Electric Energy T&D - Index

Electric Energy T&D - EEMag May June 2008 - Index

Around the world, utilities face increasingly
strong pressure to help mitigate the negative
environmental effects of electricity use.
This pressure is not entirely new. Over
the past several decades, utilities have
developed a number of programs aimed
at environmental preservation. They have
controlled power plant emissions. They have
promoted appliance efficiency. They have
added renewables to their traditional fossilfuel
generation mix.
Emissions controls have, of course, proved
popular and widely accepted. The same
cannot be said, however, of programs that
raise prices significantly or that lower—in the
consumer’s mind—comfort or convenience.
Despite consistent utility educational efforts,
consumers rarely if ever choose a new home
based on the efficiency of its appliances or
insulation. Many consumers appear unwilling
to invest in technologies like programmable
thermostats, despite their high return on
investment. Surveys consistently show high
levels of public support for renewables, but
when it comes time to buy them, few do.
In the face of customers’ unwillingness to
participate in environmental programs, utility
employees can hardly be faulted if they
exhibit a certain skepticism about today’s
renewed calls for environmental action.
There is some evidence, however, that
rising concerns about global climate change
could trigger real change. Confronted by
the potentially dire consequences of global
warming, political leaders and industry
regulators are once again turning to utilities
for environmental leadership. They are asking
for new and effective conservation initiatives,
and they want utilities to do more than
How Green Is Your Billing System?
By Guerry Waters, Vice President, Industry Strategy, Oracle Utilities
encourage conservation. This time, they want
programs like demand response and critical
peak pricing—programs reinforced through
the billing system.
We Have Been Here Before
This is the third time in a decade that
utilities have come under pressure to change
their billing systems. Should they respond
with significant changes in billing practices
and business processes? Should they create
a “green billing system?”
Ten years ago, utilities faced the challenge
of ensuring that billing did not succumb
to the Y K problem. No sooner had they
addressed that problem than the drive toward
competitive retail markets began.
Not all utilities, of course, responded to
the call for new billing systems designed to
foster competition. And because competition
developed slowly or not at all in most states
and provinces, a number of utilities found
reward in ignoring the pressure to change.
Many, in fact, are happily using the same
billing systems that have served them well
for the past ten or even twenty years.
Are greenhouse gas concerns merely another
fad? Should utilities ignore current calls to
change billing fundamentals to accommodate
new and rigorous conservation and efficiency
programs? Or will those who attempt to ignore
environmental pressures find themselves
scrambling later to catch up?
Climate Change
It is tempting to downplay the potential
effect of global climate concerns on the
utility industry. The sometimes overblown
rhetoric and doomsday predictions can seem
I May-June 2008 Issue
almost silly to those who grew up with 1950s
predictions of The Coming Ice Age.
It is increasingly clear, however, that
global warming is not a fad. It is resulting
in national commitments to dramatically
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada
has already made such commitments. All
three leading candidates for the upcoming
U.S. presidential election have pledged
reductions that vary across only a relatively
narrow range.
Even these commitments appear increasingly
inadequate given new estimates that
greenhouse gas emissions after 050—little
more than 40 years from now—will produce
permanent and catastrophic climate change.
Barring practical technologies that can
remove carbon dioxide from smokestacks and
tailpipes, then sequester it permanently, the
only path to slowing climate change lies in
a massive and permanent reduction in fossil
fuel consumption. As a primary user of fossil
fuel, the electricity industry finds itself a
major focus of public concern. Calls to action
can only increase.