Dive Brief:
- Xcel Energy wants to lower its energy efficiency targets in Colorado by 15% starting in 2015 and keep cutting them until 2020.
- Xcel contends that the “low-hanging fruit is gone,” making it impossible to meet its current targets.
- Efficiency advocates say that the utility wants to lower the thresholds so it's easier to earn incentives for meeting the targets.
Dive Insight:
It's true that some of the easiest ways to cut electric use – like installing compact fluorescent bulbs – have already occurred. But utilities have often been able to meet difficult challenges like renewable portfolio standards and curbing air emissions from power plants.
Xcel has hired Opower, the behavioral efficiency company, to run a pilot program for the utility. Xcel expects to save about 24 GWh under the program. Opower told state regulators that it could cost-effectively serve 900,000 Colorado homes, cutting electric use by about 204 GWh and saving about $20 million. If Opower's estimates are accurate, Xcel would be able to meet its existing targets.
