Home › e-Efficiency News ›

Policy Summit on Capitol Hill: Energy Efficiency Across the Smart Grid

Share this
Add a comment

Date: Sep 17, 2010

powerlines and the sun in the horizon

Energy efficiency advocates from throughout the nation gathered Sept. 14 on Capitol Hill to explore one of the most pressing energy issues facing the United States at the Alliance’s 2010 Policy Summit.

The summit, "From Power Plant to Plug & Beyond: Energy Efficiency Opportunities Across the Smart Grid," was sponsored by Schneider Electric and included more than 250 elected officials, industry leaders and scholars who discussed how to promote energy efficiency while the nation modernizes its electric grid.

“There are opportunities for energy efficiency through every point along the Smart Grid continuum,” said Alliance President Kateri Callahan.  The United States is spending $1.5 trillion to bring the grid’s “gargantuan ecosystem” into the next century. “We can’t just make the grid bigger; we need to make it better,” Callahan added.

Calling for Qualitative Improvements, Bipartisan Support

Legislators from across the political aisles took the stage in support of efficiency. In her first event as the Alliance Board of Directors’ honorary chair, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said she expects Congress to pass some form of an energy bill by the end of the year.  To that end, she introduced the Recovery Through Building Renovation Act (S. 3780) right after the Alliance Policy Summit, and she pledged to work hard to bring about “transformative” legislation within the next several years.

Shaheen and Alliance Board Vice-Chair Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) agreed that energy efficiency is a common ground both political parties can work toward.

Fostering a Ready Market for Energy Efficiency in Homes, Offices

Buildings consume 40 percent of all energy used in the United States, so the message of saving energy in buildings echoed throughout the half-day summit. Integrating a Smart Grid with “smart buildings” is key to saving energy on a national scale, said Dr. William Miller, DOE senior advisor for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, as well as Dr. Chris Pyke, U.S. Green Building Council’s VP for research;  Mark Wagner, VP of government relations for Johnson Controls;  and Jeff Drees, Schneider Electric’s U.S. country president. The panelists noted that a Smart Grid can provide information on building performance to show businesses and consumers the benefits of green buildings, thereby spurring widespread demand for energy efficient building modifications.

To support a fertile marketplace, policy makers and corporate leaders agreed that consumers need easy access to information about emerging innovations. In fact, the only way to make a Smart Grid work is to groom “smart consumers,” opined Jeff Duncan, chief of staff for Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who discussed the importance of addressing consumers with Gene Rodrigues, director of customer energy efficiency and solar at Southern California Edison and Michael Terrell, Energy Policy Counsel, Google.

“Just having access to energy efficiency isn’t enough for consumer engagement,” Rodrigues said. For Terrell, technology plays an important role in easing efficiency implementation and usage.  Real-time pricing and energy source information allows people to see how they use energy each day in their homes and businesses. 

Manufacturing & Market Modernization

The United States industrial sector accounts for approximately one-third of domestic energy use, and panelists Sujeet Chand, senior VP and chief technology officer at Rockwell Automation, and Jan Berman, Pacific Gas & Electric’s senior director of IDSM policy, explored ways that the manufacturing industry can use new tools to revamp its own energy efficiency.

Companies are already taking on the tremendous opportunity — and a $6 billion incentive — to initiate change and respond to consumer demand for more sustainable products, Chand said. Economics are further driving change: As Chris Adamo, legislative counsel for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said, “Clean energy for us is all about jobs.”

Beep Beep: Putting Energy Efficiency on the Road

Energy efficiency isn’t limited to homes and businesses. Jonna Hamilton, legislative assistant for Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), led Robbie Diamond, Electrification Coalition president and CEO, and Dr. Mary Beth Stanek, General Motors’ director of environment and energy policy and commercialization, in a conversation about leveraging the electric car to support national security and the environment.

Though the United States uses 19 billion barrels of oil a day, it holds less than 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Therefore, it is imperative that the United States change the way it fuels cars, Hamilton said. 

This pressure to change has fostered increasing levels of collaboration, Stanek noted. More than ever before, players across industries are working together to incorporate smart technology and intelligent design into car manufacturing, leading to cleaner and greener vehicle design.

Integrating Demand Response & EE

In terms of electrical grids, energy efficiency strategies — which stress using less power continually — are often separate from demand response strategies — which focus on lowering usage during peak times. But panelists Tom Catania, VP of government relations at Whirlpool; Tom Arnold, VP of energy efficiency and carbon solutions at EnerNOC Inc.; and Patricia Hoffman, DOE assistant secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, discussed advanced monitoring and control technologies. By integrating energy efficiency and demand response, these technologies promise real energy and cost savings, according to the speakers.

Meanwhile, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman John Wellinghoff called on pro-energy efficiency advocates to support his national action plan for regulating demand response compensation.

Presentations