CWEB.Special Issue Part One/February.16.2001
"Saving Energy In The Power Crunch"
Energy conservation has made a big splash in the news and the public consciousness around the Northwest.
Saving energy has become a popular response to tight supplies and rate increases caused by ballistic wholesale power prices. Conservation efforts have already made a quantifiable difference in the region.
The governors of Oregon and Washington have issued widely publicized calls for governments, businesses and citizens in their states to cut energy consumption 10 percent. Seattle, the region's largest city, has made a similar appeal. The conservation message has resonated in newspapers and on television, radio and the World Wide Web. Utilities are gearing up new and expanded demand-side initiatives. Energy efficiency information and education services report increasing patronage. Saving energy has even appeared on Seattle-area billboards.
Much of the attention has focused on using less electricity (turning off lights and computers, lowering building and water-heating temperatures, etc.), although longer-term efficiencies have gotten some play--the governors specifically encouraged investments in energy-efficient home appliances, lighting and weatherization. Some efficiency professionals bristle at the widespread perception of saving energy as sacrificial curtailments, instead of wise electricity use through a myriad of quality products, services and practices that deliver benefits ranging from lower bills to improved comfort to better business.
Nevertheless, the demand-side is clearly in demand. "Energy conservation is again the word of the day," said Seattle public radio talk-show host Steve Scher. "Can we conserve our way out of the crisis?" Well, not likely, but demand-side measures have taken a leading role in softening the impacts of the power woes. Seattle officials credit their citizens and businesses with reducing energy use some 5 percent, saving the city's municipal utility millions of dollars in wholesale power costs. Statewide in Washington, large utilities report energy savings in the range of 2 percent to 6 percent.
Regionwide, the Northwest Power Pool in December found that utility and public conservation actions reduced total loads by 835 megawatt-hours during a peak hour in a particularly cold spell.
Conservation Messages
Top Northwest political leaders have issued very public pleas for reductions in energy use.
Gov. Gary Locke of Washington and Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon on Jan. 5 issued a joint call for ongoing energy savings through the winter. "The good habits we develop now can not only carry us through a precarious winter season, but we hope will serve as permanent changes in the way we use energy," Kitzhaber said in a news release. Locke noted that, "By avoiding waste, we can keep our energy bills more stable and help assure a sustainable level of power for both the short and long term." Locke in late January ordered state and local governments to cut their electricity and natural gas consumption by 10 percent over 90 days. Kitzhaber has issued a 10-percent conservation request for Oregon state agencies. Seattle mayor Paul Schell and the City Council have asked City Light customers to voluntarily reduce their energy use 10 percent through March.
Many utilities, along with regional agencies such as Bonneville Power Administration and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, are also promoting demand-side responses to the energy crunch (see related stories in Con.WEB's coverage of "Conservation In Demand.").
Conservation has become a hot topic in the media. Witness some recent newspaper headlines: "Conservation's regeneration," on Page 1 of The Seattle Times; "Conservation is key to the crisis," The News Tribune (Tacoma); "Saving energy may save us all," The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR). In addition to news articles, editorials and opinion pieces, advertisements also plug energy conservation. BPA has run full-page ads in regional newspapers headlined "Smart Cats don't waste any energy," with 25 specific tips on conservation and efficiency. Fred Meyer placed a large advertisement in The Seattle Times encouraging readers to "save money on next month's energy bills" by purchasing compact fluorescent bulbs (Lights of America and GE models, under $10 at sale prices), Honeywell programmable thermostats ($44.99) and an air-cleaner product for home heating and cooling systems.
Seattle public-radio station KUOW held a talk show on energy efficiency Jan. 23, with guests including Jeff McCullough of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Chuck Murray of the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program and Mark Frankel of the consulting firm Ecotope. This well-informed discussion touched on efficient technologies such as compact fluorescents, dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, windows, low-flow showerheads and thermostats; weatherization measures; distributed energy; combined heat-power systems for Internet server farms; time-of-day metering; and policy issues such as tax incentives.
Another sign (so to speak) of conservation's newfound cachet are billboard messages seen recently on a busy roadway connecting Seattle and its northeastern suburbs. "Respond To Call To Conserve Energy," said one. Two others tied energy conservation to sales pitches: "Use Energy Wisely--Shop Here," read a specialty gift-shop outdoor sign, while down the road another board urged readers to conserve power and buy a certain recreational vehicle model.
Energy Information, Education
The barrage of energy-saving publicity often is accompanied by practical demand-side tips. Much of the advice has focused on using less electricity. Locke and Kitzhaber, for example, listed turning down thermostats 1 or 2 degrees, shutting off lights, computers and other office equipment not in use, running full laundry and dishwasher loads, and reducing thermostat settings on hot-water tanks. But the governors also mentioned longer-term conservation measures, such as investing in energy-efficient appliances and lighting, and weatherizing homes. Many other sources offer demand-side advice as well, from newspapers to utility Web sites.
This surge in conservation interest has been felt by regional energy efficiency information and education services.
The Olympia, WA-based Energy Ideas Clearinghouse received calls from nearly 20 state government agencies after Locke directed them to cut consumption 10 percent and referred them to EIC for technical assistance. Agency officials typically want to know how they can get started, according to Clearinghouse manager Linda Witham. EIC has posted office energy-saving suggestions on its Web site.
"Our Web site hits are zooming, which is what the Clearinghouse is supposed to do--direct people to the Web site as the first resource," she noted. Continuing an increasing trend, EIC user sessions on the Web grew from 5,581 in November to 6,955 in December. Phone calls to the Clearinghouse's hotline are on the rise, too; as of Jan. 24, the monthly figure for January stood at 127 percent of all of December, and 162 percent of November. Many come from commercial and institutional building professionals. "We've also had an increase in the number of calls from utilities," Witham added. She believes the increased patronage is at least partially due to expanded marketing efforts for the Clearinghouse.
The Lighting Design Lab has also had increased patronage. "We've really gotten a lot busier," said project manager Diana Grant. Hits to the Lab's Web site jumped from 14,000 in December to more than 18,200 in January.
In Eugene, OR, the two-year energy management degree program at Lane Community College has received unprecedented attention from prospective students. "Never in our past have we had this many people so interested this early on," said director of energy programs Roger Ebbage, noting "constant phone calls," even though students can't enroll until fall.
The Northwest Energy Education Institute, which Ebbage also oversees, is conducting more workshops on handling customer complaints about high bills. NEEI is also collaborating with Northwest Public Power Association on a new training and certification program for residential energy auditing. The Institute is also about half-full in enrollment for its upcoming Energy Management Certificate program.
Conservation Makes a Difference
All this attention to conservation has quantifiably eased the regional energy crunch--although it is far from a panacea.
The Northwest Power Pool surveyed utilities in its seven-state, two-province territory and discovered that utility and public conservation actions reduced total loads by 835 megawatt-hours from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 12, in the midst of a cold snap. NWPP issued a Feb. 2 news release declaring regional energy supplies will likely remain on the "razor's edge" throughout the winter. "The figures make a strong case for continued energy conservation and constraint," said Power Pool director Jerry Rust. Reached by Con.WEB, Rust said the Power Pool didn't have a regionwide update available on conservation impacts since December.
In Seattle, meanwhile, City Light customers have achieved half of the city's 10-percent conservation goal this winter, saving the municipal utility millions of dollars in avoided wholesale power costs, city councilwoman Heidi Wills told a Feb. 7 commercial real estate conservation summit. "We've got a ways to go," she added.
Statewide in Washington, large utilities report energy savings of between 2 percent and 6 percent, according to Tony Usibelli of the Washington State Office of Trade and Economic Development's Energy Policy Group. "I would say . . . it's significant," he told Con.WEB. "I think people are starting to respond, considering the media campaign and other sorts of things have only been going for a while."
Of course, energy conservation requests aren't universally heeded. One letter-writer to The Seattle Times challenged Locke: "Hey, governor. Taxpayer here. Got your message on cutting energy use 10 percent. What do you say we make it a contest? Cut taxes by 10 percent. You go first."--Mark Ohrenschall
Northwest regional energy agencies are responding to the Western power crunch with a variety of demand-side responses.
Bonneville Power Administration is looking to undertake some new energy-conserving initiatives, including a compact fluorescent rebate program. The federal power marketing agency also provides several efforts already under way, notably the conservation/renewables wholesale rate discount, the Conservation Augmentation initiative and the demand-exchange program. BPA has committed to meeting its energy-saving target established by the Northwest Power Planning Council for fiscal years 2002 through 2006--and that target, now at 166 average megawatts, will likely rise by one-third or more as the amount of regionally cost-effective conservation increases with higher wholesale power prices.
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance focuses on longer-term market transformation for energy-efficient products and services. But the Alliance is spreading the word about its programs with short-term energy-saving potential, particularly residential lighting and HVAC systems. The regional collaborative is also examining how it can further improve energy efficiencies in the commercial and industrial sectors, where most of the regional conservation potential lies.
The Power Council continues to push conservation in the Northwest, both in near-term price-responsive demand reductions and longer-range efficiencies. The Council is also revising its projections of regionally cost-effective conservation: recent rough estimates peg it at some 2,400 aMW over 20 years, up from about 1,535 aMW identified in the 1998 power plan at levelized costs up to 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Conservationists: 'Fasten Your Seatbelts'
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's time to go, guys," began Bonneville's acting energy efficiency vice president John Pyrch at a Jan. 26 Portland roundtable hosted by the Northwest Public Power Association. "We're on the upswing here . . . We're a prominent part of the solution to the problem we're in now."
Pyrch referenced an open letter from acting BPA administrator Stephen Wright outlining the wholesale power predicament facing BPA and the region, which indicated a potential BPA rate increase averaging 63 percent from 2002-2006--and, since the letter's publication, perhaps much higher. Wright offered four solutions to a "fundamental problem" of power supply shortages. One is "greater demand-side management (conservation investment and voluntary curtailment programs)," along with new "reasonably priced" generation (including renewables), transmission improvements and expanded natural gas delivery and storage capacity.
In addition to its ongoing demand-side initiatives (see below), BPA plans to move into some new ventures.
One is a regional compact fluorescent rebate coupon program in collaboration with local utilities. "It won't help this winter, but it will help for the future," Pyrch said.
Bonneville also wants to promote more efficiencies with federal agencies it serves directly. BPA's Tim Scanlon called these customers "relatively untapped sources of conservation potential." One example: converting 300,000 light bulbs in federal dam galleries to 15-watt compact fluorescent models.
In late September, BPA plans to hold what Pyrch called a "major conservation conference" in Portland. This gathering--tentatively titled: "The Northwest Conservation Conference--Conservation or Crisis: A Northwest Choice"--will coincide with the official launch of Bonneville's conservation/renewables rate discount.
In addition, Pyrch said BPA expects to issue a request for proposals for renewables within the next two to three months. "We are committed to ramping up our activities in the renewables arena."
Ongoing BPA Conservation
Bonneville has considerably diminished its conservation efforts since their peak in the mid-1990s. Recent figures document BPA energy savings declining from a peak of 68.9 aMW in FY 1995 to 29.3 aMW in FY 1999, while spending dropped from peak of $172 million in FY 1994 to $32.6 million in FY 1999.
Still, the agency never abandoned the demand-side. Even before the current energy crisis, Bonneville had a number of energy-saving efforts in progress.
BPA has provided most of the Alliance's funding to date, and has committed $10 million annually for the next six years, according to Pyrch. He praised the Alliance's market transformation work and wondered whether the regional collaborative model could be put to use "in a broader context" for conservation. Another joint effort centers on Energy Star, for which BPA lists 43 utilities as partners.
Bonneville has also agreed to fund regional low-income weatherization through state and local agencies, for a total of $15 million over the coming five-year rate period.
As a peak-load management tool, BPA has launched a demand-exchange program in which participating large customers voluntarily reduce their Bonneville loads for a mutually agreed-upon price. A total of 838 megawatts are enrolled, primarily from direct-service industrial customers. "It's been actively used here lately," Pyrch reported. BPA hopes to get at least 200 MW of non-DSI load in this exchange next year.
C&RD, ConAug Updates
With a view toward the five-year rate period beginning in October, BPA is moving ahead with two major new conservation initiatives.
The conservation/renewables wholesale rate discount will be offered to utilities for qualifying activities above and beyond what the utilities would have done otherwise.
The C&RD now looks to be worth $200 million collectively over the next five years, up from an earlier projected $150 million, because of increased subscription loads placed on BPA, Pyrch noted.
He also discussed some of the latest program details. Discount credits can start accumulating now that the C&RD Record of Decision has been finalized, to take advantage of efficiency opportunities before October. However, this won't increase the discount amount available to utilities, which is based on their net BPA power requirements multiplied by 0.05 cents per kilowatt-hour. Utilities will receive either $32,850 or 20 percent of their conservation spending for administrative and marketing expenses under the Value of Savings option. Utilities can switch back and forth one time between this option and a straight cost reimbursement option for a restricted list of measures; a third option is available for small utilities with BPA loads below 7.5 aMW.
Exceptional measures will get a fixed credit amount, replacing an earlier BPA proposal that would have credited customers 80 percent of the value of the energy savings to the bulk power system, except where two times the capital costs exceeded that figure. Bonneville is also moving to "substantial compliance" with Regional Technical Forum specifications, according to Pyrch. And the agency will develop deemed savings for individual residential weatherization measures, heat pumps and central air-conditioning units.
The final C&RD guidelines came out very recently with BPA's official Record of Decision on the discount.
Meanwhile, BPA's Conservation Augmentation initiative has received three proposals, reported Bonneville's Scanlon. "We are very encouraged by what we've seen," he told the roundtable. "We'd like to see a lot more."
ConAug is intended to help fill BPA's need for approximately 3,000 MW of additional resources from 2002-2006. Utilities can bring energy-saving proposals to BPA under customized or off-the-shelf approaches; BPA will review them and move to bilateral negotiations. "We don't have a monopoly on all the best ideas for conservation," said Scanlon. "We hope to get good ideas from customers."
Bonneville had informally set a March 31 deadline to wrap up this first round of ConAug. However, Scanlon and Pyrch indicated proposals will be accepted beyond that date.
BPA Regional Goals, Strategies
BPA has pledged to meet or exceed its proportional share of regional cost-effective energy-saving targets developed by the Council. That number stood at 166 aMW for the 2002-2006 rate period, but recent updated estimates by the Council would push the BPA portion to 220 aMW, Pyrch said. "My guess is it'll be substantially higher than that as we move ahead," he told the roundtable--perhaps 1,000 aMW of conservation for BPA over the next 20 years and up to 500 aMW by 2010. "We're in this program aggressively, and we need help to make sure we can address these long-term targets."
Pyrch made a pitch for a "comprehensive regional strategy" on conservation. Government agencies, utilities, customers, regulators, efficiency businesses, the Alliance, the Council, BPA and others all play a role in Northwest energy efficiency, he noted, but they lack a unifying direction. "We have a bunch of ad hoc, piecemeal things going on," he said, and urged increased cooperation.
Brent Barclay of Columbia River PUD called this "a good idea," but added, "It's just overwhelming. I don't know if we have time."
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Another regional entity, the Alliance, was formed in 1996 to help transform markets for energy-efficient goods and service--a process that by its very nature takes time. Nevertheless, the Alliance offers at least two programs the general public can take advantage of for immediate energy savings.
One is the Energy Star Residential Lighting program, for which the Alliance board on Feb. 2 approved an additional $910,000 to encourage local utilities to promote efficient lighting products in retail stores within their service territories. "We see this as a clear market transformation opportunity where we can leverage significant utility investments, particularly right now," project coordinator Marci Sanders told the board. The Alliance also has worked with participating retailers to ensure adequate supplies of efficient lighting equipment, and to encourage product visibility and sales promotions.
Another is the Performance Tested Comfort Systems venture promoting well-functioning residential HVAC systems, mainly through repair of leaky duct work by trained contractors.
"We're basically trying to educate people on those two programs," including the media, said Alliance communications coordinator Stacey Hobart.
She said the Alliance is also "trying to take a little bit of a longer-term view in terms of industrial and commercial efforts, working on a plan to come up with ways we might be able to help either the utilities or industrial customers step forward and improve efficiencies." An Alliance-hosted March workshop on future trends in electric energy use should help develop efficiency ideas, Hobart noted.
On its Web site, the Alliance offers tips on reducing energy use for homes and businesses, with links to Alliance-related resources.
The Alliance board on Feb. 2 also approved a new Energy Star Home Products program to promote a broad range of energy- efficient residential technologies, including appliances, consumer electronics, lighting and home envelope items (contact the Alliance for more information).
Northwest Power Planning Council
The regional planning agency has a statutory interest in the demand-side, as it was formed by the landmark 1980 Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act, which established cost-effective conservation as the highest-priority energy resource.
One of the Council's duties is to develop a regional power plan. The last such effort, completed in 1998, identified a regional average of 1,535 aMW of cost-effective conservation available in the Northwest over 20 years. Council staff has recently upped that figure to a rough estimate of about 2,400 aMW, with further revisions in progress, Council conservation manager Tom Eckman told Con.WEB in December. "Certainly it's clear from the price signals we're seeing in both gas and electricity that additional conservation is going to be cost-effective, compared to the low prices we saw in the mid-1990s," Eckman said. "That means there's more [conservation] available."
Of particularly increasing value, in the Council's view, are efficiency measures that reduce peak loads. "We're moving away from this whole construct of conservation is cost-effective if it saves energy at a levelized cost less than the next" available resource, Council power planning director Dick Watson told Con.WEB in November. "The real question here then is: What is the value of energy saved today at the margin?"
In a report issued last fall and in recent remarks by Council member Tom Karier to a U.S. Senate committee, the Council identified energy conservation cutbacks since the mid-1990s as a contributing factor to the region's current power supply problems. "Council staff has estimated that if the Northwest had maintained its level of investment in conservation at its 1995 level through the last three years of the decade, we would now we using the equivalent of the total output of a combined-cycle combustion turbine less electricity," Karier told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "The average cost of saving that electricity is a fraction of the current market price of power."
On the demand-side of the energy ledger, the Council advocates what Karier termed "reinvigorat[ion]" of Northwest energy efficiency efforts along with a move toward "price-responsive demand management--reducing loads during periods of high prices or shifting the loads to periods of the day when prices are lower . . . [T]here should be significant untapped potential." This approach can help moderate price spikes and enhance system reliability, Karier noted. A number of large Northwest utilities have already launched such initiatives. (The Council is co-sponsoring a load management conference March 27 in Seattle.)
Still, the Council realizes many other measures beyond conservation are needed, including more risk-mitigation mechanisms, keeping an eye on the market's ability to provide enough capacity for a reliable electric system, and a revamped California market structure.
Even in the full-speed-ahead days of Northwest utility conservation in the early- to mid-1990s, the region's utilities collectively never saved more than 200 aMW annually, Eckman noted. Bonneville alone needs an additional 3,000-plus aMW in the next five-year rate period. He offered the "intuitively simple conclusion that given how far demand has outstripped supply, it's at least in the foreseeable future unfathomable we'll be able to meet it all with efficiency improvements."
But Eckman also suggested, "Let's not turn the [conservation] spigot up and down all the time, as has been the case. And it hasn't served us well."--Mark Ohrenschall
More Information:
Many of the Northwest's public-power utilities are looking to expand their energy conservation inititives to soften the impacts of sharply rising wholesale power prices.
This theme reverberated throughout a Jan. 26 roundtable in Portland with representatives of small and medium-sized publicly owned utilities from around the region. The gathering--hosted by the Northwest Public Power Association--came shortly after Bonneville Power Administation announced a prospective wholesale rate increase averaging 63 percent over the next five-year rate period. And that number may yet rise even higher.
"Even if we had not seen a rate increase, we still would've been aggressive on conservation. Now I think the pressure's on us to do an even more aggressive conservation program than envisioned," said Ed Revell of Benton County (WA) PUD.
The roundtable shared thoughts on lighting, heat pumps, water-heating, thermostats, irrigation and commercial sector work, partnerships with energy services companies, informational offerings, the role of BPA's conservation/renewables wholesale rate discount and Conservation Augmentation, and other energy-saving initiatives. Many of these are still in the idea or planning stages, as utilities scramble to adapt to the Western power crunch. Still, it seemed from the meeting that conservation is likely to gain increased prominence among public-power utilities.
Conservation Stories from Public Power
McMinnville (OR) Water & Light is operating "fairly small-scale" energy-saving programs, reported conservation manager David Christie. But the scale is about to expand.
"Our department is the only one looked at for increased funding right now. Everything else will be cut back," he said, including capital spending. "Our manager just told me this week he wants to double conservation funding to offset complaints come Feb. 20," when the municipal utility holds a public hearing on a proposed rate increase of 20-percent average for all customer classes.
Christie said he is exploring low-flow showerheads that use 1.6 gallons per minute; "we've been using 2.0 [gpm] for several years" to gain water and electricity efficiencies. A new type of Honeywell programmable thermostat represents another potential opportunity. He also wants to increase maximum conservation loan amounts from $10,000 to $15,000, which he said would cover virtually all new heat-pump installations. And he's looking to work with local retailers on a "major purchase" of compact fluorescent lamps in the very near future.
Benton County PUD is also looking at a retail rate increase, in the range of 10 percent to 15 percent but perhaps higher given BPA's latest news, according to retail services director Ed Revell. Time-of-use rates are under consideration, he said, as are power purchases from wind energy Energy Northwest may develop, and from natural gas-fired generation.
On the conservation side, Revell said he has looked into Milton-Freewater (OR) Light & Power's SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system that turns off water-heaters for participating customers during peak-load periods. Irrigation scheduling has already proven cost-effective, at 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour saved in a service territory with a total irrigation load exceeding 25 percent. Benton is exploring residential options in the context of steeply rising power prices, while trying to work more closely with local consultants and service providers. The PUD also plans to put even more energy efficiency information in its newsletters "so customers get an understanding of the kind of things they can do to help reduce their bills," Revell said. He thinks Benton is well-positioned for conservation because after BPA's cutbacks in the mid-1990s, the PUD retained energy-saving initiatives through the Conservation and Renewable Energy System (CARES) and its own funding. "Our infrastructure has stayed in place," he said, while other utilities could face problems in expanding conservation because of reduced infrastructure.
Grays Harbor County (WA) PUD is developing new conservation programs after prior ones languished, according to the PUD's Doug Smith. He noted many customers are "irate" with the absence of conservation initiatives coupled with higher rates.
For the near future Grays Harbor is examining compact fluorescent rebates, torchiere turn-ins and low-interest loans. Smith said he hopes to "strike partnerships" with energy services companies to help serve commercial and industrial customers; performance contracting arrangements can furnish technical expertise to customers "without much cost to the utility."
Customer Sector Priorities
Some utility representatives highlighted particular sectors. Washington's Inland Power & Light Co. and Big Bend Electric Cooperative both have substantial irrigation loads, 65 percent in the case of Big Bend. "These are tough times but there're also opportunities," said Big Bend's Dale Anderson. An irrigation customer recently told Anderson electric price increases in the early 1980s led him to realize his wasteful ways with power; he bought new very efficient pumps that paid off in five or six years. "Cheap power is probably gone in the foreseeable future," said Anderson, and he indicated utilities can help their customers save energy and reduce bills.
Commercial customers are a conservation priority for, among others, Franklin County (WA) PUD, Columbia River (OR) PUD and the city of Ellensburg, WA.
Columbia River gained 1,000 new commercial and general services customers, along with 6,000 additional households, when it took over Portland General Electric's service territory in three local communities last summer. "Our new commercial and residential customers haven't received a lot of energy efficiency upgrades like the rest of our historic customers have," said the PUD's marketing and sales supervisor Brent Barclay. He mentioned commercial lighting retrofits as one promising conservation avenue.
In Ellensburg, the municipal utility has helped residences become more energy-efficient for more than 20 years, through the likes of weatherization and window replacements on most houses. "We'll focus a lot more heavily on commercial this year," said energy management engineer Gary Nystedt. Ellensburg also provides natural gas service, which it promotes for space- and water-heating while urging efficient electricity consumption. The city is likely to join a planned regional compact fluorescent lighting initiative "to help offset some of the 'positive' media we've been getting lately on rate increases," particularly for natural gas customers, he said.
Some Idaho public-power utilities are also promoting conservation. At Idaho Falls Power, "We're trying to get some information out, energy conservation tips and so forth, to really get our customers to conserve," said customer service manager Van Ashton. His utility's financial reserves "are being depleted rapidly" for open market power purchases, and a retail rate increase--"the first one for us in quite a while"--will likely accompany BPA's increase come October.
Kootenai Electric Cooperative sees an opportunity to further promote electric heat pumps, probably with financing, according to energy services director Peter Anderson. Natural gas has been the local home-heating fuel of choice, but the gas utility, Avista, faces rising rates later this year. "Electric heat pumps are more cost-effective than gas heat," according to Anderson, and provide both heating and increasingly popular cooling.
Clearwater Power Co. now offers "some real limited programs" for conservation, according to energy resource manager Dave Hagen. "I anticipate the board is probably going to be faced with a decision what to do with conservation, how aggressive to get with it," he said. With BPA's predicament, "I'm sure we're going to be going down that road [of expanded conservation], or thinking about going down that road."--Mark Ohrenschall
Saving energy in commercial buildings has taken on new urgency in Seattle, where the city's municipal utility has raised electric rates an average 18 percent (and counting) because of the Western wholesale power crunch.
A very timely "Commercial Real Estate Energy Conservation Summit" drew an estimated 500 people to a packed ballroom at the downtown Seattle Sheraton Hotel. The Feb. 7 event featured energy-saving ideas for commercial buildings, ranging from activating sleep modes on computers to promoting tenant conservation to installing energy-efficient technologies.
Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy officials offered advice and assistance, including an announcement of additional financial incentives this year for commercial conservation.
Political, utility and real estate leaders exhorted conservation actions by building owners, tenants, property and facilities managers, building operators, energy managers and other commercial building representatives.
City Light superintendent Gary Zarker said these people "play a critical role" in reducing energy consumption, saving money while allowing the municipal utility to avoid exorbitantly priced power on the wholesale market. The Northwest's largest city has achieved half of its 10-percent energy reduction goal through March, announced city councilwoman Heidi Wills, saving Seattle millions of dollars in avoided power costs. "We're going to need to conserve, conserve, conserve," she told the gathering.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Seattle and King County put together the summit on short notice, to inform and motivate people, according to BOMA utility committee chairman Don Wise. He described conservation as "an opportunity to personally make a really big difference in this energy situation our region is facing."
Conservation Context
This energy situation, and the urgent calls for conservation, can be traced to one overriding circumstance, according to Zarker. "By far the most significant element is extraordinary wholesale prices on the West Coast," he said, citing prices as he spoke of about $400 per megawatt-hour (up from $26/MWh a year ago, according to Wills). Zarker blamed "an artificial shortage" in California for driving up wholesale power prices so high.
City Light normally depends on the market for only 10 percent of its power, the superintendent said, but reduced hydroelectricity production from the extremely dry winter have forced the utility to buy another 10-15 percent on the market. A cash shortfall of $350 million has resulted--about as much money as rates produce in a normal year, he noted.
The Seattle City Council recently approved an 18-percent retail rate increase, and "there could be more later this year," Zarker said. The longer-term future looks better. Come October, Seattle will increase its proportional reliance on Bonneville Power Administration electricity, and "be free of the marketplace." City Light also will get 100 MW from a new natural gas-fired plant in southern Oregon, Zarker said, and is negotiating for 100 average megawatts of wind energy. "Finally, we think it's going to rain again," he added.
Seattle also plans to double its conservation efforts. "We think conservation is saving us millions of dollars," he said. "It is still the best place to acquire new generation."
Seattle mayor Paul Schell indicated that the energy crisis threatens the region's economic future, particularly the fate of Bonneville Power Administration. "This is the lifeblood of our economy," said Schell. BPA, which is considering huge rate increases of its own, "is under attack like never before" from outside the Northwest, said the mayor.
Demand-Side Responses
With this rather grim scenario painted, the summit turned to demand-side responses.
Commercial customers account for about 35 percent of City Light's total load--and there are plenty of ways to reduce that load.
Working with building tenants is vital, according to speaker Pat McCabe of Unico Properties. In a typical commercial building, he said, non-HVAC uses account for 70 percent of energy consumption, and 90 percent of those occur within tenant spaces. "65 percent of the [building's] energy consumption is in the tenant's hands," he said.
Specific energy-saving tips for tenants: reduce plug load by shutting off unused computers, printers and monitors; turn off ancillary devices, especially space heaters; turn off unneeded lighting, such as perimeter areas with daylighting potential, and use task lighting where possible; lower temperature set points for heating to 68 degrees during business hours, and 55 degrees after hours; turn off special lighting; and close thermal-lined drapes.
Seattle City Light examined a 30-story downtown office building where computers had Energy Star efficiency features--but very few were enabled, according to energy management analyst David Van Holde. Setting these computer monitors in sleep mode will save 200,000 kilowatt-hours annually, or $12,000. "Plug load is the fastest-growing segment" of commercial energy use, he said. "We encourage you to be aggressive and keep your tenants engaged."
At the Washington Mutual building, property manager Wright Runstad and Co. established a "Turn It Off, Save Some Juice" program featuring a series of posters suggesting specific energy conservation tips. Wright Runstad also handed out boxes of fruit juice to enhance the conservation point. "Our focus is the nighttime use at this point," said Wright Runstad's Carol Thomas. "We're thinking we don't want to disrupt their business . . . We hope we can inspire people. We know they want to do the right thing, but it's changing habits."
Northwest Security Services has instructed its 300-plus employees to turn off lights in unoccupied areas, but not any office equipment, noted president Darlene Larson.
City Light's Van Holde suggested that pre-warming buildings could be valuable with the use of sophisticated control systems, as could, in summer, bringing chillers off-line shortly before the late-afternoon/early-evening peak hours. But he also cautioned that tampering with system controls is "non-trivial . . . Losing controls can cause more trouble than it's worth."
Looking beyond curtailment types of energy conservation, two speakers outlined longer-term options.
Bob Fuhr of Power Systems Engineering listed peak-time generators; cogeneration that uses waste heat for other applications; islanding (his company helped a Tacoma firm install 12 1.5-MW generators so as to be "completely isolated" from the serving utility); power-factor corrections; high-efficiency transformers, which can increase transformer efficiency from 93-95 percent to 97-98 percent, reducing heat from line losses and lowering air-conditioning requirements; and, particularly in older buildings, lighting retrofits and installation of high-efficiency motors with variable-speed drives.
Rick Ward of Abacus Engineered Systems described a current project at a 600,000-square-foot hospital in Olympia, WA, that includes upgraded chillers and boilers and additional controls. The energy savings are supporting $2.2 million worth of capital expenditures--based on last summer's rates, he reported. "The rate structures right now are making those look like really smart moves."
Utility Role
Officials from both Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy announced additional financial incentives for commercial energy-saving projects.
PSE will offer an additional 10-percent incentive for projects completed this year, said energy management engineer Mary Smith. City Light, meanwhile, will offer a "signing bonus" of 10 perecent for retrofit projects signed by medium and large commercial/industrial customers by July 31. Projects completed, inspected and approved by City Light before Nov. 30 will be eligible for an additional 10-percent incentive. "City Light hopes that the 10 + 10 Incentive Bonus will further stimulate conservation activity in our service area and help customers mitigate the impacts of rising energy prices," according to a utility fact sheet.
Puget remains roughly in load-resource balance and doesn't foresee electric rate increases, reported external affairs vice president Tim Hogan. He touted Puget's Personal Energy Management program that gives customers information on their energy consumption (see Con.WEB, Dec. 21, 2000, for details), and indicated time-of-use rates could be in place by year's end. "It's a good step to help consumers manage their energy and ultimately save money," Hogan said. "If we're going to get control of this situation, we need to empower the customer . . . We believe this is the next level of conservation."
The two utilities continue to offer a range of energy-saving programs and services for business customers--along with advice.
"Every building is different," said City Light's Van Holde. "We as a utility can't tell you how to operate. We can work with you to find a better way to operate," through such means as optimized control systems and simple reductions of operating hours of energy-using equipment. "One of the easiest ways to reduce energy use is to look at building management control system scheduling."
Puget's Syd France referenced Wills' comment about conservation actions already reducing Seattle loads by 5 percent. "A large part of our way out of this will not be so much utility programs, but the common-sense things you're already doing," both at work and home, he said.--Mark Ohrenschall
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