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Energy Efficiency MicroNews: California ISO, SWEEP, Johnson Controls

Jan. 6, 2014

This week in our micronews…The California ISO lays a path for energy efficiency. SWEEP offers info on hybrid car purchases. And Johnson Controls saves energy and money for Hawaii’s transportation department.

Elisa Wood

This week in energy efficiency news…

The California Independent System Operator laid the path for advancing low-carbon demand response and energy efficiency in a recent report, “Demand Response and Energy Efficiency Roadmap: Maximizing Preferred Resources.” The roadmap builds upon California’s progressive policies that promote microgrids, rooftop solar, electric vehicles, energy storage and other forms of distributed energy. It identifies four integrated pathways that increase DR and EE over the next three years:

1) Load Reshaping: Uses incentives to modify consumption patterns,“flatten” demand, and reduce the need for peaking generation capacity.

2) Resource Sufficiency: Ensures that resources with needed operational characteristics are available at the right places and at the right times.

3) Operations: Makes the best use of any and all resources (demand and supply) and involves the ISO changing some existing policies as well as modifying or developing new market products to expand DR market participation.

4) Monitoring: Provides mechanisms for monitoring progress and outcomes to ensure that the initiatives accomplish their objectives on time.

More about The California ISO Demand Response and Energy Efficiency Roadmap

The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project has developed a resource page dedicated to hybrid electric vehicles. For those looking to save money and energy when choosing a vehicle, SWEEP’s Hybrid Electric Vehicles Resource Page includes information on top-rated hybrid models, news about hybrid and other fuel-efficient vehicles, information on government tax incentives, and answers to frequently asked questions.

More about SWEEP and its Hybrid Electric Vehicles Resource Page

Johnson Controls won a 20-year contract with the Hawaii Department of Transportation to design, manage and install energy efficiency measures that will reduce energy usage by about 49 percent. The project includes $150 million in capital improvements using a guaranteed energy performance contract. Construction will begin in January 2014 with completion in December 2015.

More about the Johnson Controls Hawaii contract

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

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