Utilities and Distribution

Rising consumption of electricity and natural gas is straining generation and transmission capacity and natural gas supplies in many regions of the United States. Energy efficiency investments are the cheapest, fastest and cleanest ways to respond to utility shortages and challenges.

Responding to Energy Challenges

As California found out in 2001, a slight excess of demand over available supply of electricity can cause blackouts and massive price spikes, leading to havoc throughout the economy. Energy efficiency investments are the cheapest, fastest and cleanest ways to respond to these challenges.

Efficiency investments save consumers money, increase consumer comfort, reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, enhance economic competitiveness, and promote energy reliability and security. In California, aggressive energy efficiency and conservation campaigns have kept per-capita energy use stable for thirty years - while energy use nation wide has continued to grow.

Throughout the last two decades, states worked with regulated utilities using demand-side management (DSM) programs to avoid the need for about one hundred 300-Megawatt power plants. While utility spending on DSM programs nationwide was cut almost in half during the late 1990s, spending has rebounded in the last few years, and interest in similar programs for natural gas has grown along with natural gas prices. Today, new policies are being implemented that effectively use the benefits of efficiency to reduce demand for electricity and natural gas.