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Jeff Ihnen

Oct 06
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Energy Efficiency Benefit/Cost Tests- And a Handful of Excedrin, Pretty Please

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 10 Comments
Back in May I wrote that we need to explain the benefits of energy efficiency in simple terms – like our mothers would understand.  In that I explained that utilities serve a public benefit, like roads.  Since the dawn of energy efficiency, there have been cost effectiveness hurdles – that make little sense to this 20 year veteran, let alone my 80 year old mother.  Since this is not (thankfully) my normal area of expertise, it took me a couple hours to figure things out and I’m still not sure I have this all right.  That my friends speaks volumes,…
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Sep 29
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Electricity from Natural Gas – The Game Changer; I’ll Say!

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Last week, I mentioned that having a diversified fleet of power generating plants is a smart strategy for any utility; specifically, diversity by fuel source.  The recent natural gas bonanza cut loose with the perfection of hydraulic fracturing and mind-blowing drilling capability (vertical a few thousand feet, then horizontal a few thousand feet) has unleashed a fury of kneejerk policy and utility strategy changes. As is common with the Energy Rant, Jeff says, not so fast.  It isn’t that easy.  There are consequences and major challenges with racing down this road without thinking.First we have the federal government (the EPA)…
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Sep 22
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Utilities and Using Less – Making the Abstract Concrete

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 2 Comments
The utility business is fascinating and bizarre to me, and this can only mean I’m a hapless, pathetically boring person.  But that is what it may look like to the uninformed.  It’s like soccer, baseball, or Indy car racing.  If you don’t like these games/sports, you just don’t get it. First off, from business and investor perspectives, utilities are not growth stocks, and they haven’t been for decades.  Essentially, they are like US treasuries.  I learned this in a 1989 personal finance class.  Geezers invest in utilities for the steady dividend.  Clearly, I wasn’t interested in a paltry 7% yield…
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Sep 15
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Black Box Technology – Rarely Real; More Often Hocus Pocus

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Readers of this blog may think I’m a cynical, frumpy coot because I’m frequently noting the negative aspects of approaches, programs, technologies, and evaluation.  I feel obligated to do it because I’m a licensed professional engineer in half a dozen, or so, states.  Professional engineers, like doctors, are sworn to go about their profession in the best interest for the general well-being, health, and welfare of the public and those they serve (e.g. clients).  Well-being and welfare include not getting screwed over or caught by surprise – by revealing the whole story; the whole truth. Recently, E Source published a…
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Sep 08
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Utility Industry Disruption? Electricity is not a Movie

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
Because everyone reading this blog is in some way reliant on money from electric and/or gas utilities, I pay a lot of attention to the utility business and things like technological disruption and the utility death spiral.  I wrote about the utility death spiral back in April.  As a result of this fine article in greentechgrid, I’d like to bloviate about ballyhooed disruption. Disruption is an updated buzzword for “game changer”.  Prime example: Netflix to Blockbuster Video, Au Revoir. Greentechgrid notes a bunch of examples, and I have taken liberty to enhance the list by tabulating them into disrupted (Blockbuster)…
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Sep 02
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Clean Air Act 111(d) – Machete Required

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 3 Comments
Have you ever dreamt that you were tied down or in some way stuck and couldn’t move? Couldn’t get traction on foot or in a car?  Extremely tired?  Hordes of clueless people in your way?  Have you ever plowed through a marsh in waders or snow up to your waste?  If so, welcome to the sensation of getting to the bottom of EPA’s Clean Air Act 111(d) rule – the one in which it has declared jurisdiction over states carbon dioxide emissions.  An investigator  needs a machete, a bulldozer, snowplow, or explosives to get to the bottom of the muck.Before…
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Aug 25
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Energy Code (non) Compliance; Could it be… SATAN?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
I spent last week at ACEEE’s Summer Study for Buildings, and one topic area I maximumly followed was energy codes and code compliance.  In past years, I would rank codes and standards second to the bottom, just above lighting for my priorities.  The reason for my sudden interest is the vaporizing gravy train of widgets, especially lighting and the need for other savings mechanisms.  Why not code compliance?States are updating energy codes willy nilly to the next rounds of ASHRAE 90.1 / International Energy Conservation Code.  As the Church Lady used to say, “Isn’t that special?”  The problem is the…
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Aug 18
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Energy Efficiency Potential Studies – Rulers, French Curves, and Tarot Cards

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
ACEEE just released its first assessment of energy efficiency potential studies (potential studies) across the land – its first in 10 years!  Hallelujah!  I’ve been waiting all this time.  That may not be true, but certainly I am interested in potential studies, so this is a great excuse and opportunity to write about it. Potential studies are used by states and utilities to determine technical, economic, and achievable energy savings for purposes of setting savings targets and designing EE portfolios by assessing key technologies and market applications…among other things. Technical potential is the savings that could be achieved if all…
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Aug 11
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Energy Efficiency Baselines – Do or Don’t, Not This or That

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
This week’s post is brought to you by AESP’s 2014 Summer Conference, which went off last week in San Francisco.  I was speaking with a lifelong esteemed consultant from the Bay Area during the opening reception, and his disclosure was that regulators in a certain state are wrenching down too tightly on baseline assumptions.  At the same time, they are unyielding in their energy-saving targets.  This is a problem because it leaves customers that haven’t been picked over with artificial barriers.During the closing plenary, I noted a similar comment by Janice Berman from Pacific Gas and Electric.  Her comment, stated…
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Aug 04
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Electric Vehicles; I’ll Take the Bus, Thanks

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
When consumers are considering the purchase of an electric vehicle, what are they thinking?  Good question. I would be thinking, how can I fully utilize it and what are the limitations?  The limitation nearly anyone would consider include the limited driving range.  What can I do with the 70 mile or so cap between charges?  Obvious (I think) answers include driving to work and running errands around the city.  But there are a boatload of other owner and societal issues no one mentions – not this article from Green Tech Media, which is based on this report from the Edison…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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