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prescriptive measures

Strategic Energy Management or Strategic Anger Management – Which is Right for You?

By Energy Rant One Comment
I have written about, and formally discussed, strategic energy management (SEM) so much I was sure I already wrote a Rant on the topic. After looking, I wrote about SEM and Yoda, Try Not, Do or Do Not, a year ago, but that was about measures and opportunities. This time, let’s consider SEM programs. SEM Beyond Industrial Strategic energy management is often pigeon-holed as an industrial or manufacturing effort. This is unfortunate and wrong. Strategic energy management is great for commercial and multi-family facilities. Strategic energy management is especially good for MUSH (municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals) but also office…
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Saints Are Marching In

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff No Comments
One of the most rewarding aspects of our business is ensuring people get it right and customers get the legitimate energy and monetary savings they should be receiving.  My answer to “why should we pick you?” is: we are passionate about what we do; we get things right; and we want to make a difference – improve things.  The problem occurs when others don’t give a rip about these things. Michaels’ primary thrust in the evaluation arena is impact evaluation, which is – what difference does the program make?  The questions are (1) what is happening versus what would have…
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Butterfly Wings

By Energy Efficiency, Government, Uncategorized, Utility Stuff No Comments
A couple years ago I was attending an ACEEE conference and I was speaking with a gentleman who with his company was a program implementer.  I remember him saying that program evaluators should always work for the regulators.  If evaluators worked for the program implementer, which in many cases is the utility directly, the results would be biased.  I thought, no way.  There is no way our profession is to be swayed by the desire to not make waves with the client.  As I say on our staff page I will tell people what they need to know, not what…
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Horse and Buggy EE Programs

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, Utility Stuff No Comments
In many states, energy efficiency programs are meeting annual savings goals and their incentive cash is depleted in a fraction of the year.  States where energy efficiency programs are a new offering are especially quick to meet goals.  These states include Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.  These states rely heavily on lighting, which accounts for somewhere in the range of 90% of the total savings.  Even mature states like Wisconsin and California still get well over half their savings from lighting and other prescriptive measures (rebates).  Wisconsin surpassed goals and ran out of incentives last program year. There are many ways…
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