(And what you can do about it)

We’ve had a number of customers contact us lately to talk about their energy bills and what they see as a dramatic increase in prices. They are not mistaken. Electricity prices have gone up – in fact, in some cases, by quite a bit. For the typical Georgia Power Corporation (GPC) Residential customer, the average monthly power bill has increased from $109.50 in 2009 to $129.68 in 2011.

That’s an increase of over 18% in a little more than a year. In addition, the news is not any better if you’re a small to mid-size commercial customer.

Here’s the breakdown of the rate increases (see the Fuel Cost Recovery Schedule in PDF):

Recent Fuel Cost Adjustment (April, 2010) – $5.59 / month

Requested Rate Increase (January, 2011) – $10.86 / month

2011 Phase-in of Costs of VOGTLE #3 and #4 – SB 31 (January, 2011) – $3.73 / month

TOTAL: $ 20.18/month

Furthermore, you need to understand the difference between what the PUBLISHED electrical rate is and what your EFFECTIVE rate ultimately is after you add in all charges, fees, and taxes. There is a dramatic difference to what those two numbers usually are.

For most commercial customers, your bill is comprised of three main components: a) Consumption – as measured in kWh (kilowatt hour); b) Bill demand – as determined by your Peak Demand in kW and finally; c) Compliance, recovery, fees, and taxes.

Consumption is fairly straightforward in that it is a measurement of how much electricity you’ve used over the month. If you have 10, 100 watt lamps (which equals a 1,000 watts) and you leave them on for 1 hour then you have used 1 kWh.

Bill Demand is a function of the Peak Demand that you have used in a month. That is, it is the charge the utility passes onto you in order for them to meet your maximum amount of energy usage in a period of time. This is very important because the utility typically locks you into your maximum bill demand based upon the HIGHEST 30 minutes or an hour (varies depending on your utility) over the previous 11 months (or other period of time). You are effectively penalized for your worst period of performance, or highest peak usage, and that bill demand factor stays with you for 11 months. That can be very costly.

Finally, you have a variety of miscellaneous charges that are added to the bill that are not captured as part of the consumption (kWh) or Bill Demand (kW). Those typically contain meter charges, environmental compliance costs, Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (5.8619% of the bill), Fuel Cost Recovery, Franchise fees, and taxes. Again, these can add up to quite a bit. (To see a complete breakdown of the rate plans and tariffs go to http://www.georgiapower.com/pricing/gpc_rates.asp)

(As an aside, Residential customers are typically not charged on a Bill Demand basis. However, they do still pay consumption charges and the other associated fees. Large Industrial customers, while having a published rate, sometimes have their own rate plans.)

It’s pretty confusing, right? Well, let’s take a typical customer’s bill and see what the PUBLISHED rate is and how that varies dramatically from what the customer’s EFFECTIVE rate is. As a rate payer your focus should be on the EFFECTIVE rate and how you can control it.

Here’s one of our customer’s bills from 2/11/10-3/14/10 (for privacy, we’ve removed any personal account information):

Note that this customer is on a GPC PLM rate plan. To figure out his EFFECTIVE rate take the Cost of service for this month ($1043.56) and divide it by the total kWh used for the month (6960) and you get $0.150/kWh.

Now let’s take a look at our customer’s bill a year later for the period 2/13/11 – 3/14/11 (the period of time doesn’t correspond exactly but cost and usage should scale on a daily basis on average).

Using the same calculation as above, take the monthly cost of electricity ($1193.61) and divide it by the amount of kWh used (6880) and you get an EFFECTIVE rate of $0.173/kWh. That’s a 15% increase in one year. And, this customer has the benefit of having a 22 kW Solar PV system and an Empower Edge Energy Management system. His EFFECTIVE rate could be even higher.

So, what can be done to get a handle on Energy Cost for your small to medium size commercial facility? (Unfortunately, your tactics as a Residential Customer are really only to reduce your Consumption at this point.). The good news it that there are tactics and technology that can help you control costs but first you need to understand how your power bill is constructed.

1. Start reducing your consumption by ensuring that energy loads are turned off during hours when your facility is not occupied or when they are not needed. Utilize advanced lighting controls such as Wattstopper that turn on and off lighting loads automatically or install thermostats and HVAC controls such as Vykon that dynamically adjust temperatures and settings based upon occupancy and comfort levels. The savings to be recouped are significant.
2. Get your Bill Demand down by dramatically cutting your Peak Demand. This can be accomplished with advanced metering such as Eaton Power Xpert which gives you instantaneous information on energy usage. Combine this info with an intelligent energy controller such as the Vykon Jace and your ability to control you peak demand is greatly enhanced. Energy usage can be managed proactively instead of waiting for next month’s energy bill and then retroactively reassessing. It’s extremely important to control Bill Demand since, depending on your facility’s Load Factor, it can represent up to nearly 60% of your energy bill.
3. Change your rate plan. This is really advantageous to only a select number of customers and its important that you have a very good understanding of your energy consumption before you do this. Once you change plans you can be locked into it for two years. However, for some companies, there can be some significant savings to be had. For example, if you are 2nd or 3rd shift company or a restaurant that opens in the late afternoon or the evening, there are some advantages to moving to a Time of Use (TOU) plan. The reasons these can make sense is that the plans reward you for shifting your energy usage to those periods of time that are different from the peak demand times of the utility (typically after 7 P.M.)

Conclusion

The takeaway is that you do have control over your energy costs. Large facilities have been deploying these techniques for years. In the past, on site generators were used to “shave” the energy usage of a particular facility which in turn saved them from expensive peak demand charges. But now, thanks to the combined trickle down effects of technology, memory, storage, and programming, effective Energy Management is now within the realm of the small to medium commercial customer.

In fact, for some customers the Return of Investment (ROI) can be significant. In addition, more financial and leasing institutions have embraced Energy Management and Energy Services Contracts as a strong, viable program. Some lease programs require a minimal security deposit and the energy savings alone can cover a significant portion of the lease payment. For those customers who wish to simply pay for it outright, Section 179 allows for 100% deduction of equipment in year 1.

Contact Empower Energy Technology if you wish to learn more about Energy Management and how it can save your facility money. Contact Mark Bell at 404.681.3270 or mbell@empoweret.com.

Solar and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Natural Gas Generators

Given the recent substantial increase of natural gas supply leading to the sharp decline of natural gas cost, Combined Heat and Power Natural Gas Generators should become a very interesting alternative energy team. Empower installs natural gas  “peaker’ generators with our Edge energy management solution enabling live load generation and “least cost energy” during peak power usage.  This feature enables our customers to use inexpensive natural gas ($.10-.11/kWh) during late afternoon hours when solar production is fading versus expensive peak utility grid power from the electric utility ($.16-20/kwh) when needed to meet your power needs.  One or more generator units may be used to generate the necessary power to reduce utility power demand to an acceptable cost.  Empower install CHP systems to supply 200kW to 2000kW of peak power.

The hidden value of CHP systems is the ‘free’ heat that is generated by the peaker generators. This heat can ne used to heat water for commercial and manufacturing needs, provide warmth for warehouse and manufacturing operations, and even provide cooling using absorption chillers.  The CHP systems are classified as Co-Generation Systems.  As such, these systems may provide Federal or State tax incentives to offset the cost of these systems.  Below are some of the features and benefits for the CHP solution:

Feature	Benefit
Closed Transition Switch with Empower EDGE Energy Management	Enables “Live” load to be added to the grid without interrupting power to the factory
Combined Heat and Power	Uses ‘waste’ heat to heat water, provide warmth in Winter months, or power auxiliary absorption chiller and claim Federal and State tax incentives for CHP systems.
Standby/Critical Power	Allows your business to run effectively during a power outage or forced load reduction by the Electric Utility
# x 200 kW CHP Generators&	Provides power generation flexibility by operating individual units as needed at full efficiency versus low speed/low efficiency
Natural Gas Cost vs. Electric Cost	Natural Gas offers a 30+% savings over electric grid power during peak periods when solar array production is limited

Empower Energy Technology embraces new soucres of energy into the energy supply eco system. A recent NY Times article by Kate Galbraith suggest that solar energy is competing with CHP energy:

Of all the types of energy embraced by the green community, “combined heat and power” probably has the clunkiest name. But proponents hope that C.H.P. systems, which can be installed in homes, will one day compete with better-known technologies like solar panels.

Read Kate Galbraith’s full article – click here.

Because solar photovoltaics provides the lowest cost per kilowatt over it’s 30 year+ lifetime ($.08-.11/kwh), solar PV offers the best technology hedge for electric energy rates.  Nevertheless, solar will never produce enough power in the late afternoon to cover all of the ‘peak demand’ hours that require the highest rates from utilities.  Natural gas CHP peaker power plants offer scaleable, efficient, cost-effective energy to fill the gaps that solar PV cannot supply.

To learn more, Contact Mark Bell at 404.681.3270 or send an email to mbell@empoweret.com.

Survey by Kelton Research finds continued widespread public support for development of solar energy, federal incentives for solar, across political spectrum.

WASHINGTON – Americans overwhelmingly support the use and development of solar energy as well as federal investments for solar, according to a new national poll. These and other findings were reported recently in the 2011 SCHOTT Solar Barometer(TM), a nationally representative survey conducted annually by independent polling firm Kelton Research.

For the fourth consecutive year, the survey found that about nine out of 10 Americans (89 percent) think it is important for the United States to develop and use solar energy. Support for solar is strong across the political spectrum with 80 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Independents and 94 percent of Democrats agreeing that it is important for the United States to develop and use solar.

The survey also found that Americans want federal incentives for solar. More than eight out of 10 Americans (82 percent) support federal tax credits and grants for the solar industry similar to those that traditional sources of energy like oil, natural gas and coal have received for decades. Seventy-one percent of Republicans agree, as well as 82 percent of Independents and 87 percent of Democrats.

Furthermore, when asked to select an energy source they would financially support if they were in charge of U.S. energy policy, 39 percent of Americans chose solar over other sources such as natural gas (21 percent), wind (12 percent), nuclear (9 percent) and coal (3 percent). Among Independents, solar is more than twice as popular as any other energy source (43 percent for solar compared to 20 percent for natural gas).

“In this tough economy, Americans want to see solutions coming from Washington,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “For members of Congress trying to find ways to create jobs, solar is a win-win. Thanks in part to proven policy successes like the 1603 Treasury Program, the solar industry has doubled its workforce in the last two years and now employs more than 100,000 Americans at 5,000 businesses spanning every state. And solar enjoys overwhelming support across all political affiliations – Republicans, Democrats and Independents. It’s clear that solar has the strong support of the American people. Now it needs the support of U.S. policymakers in extending job-creating policies like the 1603 program to make sure solar continues to work for America.”

Despite weeks of news coverage about the bankruptcy of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, the survey shows that Americans’ support for solar remains strong. In fact, the vast majority of Americans support solar manufacturing in the United States. Eight out of 10 (82 percent) think it is important for the federal government to support U.S. solar manufacturing, and a majority of Independent voters (51 percent) think it is “extremely important.”

The poll also found that Americans prefer to buy solar-made products. A majority of Americans (51 percent) said they would be more likely to purchase a product if they knew it was made using solar energy. Consumers in the key age demographic of 18 to 44 years old are even more likely to buy solar-made products (61 percent).

One challenge that the solar industry faces is educating the public about how they can become consumers of solar power. Despite the cost of solar modules decreasing by 30 percent since the beginning of 2010 and residential solar leasing models that allow consumers to go solar with no upfront cost, 48 percent of Americans cited cost as their biggest concern with choosing solar energy.

“The fourth annual Solar Barometer shows that Americans overwhelmingly understand the benefits of solar energy for our country,” said Tom Hecht, President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, SCHOTT Solar PV, Inc. “However, this poll also indicates that we as an industry have more work ahead of us to educate Americans about the benefits of solar for them as individuals. Prices for solar continue to decline and those who currently own solar systems are earning a return on their investment after only a few years. Solar energy systems are also extremely reliable, which is why companies like SCHOTT Solar back their modules with warranties of up to 25 years.”

“For the fourth year in a row, an overwhelming majority of Americans agree on the importance of solar power,” said Rachel Bonsignore, Associate Director, Kelton Research. “This year’s survey continues the trend of remarkably consistent support for solar.”

The Solar Foundation, in partnership with GreenLMI and Cornell University, has pre-released its top-line solar jobs numbers from its National Solar Jobs Census 2011. Click here to read the press release.

In part, Census 2011 found:

• 100,237 jobs as of August 2011
• 6.8% growth from August 2010 to August 2011
• 6,735 new solar jobs created between August 2010 and August 2011

Follows is the full Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 19, 2011

National Solar Jobs Census 2011 Finds Solar Companies Hiring Faster Than Rest of Economy Preliminary data finds new job creation in solar despite overall down economy

WASHINGTON, DC – The Solar Foundation today announced that 100,237 Americans are now working in the U.S. solar industry, according to preliminary data from the “National Solar Jobs Census 2011: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce.” Solar businesses added 6,735 new workers in all 50 states since August 2010, which represents a 6.8 percent growth rate. The National Solar Jobs Census 2011 measured solar employment during the period between August 2010 and August 2011.

The U.S. solar industry’s job growth outpaced the overall economy and fossil fuel electric generation when compared to overall economic data from Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. (EMSI). During the same 12-month period, jobs in the overall economy grew by a mere 0.7 percent, while fossil fuel electric generation lost 2 percent of its workforce.

“The U.S. solar industry is creating jobs at a far greater pace than the economy as a whole,” said Andrea Luecke, executive director of The Solar Foundation. “The National Solar Jobs Census series provides a definitive measure of the U.S. solar workforce and its growth over time. It proves where smart solar energy policies are having the most impact both in terms of states and across the vast solar supply chain.”
“Solar is a job-creating phenomenon in an economy that is flat-lining, with near 7 percent year-on-year increase in the number of Americans working in the industry,” said Danny Kennedy, president of residential solar installer Sungevity and member of The Solar Foundation’s board of directors. “This is a sign of a thriving industry – due to the demand for lower cost, clean electricity that creates value in America.”

The full National Solar Jobs Census 2011 report will be made available at Solar Power International ‘11 in Dallas on October 17. The Census examines employment along the solar value chain, including installation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, utilities and all other fields and includes growth rates and job numbers for 31 separate occupations. It also examines solar employment at the state level.

The National Solar Jobs Census 2011 was conducted by The Solar Foundation and Green LMI (a division of BW Research Partnership) with technical assistance from Cornell University.
“By using high-quality research methodology, we can ensure that these numbers are as accurate as possible,” said John Bunge, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations. “Using both primary and secondary data sources, along with careful statistical analysis, gives us high confidence in the results.”

###

Background Materials:
Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.: http://www.economicmodeling.com/
National Solar Jobs Census 2010: http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/research/national-solar-jobs-census

About The Solar Foundation: The Solar Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that, through research and education, promotes the use of solar energy to meet the world’s energy needs. Read more at www.TheSolarFoundation.org.

Media Contacts:
Mark Sokolove, Tigercomm, 424.208.3558, mark@tigercomm.us
Brian Mahar, Tigercomm, 202.437.6595, bmahar@tigercomm.us

You have undoubtedly seen the news that Solyndra, a domestic solar panel manufacturer that received a Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee, recently filed for bankruptcy.

This is not indicative of what’s happening with solar, and it is disturbing that some politicians and pundits are using this unfortunate situation as an excuse to heap unwarranted criticism on solar.

In the past few days, you have probably heard wild inaccuracies and blatant misstatements about solar energy’s promise and the state of the solar industry.

Solar is the cleanest, safest way to power our homes, businesses and communities, and we have a great story to tell. But we have to get this news out.

Here are the facts about solar:

• The solar industry employs more than 100,000 Americans, more than twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in all 50 states.
• The U.S. solar industry grew by 69% in the past year, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy.
• Since the beginning of 2010, the price of solar panels has dropped by 30%, and costs continue to fall making solar an even more viable choice for residential and business customers.
• The U.S. was a net exporter of solar products in 2010 by $2 billion. We were even a net exporter to China.
• Solar power in the U.S. now exceeds 3,100 megawatts (MW), enough to power more than 630,000 homes.
• Continued industry growth enhances our energy security and diversifies our domestic energy portfolio.

Please help us make sure that your friends and allies are armed with the facts. Take a moment to share this message with your colleagues and friends and help us tell the real story of solar energy in America.

Empower Energy Technology