Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
been, with an associated decrease in greenhouse gas emis-
sion of
million tonnes. By the year
the electricity
saving will be
% and the greenhouse gas reduction
million tonnes. They also estimate that the savings
to the economy are more than
$
billion more than the
cost of implementing the standards.
Demand side management (DSM): DSM is really
about reducing consumer demand through ef
ciency pro-
grams that are mainly run by the utilities. Here too,
California has been a leader. Since the mid-
s
California
s electricity consumption per person has
remained constant while it has gone up by nearly
'
%in
the rest of the nation (New York has done as well). One of
the key parts of the program that caused this to happen is
called
ts are decoupled from
sales. Before decoupling, regulated utilities could make only
a
“
decoupling
”
where utility pro
ts. To make more money
they had to sell more energy. After decoupling, they could
make money by reducing demand for energy, and so began
an era of free energy audits and other measures to get people
to use less energy. Though this increased the cost of electri-
city per kilowatt-hour, the decrease in energy use more than
made up for it and consumer expenses fell. About a quarter
to a third of the energy savings during the period are esti-
mated to come from this DSM.
Building energy ef
ciency standards: In the United
States, energy codes are adopted at the state level. They
are most often based on model codes developed by the
International Code Council, or the American Society of
Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
These codes are based on consensus, are not very strict,
and when adopted are not rigorously enforced. There are
fixed percentage of sales as pro
