Area Descriptions:
Page Description - this page contains information related to residential
customers.
Residential Customers:
-
Advanced Metering Infrastructure: What Regulators Need to Know About
Its Value to Residential Customers - National Regulatory Research
Institute. February 13, 2008 - This report began as an effort to understand
who has the better argument: those opposed to “advanced metering
infrastructure” (AMI) as a demand response tool, and those supporting AMI
for the same reason…We provide regulators with a general framework for
evaluating an electric utility’s request for recovery of the costs of
implementing an advanced metering infrastructure. We do return to, and
examine in depth, the disputes between consumer advocates who oppose AMI and
environmentalists, and utilities who support AMI. We place these
disagreements in the context of a model for analyzing the overall costs and
benefits of AMI…We introduce a recurring theme: AMI is one way, but only one
way, for a utility to offer time-varying utility prices and induce demand
response. Proponents and opponents of AMI agree on this point -
http://www.EnergyCollection.us/Energy-Metering/Advanced-Metering-Infrastructure.pdf
-
Advanced Metering Initiatives and
Residential Feedback Programs: A Meta-Review for Household
Electricity-Saving Opportunities - A variety of new feedback
initiatives – including real-time Web-based or in-home feedback devices and
enhanced billing approaches – are making energy resources visible to
residential consumers throughout the
United States (and many other developed countries). These initiatives are
opening the door to potential energy savings that, on average, have reduced
individual household electricity consumption 4 to 12% across our
multi-continent sample. In so doing, feedback is proving a critical first
step in engaging and empowering consumers to thoughtfully manage their
energy resources. On a national scale, our estimates indicate that feedback
programs for the residential sector might generate electricity savings that
range from as little as 0.4% to more than 6% of total residential
electricity consumption. If broadly implemented throughout the United States
using well-designed programs, residential sector feedback programs could
provide the equivalent of 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity savings
annually by 2030. At this scale, such tools will enable aggregate
residential sector energy savings that, in turn, provide a substantial
contribution to U.S. energy security and climate goals as well as consumer
pocketbook savings. 2010-06.
http://www.EnergyCollection.us/Energy-Metering/Advanced-Metering-Initiatives.pdf
- The Costs and Benefits of Smart
Meters for Residential Customers - 38 pages - 2011-07-01 - Despite
this rapid growth in the home energy management space (almost 100 percent
growth is expected over the next 3-4 years according to Greentech Media),
and the significant energy management opportunity that is unleashed by the
combination of smart meters and smart home energy management devices,
concerns about the adverse effects of smart meters continue to dominate
conversations among regulators, consumer advocates, and electric utilities.
With an eye toward resolving some of these controversies, this paper
presents a framework for quantifying the costs and benefits of smart meters
from a wide variety of perspectives across a range of electric utility and
customer types. It shows how the magnitude of both costs and benefits might
vary across different types of electric utilities and different types of
customers. In the paper, we allow utility types to vary in terms of their
load shapes; supply mix, including renewable energy and other energy
sources; cost structures; current metering technology; and customer base.
Furthermore, customers vary in terms of the level of their engagement in
energy management.
http://www.EnergyCollection.us/Energy-Metering/Costs-Benefits-Smart.pdf
- Gas Choice: Do Residential Customers Benefit?
2011-07-01 - 27 pages - Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia allow
residential natural gas customers to choose their retail gas-commodity
supplier under what have become known as ―gas choice‖programs. The number of
jurisdictions offering such programs comprises about 55 percent of all
residential gas customers in the U.S. As of December 2009, 5.1 million
residential customers—about 15 percent of those eligible—had chosen a
nonutility provider, an energy marketer. The utility acts as a default
commodity supplier for customers who decide not to choose a marketer and
provides delivery service for all gas consumed in its service area, whether
supplied by the utility or a marketer. The rationale for gas choice programs
is to make available to residential customers the presumed benefits of
federal deregulation and restructuring of the wholesale gas market that
occurred in the 1980s. New choices for gas customers, at least in theory,
were expected to improve economic efficiency, lower prices, and offer new
value-added services.
- Understanding the New Energy Consumer - research presented
by Tendril to NARUC Commissioners in LA - 2011-07-18 -
http://www.EnergyCollection.us/Companies/Tendril/Understanding-New-Energy.pdf
Also-filed-at: Tendril - Research /
Regulators - Residential Customers
///
- Will They Spend -As the electric utility industry undergoes a paradigm shift with the
deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and the much-heralded
smart grid, numerous companies with a variety of technologies are vying to
help utilities achieve their goals of lowering demand and increasing energy
efficiency. But how motivated are consumers to manage their electricity
consumption? If they are uninterested, then there may not be opportunities
for many of the systems and services being introduced into the market. On
the other hand, if they are interested in cutting energy costs, we need to
determine what motivates them and whether they are willing to pay money to
achieve their goals. The average expenditure for electricity among U.S.
households is $172 per month during high-cost periods and $84 per month
during low-cost periods, according to Parks Associates’ 2009 “Residential
Energy Management Survey.” Over 90 percent of all U.S. households have some
form of air conditioning system, 38 percent use electricity to heat their
home, and 54 percent have an electric water heater.
http://www.EnergyCollection.us/Energy-Customers/Will-They-Spend.pdf
/