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April 2014

Utility Death Spiral? The Duck has Your Back

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 15 Comments
There is weekly, if not daily, chatter about the end of the monopolistic electric utility systems we have today.  They call it the utility death spiral, and it goes like this: Distributed generation, also known as DG, which includes rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will compete directly with utility power. Utilities are stuck with fixed rate base for which they need to be paid through purchased energy from customers. Photovoltaic may produce competitively-priced energy for some customers after the bevy of incentives and tax breaks.  Home-generated electricity drives down the utility’s revenue. Utility raises prices to cover their fixed cost.…
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Michaels Energy Expands Ownership

By News, Uncategorized No Comments
Michaels Energy Expands Ownership La Crosse, WI - April 25, 2014 - Michaels Energy is excited to announce it has expanded company ownership to include three key employees - Scott Siefkes, Bryce Dvorak and Ryan Kroll.  These Department Managers join majority shareholder, Dave Waffenschmidt, and the planned successor, Jeff Ihnen, in company ownership. The ongoing ownership transition process has identified these new owners as part of the next generation of company leaders.  The owner/employee model allows Michaels to pursue the type of work its employees are passionate about. "Michaels' internal transition of ownership allows us to maintain our level of…
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Heat Pumps – Not a Weapon of Mass Destruction

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
In the 1970s, before STAR WARS, my childhood fantasy sci-fi favorite was Planet of the Apes.  Like STAR WARS, there were about five movies in the series, but I only remember the story lines of the first two.  Three guys travel through time in a space ship, supposedly light years away.  They land on a planet that is actually California, ironically (can tell from the landscape, and hey, movies were once made in California).  It is several centuries into the future as it turns out, and on the Planet of the Apes, the apes talked (in English of course) and…
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Efficiency by Wi Fi – and Other Tricks

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant One Comment
The old cliché, “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it”, may be coming to energy efficiency portfolios everywhere.  It may be an unstoppable juggernaut that our industry will have little control over (pun alert).  Instead, it will drive implementers into ambulance chasing and drive evaluators whacky.  What is it?  Controls, especially Wi-Fi consumer control systems. Millenials, bear with me as I write like an old man, but I will avoid discussions of snow, hills, and walking to school (if you’re over 40 and from the Midwest, you know what I mean). 1970s: AM radio, broadcast…
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Attribution and Net to Gross – Pop Tarts or Oatmeal?

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 4 Comments
Last week I attended the ACEEE National Symposium on Market Transformation in Baltimore.  Learning and information gathering from conference sessions are typically down the list of reasons I attend conferences.  This conference however turned out to be very beneficial on both of those counts.  In particular, the net-to-gross (NTG) football, as described in last August’s Energy Program Evaluation Asylum post, was uncased for another game.  This time I learned something. One session featured heavy doses of program attribution, and of course, the NTG football.  Speakers included Bob Wirtshafter from Wirtshafter Associates and Mike Messenger from Itron.  Both gentlemen demonstrated the…
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