Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
programme spending is used not only to acquire demand-side resources but
also to accelerate market-based purchases by consumers [4].
8.5 Closure
Energy efficient best practices can be summaries as
1. Recognise energy efficiency as a high-priority energy resource
2. Make a strong, long-term commitment to cost-effective energy effi-
ciency as a resource
3. Broadly communicate the benefits of, and opportunities for, energy
efficiency
4. Provide sufficient and stable programme funding to deliver energy
efficiency where cost-effective
A list of options for promoting best practice energy efficiency appears at
the end of this chapter. Challenges that limit greater utility investment in
energy efficiency include the following:
1. The majority of utilities recover fixed operating costs and earn prof-
its based on the volume of energy they sell.
2. There is a lack of standard approaches on how to quantify and
incorporate the benefits of energy efficiency into resource planning
efforts and institutional barriers at many utilities that stem from
the historical business model of acquiring generation assets and
building transmission and distribution systems. Strategies for over-
coming these challenges were addressed by incorporating energy
efficiency into resource planning.
3. Some rate designs that are counterproductive to energy efficiency
might limit greater efficiency investment by large customer groups
where effective opportunities for efficiency programming exist.
Strategies for encouraging rate designs that are compatible with
energy efficiency are needed.
4. Efficiency programmes need to address multiple customer needs
and stakeholder perspectives while simultaneously addressing
multiple system needs, in many cases while competing for inter-
nal resources.
This chapter focuses on strategies for making energy efficiency a resource,
developing a cost-effective portfolio of energy efficiency programmes for
