CEEP Staff's blog

For the second year in a row, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) is a recipient of the ENERGY STAR partner of the Year award. Each year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selects organizations, from its more than 17,000 program partners, to be recognized for their leadership, accomplishments and commitment to energy efficiency.

Last fall, the American Public Power Association (APPA) distributed a survey to its members requesting information on their energy efficiency (EE) and demand-side management (DSM) programs. While APPA analysts found some changes to the responses they received from a similar survey completed in 2008, overall the trends stayed consistent - energy efficiency is an essential element in a utilities' portfolio and an important customer service.

The Energy Providers Coalition for Education (EPCE) has collaborated with energy industry and education partners to launch a new online course to provide training for electric power industry workers in clean energy solutions and smart grid deployment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed two rules for regulating air pollutants that will affect public power utilities. The Transport Rule is slated to go into effect in 2012 and the Utility Maximum Available Control Technology Rule (MACT) is undergoing a 15 month discussion period.

The Alliance to Save Energy is accepting nominations for the 2011 Star of Energy Efficiency Awards in the following categories:

It looks like energy-efficiency incentives for consumers will survive the final version of the tax bill that President Obama is expected to sign into law later today. The incentives will be a return to the pre-stimulus credit levels that were expanded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Vice President Biden recently announced a three-pronged federal initiative designed to create green jobs in the home improvement sector while helping U.S. homeowners save money through energy efficiency.

The two-year pilot program is designed to overcome several barriers that have hindered the development of a strong home energy retrofit market:

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Amid increasing demand for energy, those working to transform the existing U.S. electric grid into a smart grid are taking a vested interest in Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) technology. Auto-DR can improve electric grid reliability and reduce electricity costs by preventing costly outages and reducing average electricity prices. However, the Auto-DR technology is not effective in a vacuum or without a standardized information exchange for both price and reliability signals. That's where the proposed standard called Open Auto-DR (OpenADR) comes in.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released an Oct. 12 report examining a question that we at the Alliance work to answer daily: How can we persuade the American public to invest in energy efficiency? From the Alliance's perspective, the answer should be a no-brainer: Energy efficiency tends to pay for itself, saving consumers money over time. Yet, most homeowners don't buy into the idea that the easiest place to save money is their monthly energy bills.

What gets you to turn off the lights when you leave your bedroom? Or buy those spiral, energy-saving CFLs for your lamps? It's probably a belief that you should do it, and a feeling that you want to. How you got to that point of action - that moment when you decided to save energy - charged the fourth annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference Nov. 14-17.