Duke Energy wants state’s OK for opt out programs

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Page 2 of 2 That could mean a person’s air conditioner is off up to three hours under the current program. But if mass numbers of people participate, Williams said, the power interruptions to various appliances would be so miniscule they would hardly be noticed.  “The biggest fight in your marriage will be the thermostat, I can assure you,” Williams said, noting he and his wife have been married 20 years and “never get it right.” But this, he said, “would control the thermostat in a way that provides comfort and convenience.” Ed Legge, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities across the country, said that to make energy savings programs truly work, utilities will need to be allowed to make a profit for their conservation investments, which flies in the face of a traditional business model where companies are rewarded for selling more, not less. “We have a regulated rate of return, and so we can make X amount on what we invested and the idea was to get customers to use more electricity,” Legge said. Utilities need an incentive beyond just saving the ozone layer, Legge said, not only so they can make a fair profit, but so they can continue to attract the type of investors necessary to fund huge power-plant and infrastructure projects. Though consumers have historically lacked the pluck to sign up for such programs on their own, Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter said he doubts an “opt-out” program will get approval in South Carolina. “Duke may be asking for that in North Carolina and get it but we don’t have that (option) here,” he said. The board of directors for Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned utility, last week approved an aggressive resolution to generate roughly 40% of its electricity from non-greenhouse gas-emitting sources such as nuclear and renewable resources, as well as through conservation programs. Carter said the conservation piece will be the “hardest part” because it requires “people to do things.” Duke Scott, executive director of the Office of Regulatory Staff, the state agency charged with representing the public interest in utility issues, said his office is still reviewing the program and he therefore not intimately familiar with the details. But Scott said to his knowledge, “nothing like this has been done in South Carolina.” “It’s always been an opt-in situation,” he said. “I don’t know any statute that would prohibit it off the top of my head, but we’d have to look at that from a statutory point of view as well as a policy issue, whether it’s wise to do it that way or not.” << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>