Newsletter
Pay for Performance Workshop materials now available
The Pay for Performance workshop explored the promise of metered energy savings by engaging experts and practitioners to discuss the current state of whole-building energy efficiency and the emergence of new opportunities and new tools as we enter the era of M&V 2.0.
PRESS RELEASE: NW Energy Coalition participates in a $2 million grant from U.S. Department of Energy
Solar Plus, a joint effort of more than a dozen stakeholder groups in Washington and Oregon, led by Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (Northwest SEED), and including the NW Energy Coalition, has been awarded a $2,050,000 SunShot grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to further the deployment of solar energy in the Pacific Northwest. It is the largest of the seventeen awards totaling $21 million announced today.
Congratulations 4 Under Forty honorees!
These honors recognize clean energy leaders under the age of 40 who model the passion and expertise we need to achieve a clean energy future. Join us to celebrate the honorees at our 35th Anniversary Awards Gala on November 17th in Portland, OR.
Roadmap for Integrating Renewables: Fundamentals for Power Systems Relying Primarily on Renewable Energy
In an October 5, 2016 workshop attended by utility executives, regulators, educators, and clean-energy advocates, Ken Dragoon of Flink Energy, takes his audience through the basics of electricity generation, storage, and management and then shows how emerging techniques can be used by utilities to integrate wind and solar into their power systems.
A Power System Roadmap for Integrating Renewables – tomorrow in Portland
Ken Dragoon cuts through it all by laying out a flexible, step-by-step roadmap for how power systems can, over time, transform the role of renewables from supplementary to primary. Operational, financial, and policy challenges are all addressed to show power systems the way to supplying reliable, affordable electricity from variable energy resources.
NWEC is currently hiring!
We are excited to announce that we will be hiring for a Energy Efficiency Policy Associate. This position will analyze, develop and advance energy efficiency, demand response and low-‐income energy policy and program implementation, and address other utility regulatory issues affecting clean energy. The position will remain open until filled. Start date is as soon as possible. The NW Energy Coalition is an equal opportunity employer.
Transportation Electrification in the Northwest
Early in the 20th century, petroleum became the dominant fuel for cars, buses, trucks, vans, marine vessels and railroads. While natural gas plays a role in the commercial fleets, electricity and other renewable fuels are poised for expansion of use in transportation, thereby linking more closely the transportation and utility sectors. It’s a transition from which the Northwest, which is blessed with low-emission electricity, is uniquely positioned to benefit.
Pay for Performance Energy Efficiency Workshop 10/24
Learn about new tools that maximize energy efficiency acquisition in the built environment. Join a team of experts to explore the latest learning from Pay for Performance pilot programs in Seattle and Portland. See how next-fen Measurement and Verification holds the promise of greater accuracy, reliability and savings.
I-937: The only thing we had to fear was fear itself
This year, as we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Initiative 937, Washington has a vibrant economy, one of America’s cleanest electric grids, and electric rates that are nearly the lowest in the nation. That would have been hard to imagine if you were listening to the critics of I-937 as it came to a vote in the fall of 2006.
“Charge Without a Cause” : The new fee electric utilities want to impose on residential customers
Residential demand charges are popping up with increasing frequency in utility rate design proposals. They’ve even become the topic of an annual summit for utility executives and regulators. But, for ratepayers, demand charges offer few if any offsetting benefits and, worse, they don’t solve the problem they’re supposed to address.
PRESS RELEASE: Utility Commission Makes Energy Efficiency Work For Utility and Customers
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission ruled Thursday that Pacific Power can recover costs while encouraging customers to save energy even if those efforts result in the sale of less electricity. The ruling, which came as part of a rate case, approved a proposed “decoupling” provision that severs the link between customer energy consumption and utility company sales and replaces it with a model in which Pacific Power will be able to recover fixed costs based on the number of customers served.
The New NW Energy Coalition 5-Year Strategic Plan
The causes for which the NW Energy Coalition advocated at the time of its founding in 1981 – energy efficiency, the adoption of new renewable energy resources, wildlife and fish protection and equity for low-income people – are now so widely embraced, it’s hard to imagine they were ever controversial. But, widespread acceptance of those values is triggering diverse and often conflicting visions for how they should be realized.