Thursday, July 28, 2011

Energy legislation: One step at a time

By Kathrin Winkler, vice president of corporate sustainability, EMC Corp.

In the initial blog post of the Energy Leaders Forum (“Welcome to the Energy Leaders Forum” in April, Mitch Tyson posted a series of questions to start the dialogue on current energy issues in our region. Mitch said one of the issues keeping him up at night was “How do we build a long-term bipartisan coalition that can pass comprehensive energy policy?”
 
One possibility is to disaggregate the elements of the program and focus on small gains. That has its downside, certainly — the challenges are systemic ones and perhaps best dealt with holistically. However, the more focused the objective, the less the likelihood of treading on ideological ground and the better chance of making progress in today’s political climate. Because, while EMC and our peers in the private sector can make progress on our own, collaboration with government can drive accelerated technological innovation.
 
I offer as an example currently proposed legislation: the S. 1029 e-Know Act (Electric Consumer Right to Know Act) being co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Mark Udall (D-Col.). The current filing comes after U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced H.R. 4800 e-Know Act in the previous session.
 
While we need a comprehensive national clean energy policy, starting with energy use at the individual level not only can reduce consumption on a personal level, but can facilitate a wider conversation about how we use energy, and foster ideas and innovation that could lead to more efficient energy use on a wider and more commercial scale. 
 
While the discussion of home energy management often focuses upon the deployment of smart meters and devices to the home, there is need to provide individuals with access to the energy consumption data itself. Without intelligent, real-time data, consumers cannot possibly be expected to connect the dots between their actions and their energy – and its cost implications.
 
The e-Know bill provides consumers the right to access information about their own usage electronically and to do so without bearing special fees. It reinforces the importance of privacy and security, and of standards to support market innovation. It is neutral with regard to the type of smart meter, and encourages competition and creativity among providers of platforms that will provide users with tools for conserving energy.
 

As a Massachusetts-based technology company with a proud 30-plus year history in the state, we at EMC recognize we have a role in supporting and fostering ways to make our communities better. As a company, EMC is committed to following a path toward sustainable industry. We recognize the potential impacts of our energy savings on our bottom line, which in turn enhances shareholder value and strengthen our business.
 
Our initiatives include working with government and others in our community to find innovative ways to translate the “big data” created by aggregating information about energy consumption into knowledge for more efficient operation of the grid infrastructure itself. In other words, E-Know has the potential to empower individuals, save money, inspire private industry, and inform the utilities – a formula for bi-partisanship if ever there was one.Through e-Know, the American public will have an opportunity to evaluate their energy use for the benefit of their own families and for thefuture.
 
While the e-Know bill does not address Mitch Tyson’s real challenge of long-term comprehensive national clean energy reform, it does represent an example of how a bi-partisan coalition and theprivate sector can take small steps along the path toward an energy policy that would benefit our region, its citizens, and the companies that call it home.

Energy Leaders Forum Members Respond

Tim Healy, CEO, Enernoc

You’re absolutely right, Kathrin. Senators Brown and Udall and Representative Markey have hit on something that’s hard to find in Washington these days: common ground. Access to energy data is that rare issue that both parties can stand behind, and it’s clear that e-Know will begin paying dividends almost immediately. Just this week, CenterPoint Energy announced that 71 percent of customers participating in a pilot smart meter program reported that they have changed their electricity consumption behavior as a result of the energy use data they accessed on their in-home displays. You might be hard-pressed to get 71 percent of those customers to agree on any other topic, but through their words and their actions, they’re telling us that they believe saving energy is important.
 
Access to energy usage data is not just an issue for homeowners and residential customers.  Businesses and industry can also benefit from better data streams. EnerNOC has worked hard to give each of our customers real-time energy use data. This data is not always easy for us to access, but it’s incredibly valuable to our customers: They have used it to identify hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of efficiencies. We need legislation like e-Know to make sure that more customers can access this valuable data and use it to run better, more efficient businesses that will strengthen our economy. The California Public Utilities Commission has also taken recent actions to ensure that customers have secure access to their energy use data, and we should applaud these important steps in the right direction.