by Shane Henson — November 30, 2011—Utilities companies throughout America do not appear to be on the same page when it comes to investing in energy efficiency programs and ensuring those programs are successful, according to a new report. Benchmarking Electric Utility Energy Efficiency Portfolios in the U.S., which compares the energy efficiency programs of just 50 electric utility companies, indicates wide disparities among the companies studied.
Released by M.J. Bradley & Associates and Ceres, the report analyzes 2009 data submitted by electric utilities to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) focusing on energy efficiency expenditures and energy savings. According to researchers, utilities were selected to represent a broad cross-section of the nation’s utilities based on a range of factors including geographic region, total electricity deliveries and electricity rates, ownership type and regulatory structure. The report provides detailed summaries of company-by-company expenditures and energy savings.
According to the report, major utilities, such as National Grid subsidiaries Massachusetts Electric and Narragansett Electric, and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), are investing up to $4.80 per megawatt-hour of retail electricity sales in energy efficiency programs. That’s nearly 50 times more than some utilities spent in the same year, including United Electric Coop Service in Texas, and Southern Company subsidiaries Alabama Power and Georgia Power, which all spent less than $0.10 (10 cents) per megawatt-hour of retail electricity sales in 2009.
Utilities joining Pacific Electric and Gas and National Grid subsidiaries in the top 10 for energy savings include Southern California Edison, Nevada Power, Idaho Power, Seattle City Light, Salt River Project, and Interstate Power & Light. Rounding out the bottom 10 are First Energy subsidiaries Metropolitan Edison and Ohio Edison, Southern Company subsidiaries Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power and Duke subsidiary Duke Energy Indiana.
