April 12
PSE&G Details Energy Efficiency Achievements
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
New Jersey utility PSE&G released a report last week on its Clean Energy Future Energy Efficiency (CEF-EE) program. Since the program launched, approximately 1.8 million customers have benefited from PSE&G’s energy-saving tools, while 360,000 have used PSE&G’s suite of energy efficiency programs to save money. Further, 305,000 residential customers have purchased smart thermostats while 85,000 have bought power strips through PSE&G Marketplace, using rebates offered for these items.
Storytelling may not seem like a core function of operating an electric utility. For one, engineers are often more inclined to digest large data sets before diving into poetic prose. But every investment a utility makes begins with a story rooted in customer benefit. Without a clear and sound story, regulators will slam the book shut on any sizeable budget request. The story behind Xcel Energy’s push to deploy 3.5 million smart meters begins and ends with the customer in mind.
Electric vehicle drivers are saving everyone billions of dollars on their monthly electricity bills, a recent study found. The analysis from Synapse Energy Economics compared how much EV owners paid for electricity with the cost for utilities to build, generate and distribute that power. In aggregate, EV drivers provided more than $3 billion in net revenue to the grid between 2011 and 2021.
Duke Energy has launched a pilot program for installing home solar generation with battery energy storage in its Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress service areas in North Carolina. The incentive-based program, called PowerPair, is designed to help make a home solar plus battery system more affordable for customers. It offers up to $9,000 in incentives for residential customers who install a solar-plus-battery system.
Get Your Weekly Edition
Industry News
Electric vehicles are making serious inroads in new car sales. Nearly 1.2 million new EVs were sold in the U.S. last year, breaking yet another record. But most Americans don’t buy new cars; they buy used ones — and as it stands, the market for used EVs is in a weird place. On the one hand, used electric vehicles have never been cheaper. More than half of the used EVs sold in the U.S. today cost $30,000 or less, according to recent market data.
A report from Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law aims to identify and debunk 33 misconceptions about wind energy, solar energy and electric vehicles. The report’s authors say they “reviewed social-media groups and websites created to oppose renewable energy projects or policies, as well as existing coverage about misinformation” to find claims to rebut.
Just about every week, Shawn Grant, who works for Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Power, gets an inquiry from another utility looking for information about the company’s Wattsmart battery program. The program pays customers with solar who opt to install battery storage systems for the ability to use that stored electricity to help balance flows on the electric grid.
When you live far from the sprawling fields befitting utility-scale solar and wind farms, it’s easy to feel like clean energy isn’t coming online fast enough. But renewables have grown at a staggering rate since 2014 and now account for 22 percent of the nation’s electricity. Solar alone has grown an impressive eightfold in 10 years.
