Is Obama Green

The fan base for President Obama’s ambitious new Green Button energy conservation program started off small in January with a short list of half a dozen utility companies covering 12 million households, and in two months it has practically doubled in size.

Last week, nine more major utility companies and electricity suppliers announced their support along with a dozen or so energy and information technology related companies. All in all, Green Button will already be available to about 27 million households as it rolls out over the next few years – and that’s just for starters.

So…what is Green Button, and why is the energy industry beginning to love it?

The Green Button concept is an important part of the President’s Blueprint For a Secure Energy Future and Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid. It works from the premise that consumers will manage their energy consumption more efficiently when they have detailed, timely access to information – and they will be more likely to act on emerging opportunities to save money and energy.

Green Button was launched last fall, following the success of a similar concept, the Blue Button program of the Veterans’ Administration. Blue Button provides VA health care clients with one-click, online access to all of their health care data, literally in the form of a blue icon “button.” Key to Blue Button’s success is presenting the data in a standard, user-friendly form that consumers can actually put to work for their own benefit.

On the health care provider and information technology end, Blue Button required standardization and coordination across the industry. Translate that into the energy field and you have Green Button, which coordinates all sectors of the electricity supply chain to provide energy data to consumers in a uniform, online format.

The utility company PG&E has been in the vanguard for Green Button and you can see it in action on their website.

One Button Action

One Green Button, many green jobs

By signing on to Green Button, the utilities have agreed to coordinate the Green Button icon on their individual websites with common standard developed by a public-private partnership supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is an agency of the Commerce Department.

In terms of Green Button, standardization across utility companies will create a gigantic national marketplace for energy related IT products out of the hodgepodge of individual utility markets that characterize the U.S. electricity sector. The Obama Administration anticipates that this will motivate more software developers and entrepreneurs to create new energy-saving applications for consumers, creating more green jobs in the process.

Jumping on the Green Button bandwagon

The initial list of utility and energy supplier sign-ons included Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Oncor, Pepco Holdings Inc., Glendale Water and Power, and San Diego Gas & Electric, which all together will provide Green Button to almost 12 million households.

Last week’s announcement added:

1.  American Electric Power,

2.  Austin Energy,

3.  Baltimore Gas and Electric,

4.  CenterPoint Energy,

5.  Commonwealth Edison,

6.  NSTAR,

7.  PECO,

8.  Reliant, and

9.  Virginia Dominion Power

This added another 15 million households.

Green Button is Smart

On the IT, applications (including mobile apps) and related services side, Aclara and Tendril signed on in January and they have just been joined by Itron, OPower, Oracle, Silver Spring Networks, Belkin, Efficiency 2.0, EnergySavvy, FirstFuel, Honest Buildings, Lucid, Plotwatt, Schneider-Electric, Simple Energy, and Sunrun.

The energy industry and Green Button

The electricity sector stands to gain from Green Button because it gives utility companies an essential tool for managing growth and profitability into the future as we transition from old energy to new. In particular, coal fired power plants are closing and nuclear energy faces an uncertain future, so utilities are venturing into new alternative energy territory that requires improved information sharing between provider and consumer to function efficiently, such as distributed solar energy.

In some markets, Green Button could help motivate more consumers to take advantage of weatherization and other energy efficiency improvements offered by utilities that are looking to manage the long term demand for energy in their service area.

Green Button also provides utility companies and their customers with a more efficient disaster management tool when extra conservation measures are called for in order to avoid brownouts and blackouts.

Hey, Energy Spy Insiders and everybody else that would like to conserve energy – this is three articles in one. The first article is titled “Facebook, PG&E Team on Social Energy Saving App.” The second article is posted below and is titled, “Facebook, PG&E team on social energy saving app.” And then the article “Facebook app promotes energy conservation with peer pressure.”

Looks like the Green Button, Opower, Obama, and Facebook are joining forces to provide us with some energy saving help. Read on…

Go Here To Get Started

Facebook, PG&E Team on Social Energy Saving App

original article,   http://links.opower.mkt4547.com

It’s here! Welcome to the launch of Opower’s social energy app—and the future of how we all think about the energy we use at home.

Thanks for expressing interest in hearing from Opower once we’re available to you. That time has come! Click here to get started.

Since we announced this initiative with Facebook and NRDC, we’ve partnered with some of the top utilities in the USA. As of today, we’re thrilled that more than 20 million households now have the ability to connect with their utility account quickly, safely, and easily—and start comparing their home energy use with their friends and family.

Log in and find out if that includes your utility. Even if not, you’ll still be able to participate in the social energy app.

With the Opower social energy app, you’ll be able to:

1.  See how your energy use compares to that in similar homes

2.  Find out how your energy use stacks up against your friends and family

3.  Join groups to participate in energy-saving challenges

4.  Share savings accomplishments on Facebook

5.  Participate in utility-sponsored energy-saving challenges

What are you waiting for? Head on over to Opower to get started!

Now the second article:

Facebook, PG&E team on social energy saving app

by blog.seattlepi.com

I know why he is smiling

Facebook has joined PG&E, City of Palo Alto Utilities and 14 other utilities around the country on an app designed to promote energy conservation by making it a social networking conversation – or a friendly competition – among friends.

The “social energy app” pulls in energy usage data from a Facebook member’s own utility bill. The member signs in through Facebook, and can chose to voluntarily share the data on the social network to see how they rank against their friends on an energy usage “leader board.”

The app can also be used to create groups that can compete against each other to see which one reduces their consumption most in a month.

The idea is to get more people talking about energy conservation and get motivated to take action, Facebook corporate sustainability leader Marcy Scott Lynn said during a media demo of the app.

“We’re using old fashioned word of mouth to ultimately reduce everyone’s energy footprint,” she said.

Facebook developed the app with OPower, an Arlington, Va., company that behind the graphical home energy reports that PG&E customers already receive, and the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council.

Now, Article Three…

Facebook app promotes energy conservation with peer pressure

Energy Savings and Social Media

by Jennifer Van Grove,   www.venturebeat.com

If simple common sense can’t curb energy usage, perhaps a little peer pressure from Facebook friends will do the trick.

Facebook has joined forces with energy efficiency startup Opower and the National Resources Defense Council to release a social energy application that encourages people to track, and ultimately reduce, energy use in the home.

The simple application invites Facebook members to log in and automatically track monthly energy use by connecting the app to their utility account. The friendly, non-threatening conservation-themed app encourages competition, highlights rankings among friends and groups, provides national benchmarks, and offers energy-saving tips.

“People can connect their utility account directly to the app to track progress and share energy saving accomplishments with friends,” Facebook said in a memo on the news.

The social network estimates that it can reach 20 million households at launch, although not all utility providers (SDG&E, for one) are supported.

Facebook’s app partner, Opower, has been in the business of consumerizing energy use data since 2007. The Arlington, VA-based company has raised upwards of $65 million in venture funding, including a $50 million round from Accel and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

We appreciate the gesture, but we’re not yet sold on the idea of Facebook and gamification tactics making a sizable dent in energy use. We’re open to being proven wrong, of course. What say you, Dear Reader?

The app is scheduled to be available Tuesday morning at social.opower.com.

Like the Green Button Program

You’ll soon be competing with your Facebook friends to cut home energy usage with a new social energy app. The soon-to-be-released app is the brainchild of Alliance Associate Opower and Board member NRDC, with social media powerhouse Facebook, who expect the social energy app to spread energy-efficient behavior to thousands of users when it’s launched this spring.

How the App Works: Sign Up, Save Energy & Share

Once the social energy app launches this spring, you’ll be able to sign up through Opower’s website and the Green on Facebook energy efficiency page. The app uses information from your energy bill to display how your home ranks against similar homes across the nation and the homes of your Facebook friends. You also can compete with others to save the most energy, as well as create “groups” with specific energy-saving goals and race to the energy finish line.

The social energy app also offers energy-saving tips and allows you to share energy-saving advice of your own. You can use the app without connecting to Facebook, and you can choose who sees your information.

Utilities Make the Energy App Automatic

If your electric utility has signed onto the social energy app, the app will automatically pull your energy use data each month and instantly compare it with others. Ten utilities – representing 4 million households – have signed up so far, including ComEd (Northern Illinois), City of Palo Alto Utilities (California), Glendale Water & Power (California), Rochester Public Utilities (Minnesota), Austin Utilities (Minnesota), Owatonna Public Utilities (Minnesota), and Loveland Water & Power (Colorado).

Opower expects more utilities to announce their participation in the app when it launches. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for utilities to embrace social media as they demonstrate their commitment to energy efficiency,” said Opower Corporate Marketing Director Eric Fleming. “We’re hoping utilities will see this nationwide – if not global – network as a way to expand their online presence and a first step in online social engagement with their customers.”

Prepare to Enter Data Yourself to Use the Energy App

Opower Conservation and Facebook App

If your utility hasn’t yet signed up, you’ll have to enter your energy data manually each month using your energy bill. While cumbersome data entry was linked to the demise of Google’s PowerMeter and Microsoft’s Hohm, Opower says its social energy app is way more “sticky,” and he anticipates more of the 60 utilities that are members of Opower to come on board soon.

“Our partnership with utilities are the key thing that makes the social energy app different from what the Microsoft and Google systems were able to do,” Fleming said. He added that the previous systems focused on providing lots of data, whereas the social energy app highlights actionable information with clear insights

App’s Social Aspect Makes It Fun and Fosters ‘Social Energy Community’

“We know that people inherently like to ‘keep up with Joneses’ and the social energy app creates that environment online in more real time than anyone has ever had access to before,” said Brandi Colander, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s energy and transportation program attorney. “Competition is the piece that’s the most exciting – just to see how people will push themselves to do better each month as they enhance their energy literacy.”

The partners also expect the app to create the largest social energy community in the world based on Facebook’s ability to connect with a huge audience – over 800 million users – and the app’s ability to tap into people’s natural competitive edge.

“The app is intended to make saving energy social and create a conversation about the merits of energy efficiency that doesn’t currently happen,” said Marcy Scott Lynn, who leads sustainability programs at Facebook. “Adding the social aspect of environmental action could be the missing piece to previous attempts to create an online community on energy,” she added.

Getting ready to save energy

Last week, the White House unveiled a new program called the Green Button Initiative. So what the heck is the Green Button?

Quite literally, it is a green button on a utility’s website that allows consumers to download their energy consumption data in an easy-to-understand format. There are two exciting outcomes from this industry-led initiative:

1.  For the first time, consumers can have the kind of access to their energy data that they have with online banking. This will allow people to save money while easing the demand-side burden on the grid.

2.  This neatly sidesteps the legal questions around 3rd party access to information since customers can now transmit data themselves directly to innovative energy management companies.

Before going into too much detail on these two points, it is helpful to put this breakthrough in context. The Green Button is a milestone in a much larger story about transparency and empowering citizens, a narrative which resonates with Americans who want to build a future around sustainability and equity.

Blue, Health Care - Green, Save Energy

Seeing the Big Picture

Rewind to January 20th, 2009. A newly minted President Obama unveiled his top priorities for America that boldly included a commitment to transparency, participation, and collaboration within the Government. This was one of his campaign pledges that helped bring younger voters to the ballot box.

In August 2010, President Obama announced the creation of the “blue button” which allows individuals to download their personalized healthcare information. This was a huge step forward for cutting through red tape and increasing Americans’ access to the information that would make their lives easier.

In September 2011, Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra challenged the energy industry to create a “green button” and enhance consumer access to energy consumption data. This recommendation followed the basic trajectory of the Framework for a 21st Century Grid put forward in June 2011, which urged the adoption of policies which would help consumers “save energy, ensure privacy, and shrink bills.”

The launch of the “green button” marks a broad commitment from the Obama Administration to open and transparent government, and for building a sustainable energy future.

Accessing Energy Data Empowers Consumers in Every Sector

Empower Consumers

The Energy Information Agency projects that electricity consumption will increase an average of 0.8% per year from 3,879 billion KWh to 4,775 billion KWh in 2035. Providing new supply-side solutions with renewable energy will be essential, but equally important will be changing demand-side consumption patterns. As I have argued before, consumer access to data has many complex and challenging issues, and how it will likely dictate a large portion of the changes that occur in the demand-side market.

In the residential market, homeowners have a strong incentive (i.e. saving money on energy bills) to alter their consumption patterns. However, without easy and understandable access to their data, and the tools to use that data effectively, this task is incredibly difficult.

The average American probably won’t be going to their local ISO/RTO and cross-checking real time prices against their estimated consumption at peak hours. But they might be willing to make a few dollars by clicking “yes” to an alert on their smartphone asking permission to float their thermometer by 2 degrees between 3:00 and 4:00pm.

Aggregated across the entire residential sector, the impact of these changes to consumer behavior is massive.

In the commercial and industrial market, the impact is even greater. Companies geting access to their data is important. But even more important is the ability to outsource that data to innovative 3rd party businesses that can provide energy management solutions.

Rulings by public utility commissions have been loud on consumer privacy, but very quiet on 3rd party access — likely because the legal questions surrounding 3rd parties getting data directly from utilities creates complicated ownership and security issues.

Energy Usage Data, One Click Away

The green button avoids this debate entirely by allowing consumers to download and then disseminate their information, making it the responsibility of the utility to secure the data and confirm identification — much like online banking.

The green button is not a mandate. Participation is entirely voluntary. And with fourteen utilities and nineteen companies on board so far, it is a testament to how public-private partnerships and industry led projects can create more choice for consumers.

Saving Money and Creating Economic Growth

The green button will save money and make life easier for Americans nationwide. It may also be the catalyst for innovative companies that can now predictably access energy data and provide tools for residential, commercial, and industrial players.

Decreasing energy use is a win-win. The average American spends $1,419 on electricity every year, and cutting back on these costs would allow people to put those dollars to work in their local economy or providing for their family.

On a larger scale, this will also help maintain the integrity of the electrical grid. Consumers ultimately carry the costs of an inefficient electricity system. The aggregated effect of changing demand-side consumption patterns, which the green button can enable, will allow our energy system to be more efficient, sustainable, and more profitable.

Obama Has a Green Button?

This is a good one – it will bring energy efficiency further into peoples’ homes and businesses, and it will spark innovation in cleantech companies who are developing products and services around it.

The Obama administration announced an agreement today with nine major utilities to give customers access to data about their energy use, with a simple click of an online “Green Button.”

The utilities that signed on supply electricity to over 27 million households.

Inspired by a White House call to action, Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in an easy-to-use online format.

The data has the potential to not only help businesses and households understand how they are using energy, and thus gain greater control over how much they use, but it also opens the door for third-party technology companies to develop interactive applications and “smart” appliances that empower people to make wiser energy decisions.

Opens the Door to Company Innovation

Power Company Available

Utilities have agreed to base their Green Buttons on a common technical standard developed in collaboration with a public-private partnership supported by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Adoption of this standard by utilities across the US gives software developers and other entrepreneurs a sufficiently large market to support the creation of innovative applications that can help people make the most of their energy information.

Companies that have agreed to support utility deployment of Green Button include Itron, OPower, Oracle, Silver Spring Networks, Aclara and Tendril.

Green-Button-enabled web and smartphone applications promise to help people choose the most economical rate plan based on their energy use patterns; provide customized energy efficiency tips; provide easy-to-use tools to size and finance rooftop solar panels; and deliver virtual energy audit software that cuts costs for building owners and gets retrofits started sooner.

Energy Consumption Monitor

Companies that are developing applications or services for businesses and individuals using this industry data standard include:

1.  Belkin,

2.  Efficiency 2.0,

3.  EnergySavvy,

4.  FirstFuel,

5.  Honest Buildings,

6.  Lucid,

7.  Plotwatt,

8.  Schneider-Electric,

9.  Simple Energy,

10.  Sunrun.

Could Spread Nationwide

In the previous Congress, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) authored legislation called e-KNOW (Electricity Consumers Right to Know Act) that would require all electricity providers to make this data available to their customers.

“I applaud the President for his leadership in getting utility companies to agree to share energy data with their customers. From cars to cornflakes, people make better decisions when they have facts and data. It’s time we empower electricity consumers with information as well,” says Rep. Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

Educational Opportunities

“But energy information shouldn’t be something that only a small portion of American households have access to. All Americans should have the right to access their energy data so that they can better reduce energy waste and shrink their bills. That’s why I will soon be introducing legislation that would require all electricity companies to make this information available to their customers.”

Participating utilities are:

American Electric Power: 5.3 million customers in 11 states (Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia);

1.  Austin Energy: 400,000 customers in Texas;

2.  Baltimore Gas and Electric: 1.2 million customers in Maryland;

3.  CenterPoint Energy: 1.8 million households in Texas;

4.  Commonwealth Edison: 3.4 million households in Illinois;

5.  NSTAR: 1.1 million households in Massachusetts;

6.  PECO: 1.4 million households in Pennsylvania;

7.  Reliant: 500,000 households in Texas;

8.  Virginia Dominion Power: 2.4 million customers in Virginia and North Carolina;

9.  Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Oncor, Pepco Holdings Inc., Glendale Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric: 12 million customers in Calfornia.

Developing New Green Energy Sources

How the Fed is Encouraging Innovation

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced today:

Apps for Energy Contest to Spur Development of New Online and Mobile Tools – With initial co-sponsorship from the Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Itron, DOE announced an Apps for Energy contest to spur development of energy-related software applications, based on the Green Button standard, that will help consumers gain new insights, take action, and save on utility bills.

The contest complements a recently closed $8 million grant funding opportunity to help people better manage their energy consumption from new smart grid technologies.

Providing Transparency to Consumers – DOE launched an online map today that enables utilities across the country to display their progress towards providing their customers access to their own energy data in consumer-friendly and computer-friendly formats.

Technical Assistance to Industry – The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, a public-private partnership supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, announced today a new initiative to facilitate Green Button implementation for the electric industry.

Here’s how the Administration says it’s been working to shrink peoples’ energy bills.

Green Can Be Big

Reducing Energy Bills for Low Income Americans:

Since October 2009, DOE and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have completed energy upgrades in more than one million homes, saving families over $400 on heating and cooling bills in the first year alone.

Lowering Energy Costs for Renters and New Homeowners:

Through housing assistance programs, HUD has completed over 9,500 ENERGY STAR installations and performed over 17,500 efficient energy modifications that are helping low and moderate income families save money on their energy bills.

Setting New Standards for Residential and Commercial Appliances:

In August 2011, DOE issued energy efficiency standards for home refrigerators and freezers that will raise efficiency by 25% by 2014, saving over $200 on utility bills.

energy efficient

In the movie The Social Network, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want ads on an early version of his social network; he understands that first and foremost, his site has to be cool. And ads, he says, aren’t cool.

Unlike Zuckerberg (well, at least in the beginning), the energy efficiency industry hasn’t quite grasped the value of being cool. It’s an industry that hopes to be popular because it’s right, and it uses less-than-sexy language like “demand-side management” and “load following device” to describe itself. Sure, being “green” seems to have taken off, but when it comes to energy efficiency, well, it’s hard to build a cool brand around an industry that so loves its technical jargon.

How about the industry?

Luckily, the industry is beginning to wake up. This week and next we’ll take a look at how the energy efficiency industry is working on its cool factor. No pun intended.

Gadgets like portable music devices, smart phones and cameras have long been must-haves for the “it” crowd. And next, charging them in unique and efficient ways will be the rage.

Enter the itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie, photovoltaic bikini – proof that form-meets-function stands a chance beyond the energy nerd. We’ve seen the solar-charger backpacks, laptop cases and other wearables like military uniforms – but nothing says sexy like a chick in a bikini.

Green Industry

That may be why designer Andrew Schneider came up with this hot little number: a custom-made solar bikini retrofitted with 40 1×4” PowerFilm Solar photovoltaic film strips that are sewn together with conductive thread and end in a USB port.

That’s right – even beach babes care about energy efficiency. A gal in a solar bikini can generate enough energy to charge her iPhone with an output similar to that of a laptop’s USB port – and look good while doing it. Since no energy is actually stored in the bikini, wearers can still take an “unplugged” dip and return to charging when the suit is completely dry.

How about solar panels?

Ok, so perhaps solar panels need some time before they’re sexy enough for the runway. But the intention behind the swimsuit suggests we’re headed in the right direction: there are easy, fun and energy efficient ways to support that hip lifestyle of yours.

And speaking of, if you’re looking for something form-meets function but with a little more coverage, stay tuned for iDrink – men’s solar swim trunks with enough surface area to keep your drinks cold.

Final note: A very limited number of suits are available from Solar Coterie, although you might have to skip the snow cones if you want one. The cost of the solar bikini will range from $500-$1,500 and up, depending on the design. And that’s Energy Efficiency!

Too Much Juice

For the fifth-consecutive year, home energy bills rose above the inflation rate. The USA TODAY reports that this, the longest sustained rate increase since the 1970s, amounts to a $300 hike in the average annual American electric bill. Researchers found that greater household energy use coupled with rate increases are driving up our bills.

A local contractor can help you evaluate your existing home energy systems. In the meantime, here are six ways you can cut your electric costs in the New Year:

Install energy efficient windows. Windows are heat-gain and heat-loss holes to the outdoors. You can lose up to 30 percent of your heating and cooling out poorly insulated windows. Find a local windows expert in our network of insured, pre-screened contractors now*

Conduct an energy assessment. An experienced contractor can evaluate your home for air leaks, lighting use (especially if you still have incandescent bulbs), and your existing insulation.

Program your thermostat. Don’t heat or cool your home when you’re not away. New generation thermostats can even be activated remotely by computer or cell phone.

Investigate time-of-use plans. Many utility companies offer lower rates for energy used during off-peak hours. If you sign up, be sure there isn’t a price penalty for using electricity during peak hours.

Fine-tune your HVAC. Have a certified technician inspect and tweak your furnace system for operating efficiency. Leaking ducts can raise your bills by as much as 20 percent. Looking for a certified HVAC specialist? Let us help.

Consider new window treatments. Hanging thick drapes or curtains in the winter will conserve heat, while using shutters and blinds in the summer protect against heat gain.

An experienced contractor may have other suggestions to tighten your energy use before bills rise again.

solar world

The solar factory shutdown trend continues with the announcement by Germany-based SolarWorld on Friday that it will shutter one of its factories in the United States to cut costs.

The company issued a statement to say it will close the solar panel assembly plant in Camarillo, Calif. SolarWorld has a larger manufacturing operation in Hillsboro, nearly Portland, Ore., and says it will focus on running that complex, which also has a solar panel assembly line. The company said it will keep the sales and distribution business at the Camarillo location open.

The cost reduction plan also includes shutting down some older production equipment at its flagship manufacturing operation in Germany. That will involve letting go some temporary workers.

SolarWorld didn’t disclose how many workers in both California and Germany will be affected by its decision to cut the manufacturing operation. The company also didn’t disclose the production capacities of its plants. It said in the past the California plant could produce 150 megawatts of solar panels.

The company gets silicon from a joint venture and then runs its own equipment to make wafers, which are then turned into solar cells. A solar panel is a collection of the cells. The company makes wafers, cells and panels at both the German and Oregon operations.

SolarWorld made its announcement at a time when other solar manufacturers are closing factories and filing bankruptcies. In fact, the month of August was filled with bad news from solar companies as the industry struggled to survive amidst an oversupply of solar panels and fast-falling prices. Prices for silicon solar panels, the most common kind in the market today, have fallen by 25 percent this year to reach around $1.20-1.35 per watt, said Shyam Mehta, a senior analyst at GTM Research.

Just earlier this week, Solyndra said it could no longer compete in a market with fast-falling prices and plans to file for Chapter 11. The California company said it had suspended manufacturing and laid off 1,100 full-time and temporary workers.

Two other companies, SpectraWatt and Evergreen Solar, announced their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings last month. SpectraWatt is private, and its investors included Intel. Evergreen’s stock has fallen dramatically in the past two years as the company sought to move manufacturing to China to cut costs.

Solon, another German company, announced the closure of its 60MW solar panel factory in Arizona in August. The company made the move to cut costs. The closure will cut 60 jobs.

Green Jobs

Recently, friends and new college graduates have been asking me how they can get into the field of sustainability. When the question has arisen, I have found myself wondering where the green jobs are sprouting. Then, yesterday, I came across a post in Mother Nature Network listing the top 10 cities for green jobs. California led the pack with three of its cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento in the top 10. Green jobs increased in California by 36% between 1995 and 2008, compared with an overall job growth of only 13%.

The top five from their list:

1. San Francisco is the number one city

• with more than 42,000 green jobs. As the San Francisco Chronicle’s blog points out, for a city with a population of 809,000, that’s a pretty impressive number. A sixth of the city’s green-collar jobs are in the energy generation sector, with most of these in the solar industry. The city recently passed $100 million worth of bonds to create sustainable jobs and businesses. In addition to solar jobs, San Francisco is also filled with environmental consulting, green tech, and greenhouse gas emission monitoring jobs. MNN invited green architects in search of work to move to the city by the Bay, noting that 20 big construction projects have recently applied for LEED certification here.

2. Denver came in at number two

• Which wasn’t surprising given that it is home to Vestas Wind Systems and other solar firms and clean tech companies. Government institutions, such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is based in Denver, have produced green opportunities. During the Obama administration, NREL funding has almost doubled.

green jobs solar

3. NYC was ranked third

• Among the top U.S. metro areas for job creation, according to Clean Edge, a clean energy research firm. Also, many of PlaNYC’s 127 initiatives are expected to create green jobs, especially because of the $1 billion for building retrofits to increase energy efficiency and because of the plans’ target to reduce greenhouse gases by 30%. NYC also hosted a Green Collar Jobs Planning Commission and benefits from active organizations such as Sustainable South Bronc that provide green collar job training.

4. Portland created close to 20,000 clean-energy jobs in 2007

• More than 1% of Oregon’s 1.9 million jobs are related to the clean energy economy, the highest percentage in the U.S. Oregon ranked 3rd for producing sustainable manufacturing jobs.

5. In Los Angeles, energy generation jobs recently increased by 35%

• and energy efficiency jobs by 77%. Much of the green-collar job growth in L.A. is due to the 2009 Green Building Retrofit Ordinance, which required that all city-owned buildings greater than 7,500 square feet or built before 1978 be retrofitted to LEED silver certification standards. The ordinance also created a green jobs training program to help combat unemployment.

wind turbine jobs

San Francisco, NYC, and Portland were also on The Daily Green’s List of 5 Best Cities to Land a Green Job. The Daily Green also included Boston, which isn’t surprising given that the Boston area was recently ranked fourth in a Clean Edge survey of the top U.S. metro areas for clean-tech job creation. Boston also benefits from its many renowned colleges including MIT, Harvard, and Boston University.

The more surprising choice that made both the Daily Green’s and MNNs list was the City of Detroit since it currently has an unemployment rate of about 14%. However, Detroit has been the recipient of of U.S. Department of Energy grants that are creating jobs by funding hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturing.

Other cities which have been recommended to me but didn’t make either list are: Washington D.C., Seattle, Chicago, San Diego and Austin. What is exciting about all of these cities is that the green job potential is growing not solely in the domain of cities along the coasts but also in the Midwest and Southwest.

At TreeHugger there have been quite a few best/top of lists, and many of these cities have made other lists. There have been lists for best cities to be in for earth day, greenest cities in America, and cities with the most energy star rated commercial buildings.

snap,crackle,pop

Welcome to PG&E’s Smart Meter Program:

That is what the informative brochure we received in today’s mail said on the cover. And it is true the brochure told me how to read both my GE electric and the separate natural gas smart meter. It told me where to go on the PG&E website online to monitor my usage. My only complaint is that I am writing this on April 17, 2010 and my smart meters were installed in December 2009—and this is the first communication I have had from my utility about this transformation.

You can see where this smart meter is going can’t you?

Utilities are very efficient at managing a capital asset or proceduralizing a routine and then doing it reliably thereafter—that’s what utilities do. But communicating with customers is sometimes a different story. Don’t get me wrong, my experience with PG&E is not a bad one and I am not complaining about how my smart meter works, or how I am treated.

I use this as an example, even in my own neutral relationship with my utility, to describe why and how PG&E got in trouble with customers in Bakersfield, Oncor got smacked upside the head in Texas, and why other utilities should learn from their experience.

Take Control with PG&E’s Smart Meter Program

“Smart meter technology gives you more control than ever before over your energy use. You can use information made available by smart meter technology to see how and when you are using energy so you can lower your overall energy bills.”

So far, so good. The booklet goes on to explain each of the new smart meters and how to read them. It explains how each smart meter uses a small radio to transmit the reading to a nearby data collector which then send the data to PG&E through a secure wireless network.

How to Track Your Energy Use Online

waste money

Now this is where the sucking sounds starts to hit my wallet so I paid special attention to this. I explained in my post in January 2010 about life on the PG&E budget plan that the level billing policy used by PG&E and virtually every other utility takes average cost pricing to the ultimate delivering a stable bill each month. Periodically the bill is “trued-up” based upon fuel price changes for natural gas, purchased power costs, rate changes and so forth.

Remember, the hassle for PG&E in Bakersfield was that customers showed up at a PG&E hosted smart meter event where politicians had been invited to celebrate the introduction of smart meters to Bakersfield. The problem is they showed up waving their PG&E bills and complaining about rate spikes which they blamed on their new smart meters.

In truth, those rate spikes had more to do with the convergence of the CPUC approved rate increase for PG&E that Spring and the hot summer temperatures in the Central Valley causing people to turn on their A/C. I went online to to see what my actual electric charges were in September 2009—$1000 actual versus my $682 level billing plan bill for the month. Yikes!

I suspect that is why I got this new Welcome to PG&E’s Smart Meter program brochure NOW and not BEFORE they installed my Smart Meter last year. Being a good utility they were efficient in getting the equipment installed and operating but clueless about what I thought about it or how other things—like the rate increase the CPUC approved for PG&E that went into effect just before those smart meters started showing up in Bakersfield homes. Opps!

So I went online and checked out my energy use and my latest bill. Cool stuff actually. I could see my usage history and how it had changed month to month. I could see my tiered rate structure and the impact of rate changes and fuel price changes on my bill.

power bill rising

It turns out that my average monthly energy bill went up $51 as a result of that same rate increase that hit the fan in Bakersfield. But in my case the change was masked by my level billing plan. That extra $51 per month just piles up in my account until the level billing plan true up adjusts. I wish I had known all of this last summer because that online review of my usage and the rate impacts would have warned me to complain more when someone at my house cranked down the A/C last summer—my September electric charges were more than $1000 driven by the combination of high temps and thus higher usage and the rate increase. Yes I made up some of that in the following months when I didn’t use A/C at all as temps fell seasonally. But my level billing plan masked all of that. Obviously, the folks outraged in Bakersfield were not on a level billing plan—but I bet they are now.

Smart Meter Catch 22 for Customers

So now you understand the thorny problem facing state regulators, utilities and most of all customers in the introduction of smart meters and the need to change the rules to get the most benefit out of them. The rational thing for regulators and utilities to do after smart meters are installed would be to move to dynamic pricing to subject customers to the volatility in energy costs to “encourage” us to change our wasteful consumption ways. But this would really piss us off making the Bakersfield experience look tame by comparison.

Don’t count on the move away from average cost pricing and level bill plans anytime soon

But if we stick with the rate and billing structures we know are we giving up on the benefits of smart meters? Of course we are! Will we change our wasteful consumption patterns? Hell no, why should we?

So if nothing changes on the customer’s end except my bill goes up from all the added costs of smart meters and renewable energy and emissions reduction and all the other aspirations of my politicians and regulators—tell me again WHY we need to spend all this money for smart meters?

no smart meter here

Oh, because “ it enables the future of energy management” according to my smart meter brochure. It gives me “access” to new electric pricing plans. “Some are available today, and more will be available in the future,” the brochure tells me. It tells me that “in the future” I will be able to get text or email alerts if my wasteful consumption is about to push me into a higher tier in the rate structure so I can change my sinful ways. It tells me that my smart meter technology will result in faster power restoration because my smart meter can tell PG&E— we are not making any money off this sucker right now so get the juice back on fast—and my life will return to normal.

So what?

Smart metering technology is here to stay and that is good.

It offers customers the opportunity to better manage our energy usage and gain the benefits of data feedback on how we are using energy. But at this stage of the implementation and transformation process, smart meters are one way tools for utilities to reduce costs from meter reading and improve operational efficiencies. But the upfront capital costs are large and the payback is slow so our rates will go up despite the Federal Government stimulating this program and all of us by its tsunami of spending.

The result is not only will my PG&E bill go up but so will my taxes. I will know more about my energy consumption so I will be pissed off about it more often. But average cost pricing and my level billing plan are my friends—and it will be a very cold day in hell before I will willingly give them up.

One more thing—all that online energy use information is the same old monthly consumption data the utility has collected for years—the smart meter did not change anything. In fact, I could have had the same shocking experience about my September electric usage before my smart meter was installed by going online and checking it. Did I? No.

But now I have a smart meter and I ASSUME it has something to do with my increased bill—that is the Bakersfield Effect. My facts may be WRONG, but my utility bill is still WAY UP so it must be caused by my smart meter. In Texas, Oncor is doing a monthly side by side assessment of meter readings on a sample of homes uses BOTH old and new meters to show that the smart meter is not to blame for rising utility bills. Still customers are confused and they get angry when utility bills spike up.

The good news is by the end of 2009 the PG&E’s brochure says 76 million advanced metering devices will have been installed and that number is expected to double by 2013. That means there will be twice as many people pissed off just in time for the 2012 election!

I love it when a plan comes together—don’t you?