Negawatt power
Encyclopedia
Negawatt power is a theoretical unit of power
representing an amount of energy (measured in watt
s) saved. The energy saved is a direct result of energy conservation
or increased efficiency. The term was coined by the Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute
and environmentalist, Amory Lovins
in 1989. Negawatts currently cannot be precisely measured, only theoretically. However there is some controversy surrounding the negawatt Market
.
A negawatt market can be thought of as a Secondary market
, in which electricity is allocated from one consumer to another consumer within the Energy market
. In this market, negawatts could be treated as a Commodity
. Commodities have the ability to be traded across time and space, which would allow negawatts to be incorporated in the international trading system. However, creating negawatt markets would be very difficult to achieve on a large-scale.
The concept of negawatt power is being implemented in several states in the United States
and is emerging as an international strategy to reduce energy consumption. Electric companies motivated by various factors, including significant capital costs required to add new capacity, have begun to inform customers on how to use energy more efficiently, resulting in a theoretical increase the amount of negawatts. The negawatt market has gained some recognition on an international scale; however, the market is still a controversial proposal that has not yet fully developed.
Many argue positively for the negawatt market by taking note of the incentives: receiving money, reduction of national energy dependency, and the local electricity deregulation within certain nations or states. As for the cost incentive; those who produce negawatts or simply conserve energy can earn money by selling the saved energy. Some argue that negawatts can potentially help a country decrease its dependency on oil. The negawatt market could help nations or states obtain a deregulated electricity system by creating another market to purchase electricity from.
The negawatt market also has many drawbacks. Some of these drawbacks include the difficulty of creating a negawatt market and the expense of Efficiency
. Due to the inability of measuring a negawatt, lack of negawatt measuring devices, and the potential necessity of electricity price caps, some argue that a negawatt market would be very difficult to implement. There are also negative cost, technical, and time implications on manufacturers, electricity providers, and the consumers. Some argue that a negawatt market would allow electricity to be treated as a product rather than a service, in which consumers would get paid for not using something that they do not own.
s) saved. Energy is saved by either increased efficiency or reduced energy consumption; the conserved energy is a "negawatt". The concept of a negawatt is simply a measure of power that is not used. Negawatts are a form of encouragement to motivate consumers to conserve energy.
Amory Lovins
considers the concept of conservation "a change in behavior based on the attitude 'Do Less to Use Less'". He makes a distinction between conservation and efficiency by defining efficiency as "the application of technologies and best practices to eliminate waste based on the attitude, 'Do the same or more with less.'" Negawatts have the potential to be measured in the future with grid systems, smart meters, and other energy tracking devices; however, they currently cannot be accurately measured. Negawatts can only be theoretically determined based on the history of consumption.
. Lovins saw a typo — "negawatt" instead of "megawatt" — in a Colorado Public Utilities Commission report in 1989. He adopted the term to describe electricity that was not created using energy efficiency and conservation. Dr. Lovins was concerned with the large inefficiencies of energy use and came up with ways to remedy the problem. Lovins advocated for more efficient light bulbs and reflective metals that increase the intensity of light produced. He wanted consumers to use the energy produced in a smarter way by "wringing more work from the electricity we already have." Lovins felt an international behavioral change was necessary in order to decrease countries' dependence on excessive amounts of energy. The concept of a negawatt could influence a behavioral change in consumers by encouraging them to think about the energy that they spend.
The negawatt market can be thought of as a secondary market
where electricity is allocated from areas of less use to areas of greater use. This would be a secondary market, due to the fact that it would reallocate electricity from one consumer to another within the already existing Energy market
. Some feel that in order to establish a viable market, legislation and cooperation between primary producers, distributors, traders and consumers, may be required. This proposal would encourage the market to have legislative regulations, while still allowing the market to work within itself to set prices and allocate resources.. Emerging markets in carbon trading may ultimately provide a model..
A negawatt market would allow "demand side resources" to participate in wholesale
energy markets. These markets are commonly referred to as a demand response. Demand response can be defined as "enrolling large users of energy in programs to lower their usage in return for compensation, which helps take pressure off the grid" This market would help take pressure off the grid because electricity could "be treated as a commodity just like copper or sowbellies," and therefore traded to areas that need the it more than others. Just as any commodity, negawatts would have to be "tradable across time and space" in order to be an effective market.. Being able to trade negawatts across time and space would allow for an international trading system. In order to create a market for negawatts, energy companies will need to put more focus towards energy efficiency. This shift in focus would require a new "business structure that will thrive in the 'negawatt market'", which has not yet been developed. Market possibilities are being implemented internationally, implying that one day an official negawatt market will become a reality.
and Georgia
and more than a dozen utility exchanges were in existence [in 2000]." In an effort to move towards energy efficiency, New York has created programs "supported through Energy $mart, which is run by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
(NYSERDA), with money from a small surcharge on utility bills" Negawatt power is currently implemented in California as well as Texas. "Some Texas congressmen and energy companies are trying to help California avert blackouts and utility price shocks this summer with [...] 'negawatts' .
On January 1, 2009, the states of South Australia
and Victoria (Australia)
became the first in Australia to offer "householders energy efficiency incentives programs delivered via local electricity retailers." The UK is looking to balance the demand of electricity by proposing a bill in which "the government may pay major users for each “negawatt” of capacity they switch off" during high use. Payment may also be issued for supplying the grid.
is making it easier for consumers to limit their energy consumption with the launch of Google PowerMeter. Google PowerMeter
has partnered with electric companies across the U.S. to give customers "a history of consumption every 15 minutes, allowing consumers to compare electricity consumption data by the day, week or month."
or a cap and trade system, in which the energy that is not used can be bought from the consumers who saved the energy and sold to those who need to purchase the extra energy. Providers of electricity can encourage consumers to sell back their unused energy, or negawatts, especially during peak hours. A major question that electric companies need to ask themselves, is whether it is less expensive to pay consumers to reduce consumption for a few instances a year, or to build and maintain a side-supply resource that would only be used a few times a year. Many argue that the "cost of foregone consumption is less than the cost of increasing the supply of electricity."
If a consumer conserves a substantial amount of energy then there can even be an allowance for a tax deduction
. According to the Negawatt Power Solutions Group , a "building that achieved a 50% energy cost reduction may be eligible for tax deduction up to $1.80 per square foot" . Negawatts can help alleviate some of the costs of constructing new, efficient buildings. "The negawatt revolution now provides a way to cut construction costs, capture big returns on capital in renovations, [and] dramatically cut operating expenses" . Existing buildings can be made more efficient by renovationg the insulation to cut back on electricity used for heating, installing more efficient light fixtures, and an upgraded HVAC
design. Renovating an existing building to be more energy efficient will cost less than creating entirely new, more efficient buildings.
The desire to become a less energy dependent country may promote behavioral changes and a different societal outlook on energy usage. These potential societal perspective changes could lead to an overall more sustainable country. The reduced consumption of energy would also produce less Greenhouse gas
es, which could have positive outcomes on the economy, political parties, and interest groups, such as environmentalists
, of a particular country. According to Lovins, improvements in energy efficiency and conservation, due to a change in behavioral attitudes, have a huge potential to reduce a country's "long-term energy needs," such as the United States.
s by making more power available from consumers who choose to conserve energy, or increase their negawatts. California could achieve the goal of deregulation
by allowing a deficit area to "purchase an emergency supply from anywhere within with West" In which "the ultimate purpose of deregulation was to allow competition in the electricity market and consumer choice of electricity providers" Negawatt power would allow the consumers in a country's economy to decide how the energy will be distributed; essentially benefitting regions that hope to have a deregulated electricity system.
s are becoming a more developed technology to measure energy usage, but "consumers are calling on state regulators to move cautiously on smart meters, citing complaints in some states that the meters are raising electric bills rather than lowering them".
Some municipally owned utilities and cooperatives argue that negawatt power "lets consumers treat electricity as a property right rather than a service [...giving them] legal entitlement to power [that they] don't consume.” This would indicate that consumers would treat electricity as a property, not a service. Some people, including the Senior Vice President Joe Nipper from the American Public Power Association
, oppose the idea that people would receive money for power that they did not even spend. Due to the imprecision of measuring negawatts, some argue that people may receive more money than they should for something that is not even theirs in the first place.
Electricity price caps may also need to be implemented in order for the emerging negawatts market to function correctly. To some, government limitations on markets are unfavorable. There is a current view that negawatts are worth pursuing, but that they are unlikely to satisfy the world's thirst for energy to the extent their advocates assume.
's standard, because of increased time and cost, while receiving minimal profit. Overall, electricity providers may not want customers to use less energy due to the loss of profit. Some even argue that producing energy-efficient products, such as light bulbs, actually simulate more demand, “resulting in more energy being purchased for conversion into light” of the same strength.
Customers may also be less inclined to buy products that are more energy efficient due to the increase in cost and time spent. "Even when the information is known and, despite the overall long-term cost-saving potential, the price of energy is too low...for individuals to justify the initial cost of energy efficiency measures" Not only are energy efficient devices more expensive, but "consumers are poorly informed about the savings on offer. Even when they can do the sums, the transaction costs are high: it is a time-consuming chore for someone to identify the best energy-saving equipment, buy it and get it installed."
The technology used to measure the amount of energy that a consumer uses and saves, known as Smart meter
s, grid systems, or energy dashboards, require time for the consumer to understand. Some argue that people need to have access to “simple yet effective information systems to help users understand their energy without having to become technology experts” The current visual energy measuring devices could be made simpler and less expensive, which may encourage customers to save more energy thus increasing their negawatts.
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
representing an amount of energy (measured in watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s) saved. The energy saved is a direct result of energy conservation
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...
or increased efficiency. The term was coined by the Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute is an organization in the United States dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the general field of sustainability, with a special focus on profitable innovations for energy and resource efficiency. RMI was established in 1982 and has grown into a...
and environmentalist, Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
in 1989. Negawatts currently cannot be precisely measured, only theoretically. However there is some controversy surrounding the negawatt Market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
.
A negawatt market can be thought of as a Secondary market
Secondary market
The page applies to the finanical term; For the merchandising concept, see Aftermarket .The secondary market, also called aftermarket, is the financial market where previously issued securities and financial instruments such as stock, bonds, options, and futures are bought and sold....
, in which electricity is allocated from one consumer to another consumer within the Energy market
Energy market
Energy markets are those commodities markets that deal specifically with the trade and supply of energy. Energy market may refer to an electricity market, but can also refer to other sources of energy...
. In this market, negawatts could be treated as a Commodity
Commodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....
. Commodities have the ability to be traded across time and space, which would allow negawatts to be incorporated in the international trading system. However, creating negawatt markets would be very difficult to achieve on a large-scale.
The concept of negawatt power is being implemented in several states in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and is emerging as an international strategy to reduce energy consumption. Electric companies motivated by various factors, including significant capital costs required to add new capacity, have begun to inform customers on how to use energy more efficiently, resulting in a theoretical increase the amount of negawatts. The negawatt market has gained some recognition on an international scale; however, the market is still a controversial proposal that has not yet fully developed.
Many argue positively for the negawatt market by taking note of the incentives: receiving money, reduction of national energy dependency, and the local electricity deregulation within certain nations or states. As for the cost incentive; those who produce negawatts or simply conserve energy can earn money by selling the saved energy. Some argue that negawatts can potentially help a country decrease its dependency on oil. The negawatt market could help nations or states obtain a deregulated electricity system by creating another market to purchase electricity from.
The negawatt market also has many drawbacks. Some of these drawbacks include the difficulty of creating a negawatt market and the expense of Efficiency
Efficiency
Efficiency in general describes the extent to which time or effort is well used for the intended task or purpose. It is often used with the specific purpose of relaying the capability of a specific application of effort to produce a specific outcome effectively with a minimum amount or quantity of...
. Due to the inability of measuring a negawatt, lack of negawatt measuring devices, and the potential necessity of electricity price caps, some argue that a negawatt market would be very difficult to implement. There are also negative cost, technical, and time implications on manufacturers, electricity providers, and the consumers. Some argue that a negawatt market would allow electricity to be treated as a product rather than a service, in which consumers would get paid for not using something that they do not own.
Definition
Negawatt power is a theoretical unit of power representing an amount of energy (measured in WattWatt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s) saved. Energy is saved by either increased efficiency or reduced energy consumption; the conserved energy is a "negawatt". The concept of a negawatt is simply a measure of power that is not used. Negawatts are a form of encouragement to motivate consumers to conserve energy.
Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
considers the concept of conservation "a change in behavior based on the attitude 'Do Less to Use Less'". He makes a distinction between conservation and efficiency by defining efficiency as "the application of technologies and best practices to eliminate waste based on the attitude, 'Do the same or more with less.'" Negawatts have the potential to be measured in the future with grid systems, smart meters, and other energy tracking devices; however, they currently cannot be accurately measured. Negawatts can only be theoretically determined based on the history of consumption.
Origin and development
The term negawatt is derived from megawatt and was created by Amory LovinsAmory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
. Lovins saw a typo — "negawatt" instead of "megawatt" — in a Colorado Public Utilities Commission report in 1989. He adopted the term to describe electricity that was not created using energy efficiency and conservation. Dr. Lovins was concerned with the large inefficiencies of energy use and came up with ways to remedy the problem. Lovins advocated for more efficient light bulbs and reflective metals that increase the intensity of light produced. He wanted consumers to use the energy produced in a smarter way by "wringing more work from the electricity we already have." Lovins felt an international behavioral change was necessary in order to decrease countries' dependence on excessive amounts of energy. The concept of a negawatt could influence a behavioral change in consumers by encouraging them to think about the energy that they spend.
Market
Those who know of negawatts argue that creating a negawatt market would be very difficult to achieve on a large-scale, and may only have a "modest chance" of succeeding. The creator of the term negawatt, Lovins, defines the negawatt market as a way to reduce the gap between the cost of making and saving electricity.The negawatt market can be thought of as a secondary market
Secondary market
The page applies to the finanical term; For the merchandising concept, see Aftermarket .The secondary market, also called aftermarket, is the financial market where previously issued securities and financial instruments such as stock, bonds, options, and futures are bought and sold....
where electricity is allocated from areas of less use to areas of greater use. This would be a secondary market, due to the fact that it would reallocate electricity from one consumer to another within the already existing Energy market
Energy market
Energy markets are those commodities markets that deal specifically with the trade and supply of energy. Energy market may refer to an electricity market, but can also refer to other sources of energy...
. Some feel that in order to establish a viable market, legislation and cooperation between primary producers, distributors, traders and consumers, may be required. This proposal would encourage the market to have legislative regulations, while still allowing the market to work within itself to set prices and allocate resources.. Emerging markets in carbon trading may ultimately provide a model..
A negawatt market would allow "demand side resources" to participate in wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
energy markets. These markets are commonly referred to as a demand response. Demand response can be defined as "enrolling large users of energy in programs to lower their usage in return for compensation, which helps take pressure off the grid" This market would help take pressure off the grid because electricity could "be treated as a commodity just like copper or sowbellies," and therefore traded to areas that need the it more than others. Just as any commodity, negawatts would have to be "tradable across time and space" in order to be an effective market.. Being able to trade negawatts across time and space would allow for an international trading system. In order to create a market for negawatts, energy companies will need to put more focus towards energy efficiency. This shift in focus would require a new "business structure that will thrive in the 'negawatt market'", which has not yet been developed. Market possibilities are being implemented internationally, implying that one day an official negawatt market will become a reality.
Government implementation
Negawatt power is currently being implemented in many states in the U.S. and is emerging as an international strategy to reduce energy consumption. "Test negawatt auctions began in 1999 in ConnecticutConnecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and more than a dozen utility exchanges were in existence [in 2000]." In an effort to move towards energy efficiency, New York has created programs "supported through Energy $mart, which is run by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority , established in 1975, is a public benefit corporation, located in Albany, New York, with regional offices in NYC, Buffalo, and West Valley....
(NYSERDA), with money from a small surcharge on utility bills" Negawatt power is currently implemented in California as well as Texas. "Some Texas congressmen and energy companies are trying to help California avert blackouts and utility price shocks this summer with [...] 'negawatts' .
On January 1, 2009, the states of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and Victoria (Australia)
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
became the first in Australia to offer "householders energy efficiency incentives programs delivered via local electricity retailers." The UK is looking to balance the demand of electricity by proposing a bill in which "the government may pay major users for each “negawatt” of capacity they switch off" during high use. Payment may also be issued for supplying the grid.
Private implementation
The negawatt market is not only being used by governments, but by companies as well. Aluminum manufacturers in the Pacific Northwest shut down their power plants and sold the unused energy because selling the negawatts was more profitable for the company than selling the aluminum product. This was possible because "The smelters hold power contracts with the federal Bonneville Power Administration that contain clauses allowing them to market the electricity". The Associated Electric company in rural Missouri is implementing the usage and spreading the knowledge of negawatts by performing energy audits at their customer's homes to show them where they could be saving electricity. Rebates are also being given to help cutomers pay for more energy efficient, energy star appliances. Keith Hartner, the CEO of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc, feels that negawatts are not only generating savings for their customers, but for the company as well;“The goal of this program is to save money not only at the generator but also at the meter for the members.” . GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
is making it easier for consumers to limit their energy consumption with the launch of Google PowerMeter. Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, to help consumers track their home electricity usage. The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce...
has partnered with electric companies across the U.S. to give customers "a history of consumption every 15 minutes, allowing consumers to compare electricity consumption data by the day, week or month."
Cost
The most noteworthy advantage in creating a negawatt market is the cost incentive. As many will say, "The cheapest watt is the one that's never created" In this market, the consumers who increase their home efficiency, or decrease their energy consumption, can earn money by selling the saved elecricity. This is similar to an emissions tradingEmissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
or a cap and trade system, in which the energy that is not used can be bought from the consumers who saved the energy and sold to those who need to purchase the extra energy. Providers of electricity can encourage consumers to sell back their unused energy, or negawatts, especially during peak hours. A major question that electric companies need to ask themselves, is whether it is less expensive to pay consumers to reduce consumption for a few instances a year, or to build and maintain a side-supply resource that would only be used a few times a year. Many argue that the "cost of foregone consumption is less than the cost of increasing the supply of electricity."
If a consumer conserves a substantial amount of energy then there can even be an allowance for a tax deduction
Tax deduction
Income tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
. According to the Negawatt Power Solutions Group , a "building that achieved a 50% energy cost reduction may be eligible for tax deduction up to $1.80 per square foot" . Negawatts can help alleviate some of the costs of constructing new, efficient buildings. "The negawatt revolution now provides a way to cut construction costs, capture big returns on capital in renovations, [and] dramatically cut operating expenses" . Existing buildings can be made more efficient by renovationg the insulation to cut back on electricity used for heating, installing more efficient light fixtures, and an upgraded HVAC
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
design. Renovating an existing building to be more energy efficient will cost less than creating entirely new, more efficient buildings.
Reduction of national energy dependency
The reduction of the amount of energy that a region emits can slowly separate a nation from a high energy consumption of oil.The desire to become a less energy dependent country may promote behavioral changes and a different societal outlook on energy usage. These potential societal perspective changes could lead to an overall more sustainable country. The reduced consumption of energy would also produce less Greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es, which could have positive outcomes on the economy, political parties, and interest groups, such as environmentalists
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, of a particular country. According to Lovins, improvements in energy efficiency and conservation, due to a change in behavioral attitudes, have a huge potential to reduce a country's "long-term energy needs," such as the United States.
Local deregulation
Some conservatives claim that the negawatt market could help nations or states have a deregulated electricity system. This would allow a nation or a state to experiment with "electricity deregulation," in which "demand reductions could be purchased with a minimum of disruption to businesses, workers and the economy" In the United States, for instance, the negawatt market could assist California with rolling blackoutRolling blackout
A rolling blackout, also referred to as load shedding, is an intentionally-engineered electrical power outage where electricity delivery is stopped for non-overlapping periods of time over geographical regions. Rolling blackouts are a last-resort measure used by an electric utility company in order...
s by making more power available from consumers who choose to conserve energy, or increase their negawatts. California could achieve the goal of deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
by allowing a deficit area to "purchase an emergency supply from anywhere within with West" In which "the ultimate purpose of deregulation was to allow competition in the electricity market and consumer choice of electricity providers" Negawatt power would allow the consumers in a country's economy to decide how the energy will be distributed; essentially benefitting regions that hope to have a deregulated electricity system.
Difficulty in creating a negawatt market
Currently, there is no way to precisely measure the amount of energy saved in negawatts, it can only be theoretically determined based on the consumer’s history of energy use. Visualizing has a very important role in “enabling residents to understand and manage their energy use,” which serves as a form of encouragement for consumers to conserve energy. Without the visualization of the energy use, it is difficult to conceptualize negawatts because the consumer cannot see a precise value of the amount of saved energy. Smart meterSmart meter
A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...
s are becoming a more developed technology to measure energy usage, but "consumers are calling on state regulators to move cautiously on smart meters, citing complaints in some states that the meters are raising electric bills rather than lowering them".
Some municipally owned utilities and cooperatives argue that negawatt power "lets consumers treat electricity as a property right rather than a service [...giving them] legal entitlement to power [that they] don't consume.” This would indicate that consumers would treat electricity as a property, not a service. Some people, including the Senior Vice President Joe Nipper from the American Public Power Association
American Public Power Association
The American Public Power Association is the service organization for the more than 2,000 U.S. community-owned electric utilities that serve more than 46 million Americans....
, oppose the idea that people would receive money for power that they did not even spend. Due to the imprecision of measuring negawatts, some argue that people may receive more money than they should for something that is not even theirs in the first place.
Electricity price caps may also need to be implemented in order for the emerging negawatts market to function correctly. To some, government limitations on markets are unfavorable. There is a current view that negawatts are worth pursuing, but that they are unlikely to satisfy the world's thirst for energy to the extent their advocates assume.
Expense of efficiency
Saving energy by the negawatt and creating a negawatt market can present several drawbacks for manufacturers and electricity providers. Manufacturers are less inclined to make energy-efficient devices which meet a specific standard, such as Energy starEnergy Star
Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products originated in the United States of America. It was first created as a United States government program during the early 1990s, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted...
's standard, because of increased time and cost, while receiving minimal profit. Overall, electricity providers may not want customers to use less energy due to the loss of profit. Some even argue that producing energy-efficient products, such as light bulbs, actually simulate more demand, “resulting in more energy being purchased for conversion into light” of the same strength.
Customers may also be less inclined to buy products that are more energy efficient due to the increase in cost and time spent. "Even when the information is known and, despite the overall long-term cost-saving potential, the price of energy is too low...for individuals to justify the initial cost of energy efficiency measures" Not only are energy efficient devices more expensive, but "consumers are poorly informed about the savings on offer. Even when they can do the sums, the transaction costs are high: it is a time-consuming chore for someone to identify the best energy-saving equipment, buy it and get it installed."
The technology used to measure the amount of energy that a consumer uses and saves, known as Smart meter
Smart meter
A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...
s, grid systems, or energy dashboards, require time for the consumer to understand. Some argue that people need to have access to “simple yet effective information systems to help users understand their energy without having to become technology experts” The current visual energy measuring devices could be made simpler and less expensive, which may encourage customers to save more energy thus increasing their negawatts.
Works cited
- Airlie, C. (2010, December 7). Uk plans payment for 'negawatt' to curb power use. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/u-k-plans-payment-for-negawatt-to-curb-power-use-update1-.html
- Bartram, L., Rodgers, J., & Muise, K. (2010). Chasing the Negawatt: Visualization for Sustainable Living. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, 30(3), 8-14. Retrieved from Military & Government Collection database.
- Fickett, A, Gellings, C, & Lovins, A. (1990, September). Efficient use of electricity. Scientific American. Retrieved December 2010, from http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v263/n3/pdf/scientificamerican0990-64.pdf.
- Fotopoulos, T. (2007). Is degrowth compatible with a market economy?. The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, 3(1), Retrieved from http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol3/vol3_no1_Takis_degrowth_PRINTABLE.htm
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External links
- http://www.negawatt.org/ (French official website)
- http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/index.html