Increasing Electricity Productivity: Myths, Barriers and Solutions

A brown bag seminar on December 18, 2008, sponsored by the Association of Energy Service Professionals"

For the past 25 years, the benefits of energy efficiency have been espoused, yet, as a nation, achievement rates fall far short of economically feasible potential. In an effort to better understand the efficiency opportunity, RMI conducted analysis on electric productivity (measured in $GDP/kWh or dollars of gross domestic product divided by kilowatt-hours consumed).

The first phase of this research was a fact-finding phase, where we validated that electric productivity among U.S. states varies dramatically. Overall, there is a huge gap between the few states with a high electric productivity and those states with average or low electric productivity. This gap, approximately 1.2 million GWh, still exists even after RMI accounted for each state’s climate and economic mix.

The second phase of RMI’s research will identify key levers within the residential, commercial, and industrial sector to increase state electric productivity. Our focus for this Brown Bag Seminar will be on the results of our phase 1 analysis and the levers that we have identified that can cost-effectively advance efficiency of major end uses in the industrial sector such as motors, facility HVAC, lighting and process heating.