Vol. 18 April 2008
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Vol. 18 April 2008 |
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Energy Efficiency is Back in Vogue!
Joel Gilbert, P. E., Chief Software Architect Regardless of who wins the election this year, US energy policy will continue to expand its emphasis on energy efficiency. This is due in part to a general public awareness of global warming as an impending problem, and to economics: customers have to save money and energy efficiency is one way to do it.
CFLs & Solar Energy are Hot Regardless of how you feel about global warming and whether it is due to human activity or not (and about 30% of Americans do not), the average American now equates our national situation on energy as the real reason we are at war, the real pain in their monthly budgets (especially due to gasoline and oil prices) and as critical to the well being of their children and grandchildren. As a result, almost all Americans now believe we must do something to reduce our energy needs - hence the new interest in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and even a renewed interest in solar energy.
Green or Greenwashing? One of the most apparent changes in the American landscape recently is the “greening” of almost everything we see each day: painting almost every business as green, carbon neutral, and earth friendly. This has become so common that a Interestingly, this has resulted in:
(Source: GlobeScan, on behalf of Accountability and Consumers International. Feb. 2007) FREE Enchancements to HomeEnergySuite™ In response to the increased interest, we've added a series of powerful enhancements to our HomeEnergySuite:
Join our webinar in May to see these in action. Then, just let us know if you want these enhancements to "go live" on your website. |
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Training Tomorrow’s Energy Workforce Eric G. Shewbridge, P. E.
If you attend an energy industry conference, read most any energy industry journal, or review an industry survey, it does not take long to understand that one of the most pressing issues of our day is our current aging workforce and the need to attract and develop the workforce of tomorrow. In its December 2007 report entitled “Strategic Directions in the Electric Utility Industry,” engineering/consulting/construction giant Black and Veatch found that the aging workforce had moved in priority from the fifth-leading industry issue in 2006 to the second-leading issue in 2007. (Black & Veatch - Strategic Directions Survey ) This was confirmed by NERC’s “2007 Survey of Reliability Issues,” in which survey respondents indicated that the issue of an aging workforce has the highest likelihood and highest impact on reliability of all business issues facing the energy industry.
Over the last couple of years various industry initiatives have been birthed and are gaining rapid momentum, like the utility consortium Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD). Numerous investor-owned utilities have started to implement new hiring and training programs, particularly those with plans to re-invigorate their nuclear powered operations. In many cases utilities are partnering with local academic institutions to create programs aimed at filling future energy workforce vacancies. APOGEE Among the First to Offer Online Training On-line training tailored for the electric utility industry has been a major offering of APOGEE’s for years. (Products & Solutions - APOGEE Interactive, Inc.). Our eLearning portal, called Study-Center, contains strong technical courses that focus on the electrical worker. Study-Center also includes general courses on the fundamentals of electricity as well as on how to communicate effectively with your customer and solve their energy concerns. The courses are hosted on the APOGEE server and are made accessible through the utility website. We can track all students’ performance and can interface with utilities’ existing employee management systems. If you are considering creating your own workforce development program, APOGEE would love to partner with you. Now would be a great time to start a pilot to see if eLearning—APOGEE style—is a good solution for you. Email: kmorris@apogee.net |
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Water Calculators Show Savings Kathy Hart, ABC, Communications Director
Despite recent rainfall, the advent of Spring showers and even multiple tornadoes – the drought continues to drag on in the Southeast.“Water footprint” ranks right up there with “carbon footprint.” Show your consumers how quickly they can save water and money using APOGEE’s new series of Water Use Calculators.
Featuring easy-to-use “slider bars,” consumers instantly see the total gallon savings possible simply by:
See a Huge Impact Fast! Consider these impressive results:
Easy Tips at Your Fingertips Find out how to save water throughout your home with the Water Use & Conservation tips included with the calculators. These short, easy-to-scan sections quickly explain what’s using the most water and what kinds of repair, maintenance or replacements you can do to cut water consumption in these key areas:
Each topic is explained with colorful art, simple diagrams and examples of the potential energy and water cost savings available to you.
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Everett P. (Chip) Perkins, Jr., VP Business & Project Development
Ask the average person on the street what it means to “go green” and you will get a variety of answers. They may not provide a textbook response, but they believe it has something to do with cleaning up the environment and stopping global warming. Continual media attention is generating public discomfort about the long-term environmental implications of our continued global energy use.
Statistics show that as a result, many in our country are taking action and achieving some results. We may not believe global warming exists, but “environmental stewardship,” the idea of taking the right actions, is widely accepted. Clearly consumers and their providers in corporate America have moved down the “green path.” The Challenge: The challenge is the fact the public wants to have the ability to make informed decisions but suspicion runs in parallel. And people are very wary of the source of information. Too often sources we trust turn out to be unfaithful. Interestingly enough, the public does respect their local utility and ascribes credibility to the information it publishes. With this knowledge, how can utilities help their customer “Go Green?” The following provides some suggestions along with some examples of what utilities are already doing using web-based solutions. Increasingly, the public is turning to the Internet for quick answers to tough questions.
The Solution: No. 1: Provide the public some easy-to-understand on-line information on the current environmental issues. FP&L Energy has a website that is dedicated to educating the younger generation regarding the environment and potential impact of human behavior. Go to their website http://www.fplenergy.com/ and click on the link at the left: “Clean Energy for Kids.” The material is designed for kids, but is used by adults as well. Remember the adage about changing the next generation by targeting the kids in this one.
No. 2: Make it fun and easy for customers to see the environmental benefit (as well as the cost savings) of taking actions. PECO Energy (Exelon Corporation) has an on-line tool that shows the benefit of converting to paperless billing. Go to http://exeloncorp.apogee.net/homesuite/calcs/specialty/PECO_paperlessbilling.aspx .
Westar Energy shows their customers the “green” value of simply changing out incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents. Go to http://westarenergy.apogee.net/homesuite/calcs/specialty/cflcalc.aspx .
No. 3: Let the public know the actions they can take that will have the most impact. On-line residential audit tools quickly show that heating and air conditioning are the largest end users in the home. Simply adjusting their thermostat can be the most cost effective action consumers can take. Provide them a straightforward list. Educate consumers and then let them make the choices. Many utilities are doing just that. |
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©2008 APOGEE Interactive, Inc.
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backlash is also evident with the term: “greenwashing,” which means to state something that implies an environmentally superior performance while in fact not materially changing the environmental impacts. 
