Advanced Energy Perspectives

In our lives, we try to optimize everything. The days aren’t getting longer, but we’re trying to fit more activities into each hour. Sometimes it’s eking out just one more email, fitting in an extra errand during the day, or crossing one more chore off the to-do list. We’re striving to improve productivity, and in the process, burning ourselves out. But instead of working harder, we should be working smarter. We need to do a better job focusing on what really matters, and when possible, delegate work to both new and tried-and-true technologies that can help us avoid distractions and automate tasks. It makes sense to take the same approach with energy.

In the last decade, technology has changed nearly every facet of our lives. We’ve traded in touch-tone phones for smartphones, replaced cabs with ride sharing apps, and upgraded bulky desktops for sleek laptops. While technology has changed life in so many dramatic ways, less obvious, but no less dramatic is the way technological advancements have changed the way we use electricity. Most notable is the way technology has allowed us to gain control over electricity demand, through energy efficiency and demand response. The challenge now is to make sure that newfound power to reduce and manage demand gets fully utilized in wholesale electricity markets.

This is a guest post by Adam Scheer (Recurve), Jake Millette and Olivia Patterson (Opinion Dynamics), and Julie Michals (E4TheFuture)

Driven by advancing technologies and by policies that are evolving to both mitigate and adapt to climate change, the energy industry is changing at a breakneck pace. On the demand side, our fundamental challenge is moving beyond siloed programs into scaled demand flexibility to achieve states’ priorities such as grid resilience, resource adequacy, and decarbonization, amidst increasing electrification. Critically, scaling distributed energy resources (DERs) to meet a host of policy goals will require that we leverage limited ratepayer dollars to cultivate as much energy efficiency (EE) and other DER investment as possible. The question is: are cost-effectiveness (CE) testing practices developed decades ago adequate to guide our industry investments today? In our experience, legacy CE practices are inhibiting both innovative program designs and commonsense best practices for putting ratepayer dollars to optimal use.

We all have the power to save energy and today’s technology providers make it easier than ever to make a big difference. Whether you want to save money on your home energy bills, improve building comfort, reduce office, commercial and industrial costs, drive U.S. economic growth and jobs, or make a significant dent in harmful emissions, energy efficiency (EE) is a superpower we can all tap right now.

That’s why AEE is supporting the fourth annual national Energy Efficiency Day on Oct. 2 and encouraging you to join us. Working with national and regional EE colleagues, we are taking this fall day to highlight all the benefits of EE, shed light on enabling technologies, share valuable, cost-saving tips, and make it fun.