Energy Efficiency: 30 Years of Smart Energy Choices

March 2010  |  document 2010-3  |  

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Introduction

2008 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Plan produced by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. That and subsequent plans produced by the Council have been road maps to remarkable achievements in electricity resource development in the Pacific Northwest and remarkable savings for consumers who did not have to pay the higher costs of electricity from generating plants.

Most remarkable is the role that energy conservation—the more efficient use of electricity—has played in meeting the region’s electricity needs. Approximately 50 percent of the growth in demand for electricity in the region since 1980 has been met through energy efficiency. That amounts to more than 3,900 average megawatts (34.2 million annual megawatt-hours) that have been supplied not through the construction and operation of new generating resources, but through increasing the efficiency with which we use electricity in our homes, offices, factories, and farms. The average cost of the efficiency  has been a little over two cents per kilowatt-hour, well below the cost of power from any generating alternative. Thus, energy efficiency  helps reduce the electricity bills paid by consumers.

Moreover, as the region gained more experience in energy-efficiency  acquisition, the cost to utilities declined dramatically.  In the process, consumers in the region saved literally billions of dollars—$2.3 billion in 2008 alone—and carbon dioxide emissions were reduced compared to generating the same amount of electricity at power plants that burn fossil fuels—a reduction of 14.9 million tons in 2008 alone. Thousands of jobs were created in the energy-efficiency  industry that emerged.

2008 also was the year the Council began development of the next version of the power and conservation plan. The Council issued the Sixth Northwest Power Plan in early 2010. In creating the Sixth Plan, the Council faced a familiar challenge: How to meet the region’s electricity needs at the lowest cost. Nationally, electricity generation is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. While this is not the case in the Northwest because of the region’s large hydroelectricity base, many of the new resources that are being considered by developers and utilities in the region are fueled by natural gas and, as such, are potential sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing demand for power through energy efficiency  can help reduce the number of hours thermal power plants operate, thus reducing their emissions. However, the opposite is true, too:  Less energy efficiency  potentially means more emissions. The Council estimates that if the energy efficiency  incorporated in the Sixth Plan is not accomplished, emissions of carbon dioxide will be 17 million tons per year higher by 2030. And it appears increasingly likely that the region will need to achieve even greater reductions through energy efficiency  to effectively mitigate climate change.  This portends an even greater role for energy efficiency  in the future power supply.