12/02/20

Alliance To Save Energy Pushes To Accelerate ‘Active Efficiency’

WASHINGTON – The Alliance to Save Energy’s Active Efficiency Collaborative on Wednesday released a series of reports and case studies outlining key steps for accelerating the digital transformation in the power sector to unleash the full potential of “Active Efficiency” on the grid.

Hosting the inaugural Active Efficiency Forum, the Alliance issued two reports stemming from the Collaborative’s first year of work: the digital report, Beneficial Electrification and Grid Opportunities and Guiding Principles for Next-Generation Performance-based Utility Program Models. Wednesday’s forum features panel discussions with experts working in the field to highlight existing success stories and explore how success may be replicated. Additional examples of Active Efficiency in action can be found on the just-launched Active Efficiency website, which serves as an all-in-one resource for reports, case studies, and Collaborative news.

“Active Efficiency describes the full suite of opportunities to optimize energy – combining traditional energy efficiency tools with new digital strategies such as electrification and demand flexibility. We used to think about these tools in separate siloes, but increasingly, they are interrelated and more powerful together,” said Clay Nesler, Alliance interim president. “With this Collaborative, we are building a community to articulate those Active Efficiency opportunities and working together to put them into action to provide a foundation for a cleaner, more equitable energy future.”

The digital report Beneficial Electrification and Grid Opportunities provides an overview of beneficial electrification and its potential grid impacts when combined with demand flexibility. It includes sections dedicated to policy considerations for the utility sector and for state policymakers.

The Guiding Principles describe how performance-based utility programs can accelerate deep energy retrofits and enhance demand flexibility through the equitable implementation of Active Efficiency strategies, and are based on input from a series of interactive workshops this fall. The principles suggest key success factors for ensuring customer-centered program design, boosting demand flexibility by adopting decarbonization-focused program frameworks, ensuring policy support by valuing multiple benefits, and leveraging collaboration among regulators, legislators, and other decision-makers to create favorable market conditions for performance-based utility programs.

Comprising industry leaders, NGOS, and public sector institutions, the Alliance’s Active Efficiency Collaborative was launched in 2019 to reimagine the role of energy efficiency in the rapidly evolving, increasingly digital energy sector. Active Efficiency optimizes the use of energy by integrating traditional energy efficiency measures with the opportunities presented by new technologies for demand flexibility, building-grid connectivity, and distributed energy resources.

About the Alliance to Save Energy

Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit, bipartisan alliance of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders working to expand the economy while using less energy. Our mission is to promote energy productivity worldwide – including through energy efficiency – to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security, affordability and reliability.