Report: Iowa Mediocre in Energy Efficiency
Iowans buy more electricity than residents of other Midwestern states, according to a new report that questions the effectiveness of the state’s energy-efficiency efforts.
Despite early leadership in energy efficiency, a report from the Iowa Policy Projects says Iowa lags behind leading states such as California, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin in efforts to reduce energy waste. From 2000 to 2006, Iowa’s retail electric sales climbed by an average of 1.5 percent annually, while Iowa’s neighboring states averaged 1.2 percent, the report said. Leading energy efficiency states averaged 0.3 percent growth.
Iowa passed a law in 1990 requiring the state’s investor-owned utilities, primarily MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy, to offer energy efficiency programs for their customers. The law also requires municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives to offer energy efficiency programs, but those programs do not have to be approved by the Iowa Utilities Board.
Investor-owned utilities generated a reduction of 0.8 percent in electric consumption through their energy efficiency programs in 2006, the report said, while cooperatives saved 0.6 percent and municipal utilities saved a mere 0.15 percent.
A confusing array of utility-run energy efficiency programs and a lack of incentives for utilities to push energy efficiency are two of the shortcomings in state regulation cited in the report.
Iowa law allows utilities to make more money by increasing sales of electricity, but does not allow them to reap a higher rate of return on their investments through actions to reduce demand.
Iowa Policy Project Executive Director David Osterberg said consumers can become frustrated with the changing array of incentives offered by utilities to reduce energy consumptions because of the lack of uniformity among the programs.
"Somebody calls up their utility and they are told they can’t get all the rebates they thought they could," Oster berg said. "Maybe it’s because they’re an electric customer, and the furnace rebate is only for gas customers, or they don’t qualify for compact fluorescent (light bulb) rebates because they’re a gas customer.
The report also questioned the emphasis on peak-load management in utilities’ energy efficiency program. Peakload management programs include incentives for customers to use less electricity, but only on days when electric consumption is highest. They can enable utilities to postpone the construction of new power plants and reduce reliance on expensive natural gas-fired power plants that operate only at peak demand times.
Iowa investor-owned utilities spent more than $35 million on peak-load management in 2006, the report said, more than any of the other 20 states that implement load management.
The emphasis on peak-load management reduces the focus on energy efficiency, the report’s authors said.
Contact the writer: (319) 398-8317 or david.dewitte@ gazettecommunications.com
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