More Power Plants or Less Demand?

October 2, 2005 – Vol.10 No.28

BUILD OR SAVE: MORE POWER PLANTS OR LESS DEMAND.

To meet ever-growing demand for electricity, utility companies can build more power plants, buy more power from other generating companies, or reduce demand for power by helping customers use less energy.

Lessening demand - even if efforts have some cost - can eliminate the need for more generating capacity. Lessening demand through efficiency can stop or slow the growth of pollutants and greenhouse gases emissions. More efficient use of energy can also reduce customers’ electricity bills. Efficiency yields many benefits.

Conversely, if more power plants are built to meet growing demand emissions from new conventional power plants increase and customers save nothing.

Fortunately, utilities in the U.S. are beginning to see the benefits of energy efficiency programs in lieu of new power plants. According to a new study from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) total spending on efficiency programs by utility companies was about $1.35 billion in 2003, up from about $1.1 billion in 2000 and about $900 million in 1998.

The top ten states where utility companies spent the most on efficiency programs were, in order, Vermont , Massachusetts, Washington, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Oregon, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Montana, and California.

At the bottom - states with little or no spending on efficiency programs - were Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Kansas, Delaware, Virginia and Wyoming.

The study, ACEEE's 3rd National Scorecard on Utility and Public Benefits Energy Efficiency Programs: A National Review and Update of State-Level Activity is available for free download at http://aceee.org/pubs/u054.htm (Hardcopies can also be purchased from ACEEE.)