Tag: Energy efficiency
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Bacon Bits: Mostly Good News for a Change
Energy efficiency done right. After investing $2 million over three years to update the energy and water infrastructure of Clark Hall, the University of Virginia calculates that it is saving $75o,ooo a year in electricity bills and $22,000 in water bills — a payback in less than three years. The university replaced 5,000 interior and…
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Utility-Sponsored Energy Efficiency Benefits the Commonwealth
by Chelsea Harnish The stage is set for a total transformation of the energy-efficiency industry in Virginia. With the passage of the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018, the electric utilities in Virginia have committed to proposing over $1 billion for energy-efficiency programs over the next ten years. However, none of these commitments are…
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Energy-Efficiency and Unintended Consequences
Long ago Benjamin Franklin produced an economic analysis of Daylight Saving Time (DST). He showed how much tallow and candles would be saved if Americans arose earlier during long summer days to take greater advantage of natural sunlight. Similar energy-efficiency arguments are advanced today in support of the practice. The practice persists despite the lack…
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How Fast Will Electricity Demand Grow?
Dominion projects that demand for electricity will increase 1.4% a year over the next 15 years. How accurate is that forecast? Billions of dollars ride on the answer. The single-most important forecast Dominion Energy Virginia had to make when compiling its 2018 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), released earlier this week, was to project electricity consumption…
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Emerging Lines of Conflict in Virginia Energy Policy
The General Assembly may have ushered Virginia’s energy sector into a new era with its passage of the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018, but the battle over energy policy is far from finished. It’s just entering a new phase under new ground rules. New battlefronts are emerging over energy efficiency and onshore wind…
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The Great Grid Grab
Who gets what from a Dominion-backed legislative package overhauling Virginia’s electric grid? At this point, there are more questions than answers. Last week lawmakers friendly to Dominion Energy Virginia introduced sweeping legislation, The Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018, which would increase investment in Virginia’s electric grid with the goals of increasing renewable energy,…
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The Energy-Efficiency Option
When Virginians contemplate their energy future, they have two broad options for accommodating a growing population and economy: generate more electricity (increase supply) and conserve electricity (reduce demand). The debate over the supply side of the equation gets most of the attention — what’s the best mix of nuclear, gas, coal and renewable energy sources?…
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A Fourth Force in Virginia Energy Politics
The political economy of energy in Virginia used to be simple. Three main interest groups contended to formulate energy policy in the state: environmentalists, consumers, and electric utilities. Consumers, both homeowners and businesses, pressed for lower electric rates. Environmentalists fought for cleaner air and, more recently, lower CO2 emissions. And utilities — the only parties…
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Conservation Voltage Reduction: Dominion’s “Fifth Fuel”
Dominion Voltage Inc.’s Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) system has the potential to cut U.S. electricity consumption 2-4% for relatively little cost. The EDGE technology eases integration of small-scale solar and wind energy sources into the electric distribution network. Dominion expects the market for EDGE to take off as electric utilities invest heavily in grid modernization…
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Measuring and Evaluating Energy Efficiency
Virginia’s investor-owned gas and electric utilities administer 38 programs between them that are designed to increase energy efficiency or shift consumption away from periods of peak demand. The question periodically arises: Are these programs worthwhile? Do they save rate payers money? Those are questions that most Virginians can readily understand. But getting answers isn’t so…
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Pay a Man’s Electric Bill, and You Keep Him Warm for a Month. Weatherstrip His Home, and…
Dominion Virginia Power is expanding its Energy Share program from the poor and elderly to veterans and the disabled. by James A. Bacon Mary Jones has lived in her house on Petersburg’s Warren Street for 36 years. Since the death of her husband three years, she’s lived there alone — “just me and the lord,”…
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Incubating Big Ideas
by James A. Bacon Wei Zhang, a research scientist at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering, concluded that the polymer coatings he was studying had commercial potential. The chemical, when applied to power lines, aircraft wings or wind-turbine blades, would prevent ice from building up. By affecting the surface bonding at a molecular level, the…
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When Dynamic Pricing Meets Energy Storage
Other states are targeting energy storage as an industry of the future but Virginia may have the most hospitable climate for it.
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Conserving Energy, Helping the Poor
by James A. Bacon Marjorie Wilson has lived in the same 1,000-square-foot bungalow on Texas Street in the City of Richmond since 1953. Two sons and a grand-daughter share the residence with her but it isn’t easy keeping up with the bills, including the electric bill, which averages about $120 per month. “We’d talked about insulating…
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Grid Optimization: More Software, Less Hardware
by James A. Bacon Dominion Voltage, Inc., a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, has announced the deployment of its electric grid optimization platform to the Duck River Electric Membership Corporation served by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Duck River expects to generate energy savings of 2% to 4% annually and says the technology will accelerate the deployment of Advanced Metering…