QUICK NEWS, May 8: FEDS PUSH THE GREEN BUTTON; WIND STILL BREAKING TEXAS RECORDS; LA LOVES ITS SUN
FEDS PUSH THE GREEN BUTTON Obama Administration Announces New Industry Commitments To Green Button Initiative
4 May 2012 (Renew Grid)
“The Obama administration has announced that six new utilities and electricity suppliers will commit to providing more than 15 million households with access to data about their energy usage by utilizing an online ‘Green Button.’ The goal of the program is to help consumers reduce waste and lower their electricity bills.
“Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in a consumer- and computer-friendly format.”
“The utilities and electricity suppliers making new commitments…Chattanooga EPB, serving 170,000 customers in Tennessee and Georgia…National Grid, which serves 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island…[PacifiCorp/ Pacific Power]…serving more than 1.7 million customers as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho…Oregon, Washington and California…PPL, serving 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania; and…TXU Energy, serving approximately 1.8 million retail electric customers in Texas.
“These utilities join 15 others that have already agreed to base their Green Button functions on a common technical standard developed in collaboration with a public-private partnership supported by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. Adoption of a consensus standard by utilities across the Nation facilitates the entry of creative software developers and other entrepreneurs interested in designing and marketing new products and services based on Green Button data.”
WIND STILL BREAKING TEXAS RECORDS Wind Power Expected To Help ERCOT Manage High Electricity Demand This Summer
4 May 2012 (North American Windpower)
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's grid operator and manager of Texas' wholesale electric market…expects to use a variety of resources - including wind power - to meet anticipated electric demand this summer.
“ERCOT says its generation outlook is improved by more than 2 GW of wind power, which tends to be available to the grid during the late afternoon, when it is needed most in the summer. Wind power generation in the ERCOT region continues to break records, and instantaneous wind power served nearly a quarter of ERCOT load twice in April.”
“Another 48 MW of commercial-scale solar power - including about 20 MW that went online this spring - also has been added to the grid…[N]early 2 GW of [conventional power plant] capacity that had been…taken offline for an indefinite period of time…[has been returned] to service…[and] about 1.5 GW of demand-response resources, which include energy users that reduce or drop their energy use at ERCOT's request if generation reserves drop below 1.7 GW [will be available]…
“ERCOT expects to have a total of nearly 74 GW of generation resources available to serve summer needs. The grid operator’s summer assessment assumes weather will be warmer and drier than the 15-year historical average, but less extreme than in 2011…”
LA LOVES ITS SUN Most Los Angeles Residents Support Rooftop Solar Increase
4 May 2012 (Solar Industry)
“A significant majority of voters in Los Angeles support an increase in local solar power, according to a new poll conducted by public research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) for the Vote Solar Initiative.
“A total of 87% of respondents said that the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) should use more electricity generated from solar. (Seventy-nine percent said the LADWP should use more wind power.) The utility currently gets less than 1% of its power from solar generation.”
“Three-quarters of respondents specifically feel that LADWP should be doing more to expand the use of local rooftop solar in Los Angeles. Four out of five support LADWP's increasing its local solar goal to 1,200 MW.
Support for this goal remains strong across the political spectrum, with majorities of Democratic, Republican and independent voters all expressing support…”
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