artificial intelligence (AI) systems will prove to be valuable for their household electricity usage, according to the latest survey from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), a nonprofit organization that studies Americans’ energy-related behaviors, interests and values. Among Americans who have experience with AI systems, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, this figure rises to 76 percent.
Arizona public power utility Salt River Project recently set a new record for the amount of energy delivered to its retail customers. On Sunday, August 4, between 5 and 6 p.m., SRP delivered its highest system peak of 8,219 MW. This surpasses the previous system peak record of 8,163 MW set on July 18, 2024, between 4 and 5 p.m. Strong customer demand is the result of several factors, including extreme daytime temperatures and higher overnight temperatures.
CLEAResult announced this week that Wisconsin will use the CLEAResult ATLAS | IRA Home Energy Rebates platform for its first-in-the-nation launch of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Home Efficiency Rebates program. Bringing our nation’s most promising climate change programs to life demands a special kind of expertise as well as scalable, user-friendly tools that seamlessly verify income, manage contractors and simplify participation for everyone.
A hefty chunk of U.S. emissions comes from the energy used to heat buildings. That means millions of homes must be converted to electric heating in order to meet climate targets. In Colorado, a 2021 law spurred the state’s largest investor-owned utility to produce a plan that could transition a lot of homes to clean heating – and fast. Xcel Energy’s Clean Heat Plan was approved this May.
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Industry News
It’s bad enough when a public EV-charging station is out of service. It’s worse when your app doesn’t know that and sends you there just as you’re in desperate need of a charge. This experience is all too common among the U.S. EV drivers who don’t have access to Tesla’s dependable network, per a new report on EV-charger reliability based on exhaustive data collected from the field.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) recently modified specific program guidelines to provide additional financial assistance to more households with past-due energy bills. Specifically, PG&E modified guidelines for its Relief for Energy Assistance through Community Help (REACH) program, which, along with the company’s REACH Triple Match program, helps eligible low- to moderate-income customers pay their past-due energy bills to avoid service disconnections.
As electricity rates rise and cooling costs increase, U.S. electric utility customers are prioritizing energy prices over sustainability efforts, according to the J.D. Power 2024 Sustainability Index. The report highlights a significant gap between customer awareness of carbon reduction initiatives and their importance to the average consumer. Despite the fact that 80 percent of U.S. utility customers are served by a utility with a 100-percent carbon reduction target, only 21 percent are aware of these goals.
Two cold regions in the U.S. are getting a massive infusion of funds to swap fossil-fueled furnaces, boilers, and water heaters for heat pumps. In late July, the initiatives – one based in New England, the other in Alaska – were among the 25 projects selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a share of $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. The program is one of the many heads of the clean-energy hydra that is the landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
