March 18
SMUD Earns First J.D. Power Sustainability Certification
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
J.D. Power, a global leader in data analytics and consumer intelligence, announced the launch of a new certification program to recognize electric utilities that provide superior customer engagement, awareness and advocacy associated with their climate sustainability goals and plans. The first electric utility to receive the J.D. Power Certified Sustainability Leader designation is Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).
Across the United States, cities and communities are looking for ways to improve grid resiliency and drive more renewable energy integration. The Snohomish County Public Utility District (SnoPUD), a public utility based in Everett, Washington, is anticipating growing connections between transportation and electric utilities.
California community choice aggregator (CCA) Peninsula Clean Energy has partnered with Harvest Thermal Inc. to install ultra-efficient, all-electric space heating and hot water systems as part of a broader effort to replace methane gas-powered furnaces and other appliances. At no cost, four Peninsula Clean Energy customers are receiving a system that operates a single heat pump to deliver both home heating and hot water.
Research conducted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Xerox PARC has found that greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioners are expected to climb as economic growth drives efforts to control temperature and humidity. The increasing need to cool the air is both a cause and an effect of climate change. Even a small amount of moisture in the air can cause people to feel uncomfortable and even damage buildings via mold and mildew.
Get Your Weekly Edition
Industry News
By 2030, there could be 26 million electric cars in the U.S., which means we’ll need more than 10 times as many EV chargers. Starbucks, with its 15,000 locations across the country, thinks that it could help fill part of the gap. In a pilot this year, the company is partnering with Volvo and ChargePoint to install EV chargers in its parking lots along a 1,350-mile route from Denver to Seattle, with stops available roughly every 100 miles.
In a unity of electricity and vehicular advancement, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Ford Motor Company announced last week that they will collaborate to see how the directional charging technology of the F-150 Lightning can aid reliability for PG&E’s service area. The F-150 Lightning will play a critical role in this investigation due to its role as the first commercially available light-duty truck to possess bidirectional capabilities through its Intelligent Backup Power.
The U.S. solar industry deployed a record 23.6 GW of generating capacity in 2021, representing 46 percent of new electrical generation added last year, according to the 2021 U.S. Solar Market Insight by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association. Utility-scale projects represented 17 GW of the solar installed in 2021 – more than twice the capacity installed just two years prior. However, utility-scale installations came in 3 GW lower than expected.
Electric school buses are a hot commodity. Billions of dollars of federal and state grants and incentives are flowing to U.S. school districts to help them electrify their fleets. By replacing diesel buses with clean and quiet battery-powered models, they can slash fuel and maintenance costs and cut air and noise pollution.
