New Tools Boost Energy Conservation, But Will Growing Demand Wipe Out Savings?

A technician installs a smart meter that will allow homeowners to monitor their electricity usage on a personal computer. (image: boston.com)

We recently looked at the nation’s aging electrical grid and the challenges involved in upgrading it to meet America’s surging power needs, now and into the future.

That post was based on a series presented on National Public Radio in April. The 10-part series also considered these questions: If we used electricity more prudently, could we reduce demand enough to make a major, multi-billion dollar overhaul of the grid unnecessary? ($11 billion of government stimulus funds have already been earmarked for improvements to the grid.) And, will smarter power use result in a net gain, or will the country’s growing population and growing appetite for power eat up any watts we manage to save, and still need more?
The series looked first at the notion of smarter electrical usage in the home. In some areas of the country, projects are underway testing new technology that allows homeowners to monitor their own electricity usage and power down where possible. New “smart meters” can track energy use daily, hourly, monthly and even instantaneously, and send the data to the power company. The utility saves money because it no longer needs meter readers, and they can fix outages more efficiently. Your smart meter can also be linked to your pc so that you can see where the watts are going and adjust electrical usage accordingly.

Here’s how the smart meter looks on your computer screen. (image: npr.org)

But old habits can be hard to break. One power company representative noticed that a smart meter customer’s electricity use surged upward around 8 p.m. most evenings. She explained that’s when her husband comes home, turns on the television and lights, leaves doors open and starts cooking. “We’re always behind him turning everything off,” she said.
That’s where smart buildings come in. NPR next visited an energy-saving showcase, the new home of the U.S. Green Building Council, in downtown Washington DC., which the series called the mother of all green projects.

There are no desktop computers in the council building’s offices for example, only energy-efficient laptops. And even those are controlled by occupancy sensors that turn them off when the user leaves.  Lighting costs are mitigated by a broad corridor of white carpet near the windows that reflects natural light deep into the work space, minimizing the need for interior lights. These and other smart energy innovations are expected to make the council’s building among the most energy-efficient in the nation.

But will smart meters and smart buildings be enough? NPR spoke to Revis James of the Electric Power Research Institute, an organization that studies what our future electricity needs might be. James says electricity demand has been growing thanks to a proliferation of energy-hungry microwaves, computers, giant TVs and other plug-in devices, but that wave may be cresting.
“Over the time frame of the next 20 or 30 years,” he said, “I don’t think we’re going to see a tremendous change in the fundamental nature of the devices and the types of things that create a demand for electricity.”

What will really drive new demand, he believes, are a growing economy and population growth.

“When you take a very moderate growth rating assumption, and you extend that out into time — not just a couple of years, not just five years, not just 10 years; you extend that out for 50 years — even modest growth rates translate to significant amounts of energy,” James says.

The Census Bureau projects that in 30 years, the United States population will will grow by 100 million. James speculates that population growth will more than wipe out the gains from efficiency programs.